TV Abroad: The Red Tube

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The most progressive Eastern European network, predictably enough, is the Yugoslav. The news is played fairly straight (though the Israelis were labeled "aggressors" in their war with the Arabs). Uniquely in Eastern Europe, Jugoslovenska Radio-Televizija dares a weekly hour of social and political satire. And on a Thursday-night interview show, Host Jovan Sčekic questions government officials with an inquisitorial style reminiscent of the old Mike Wallace; home viewers are invited to phone in sticky questions of their own. Yugoslav audiences, in fact, get plenty of say about programming. At one point after a thunder of complaints, the network uncanceled a show called Dennis the Naughty Boy.