Belgrade  - Journalists in Serbia are closing ranks in a fight against a new media law expected to be passed next Monday in the national parliament.

"Members of the parliament, save the media," the daily Press wrote Tuesday. "Politicians against media," was the headline in the daily Danas. "Media law awaits the members of the parliament but the outcome is still unclear," Politika daily wrote.

Both domestic experts and international organizations have voiced concerns over the law. Critics say that - if passed - hefty fees in the new law would lead to self-censorship.

The bill is the initiative of G17, a small, but powerful, party in the ruling coalition. Its leader, Mladjan Dinkic, has had several disputes with Kurir, a boulevard daily. Dinkic has won several lawsuits against the paper, but it continues to attack him.

Dinkic, who is deputy prime minister and the economy minister, threatened to leave the ruling coalition and thus topple the government if the law is not passed.

Despite a search, the government has yet to find a partner to take G17's place in its coalition shoudl he walk out.

If adopted, the law could require publishers and editors in chief of papers to pay millions of dollars in fines if someone finds content in a newspaper "insulting." Such fines would likely close some of Serbia's most important newspapers.

"If the law is passed, Europe will see the government in Serbia as censoring and repressive," warned Ljiljana Smajlovic head of the Journalists Association of Serbia in an interview with Press daily.

She said that if the law is passed, the association will take its complaint to Serbia's Constitutional Court and to the European Court of Justice. (dpa)