(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 7 December 2000 CPJ letter to President Kostunica: December 7, 2000 His Excellency Vojislav Kostunica President of Yugoslavia Savezna Skupstina 11000 Belgrade Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Fax: (381 11) 636-775 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent press freedom organization dedicated to the defense of journalists […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 7 December 2000 CPJ letter to President Kostunica:
December 7, 2000
His Excellency Vojislav Kostunica
President of Yugoslavia
Savezna Skupstina
11000 Belgrade
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: (381 11) 636-775
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent press freedom organization dedicated to the defense of journalists around the world, congratulates you on your electoral victory. We are heartened by the improved press-freedom climate in the Republic of Serbia since you took office on October 7.
In the coming months, the federal government, along with the Serbian parliament to be elected on December 23, will be formulating and implementing political reforms designed to democratize Yugoslavia and initiate the country’s integration with pan-European institutions. The emergence of a fully independent press is central to this process, and we would like to raise several issues that we believe are crucial to the development of press freedom in your country.
According to our research, state repression of independent media in the Republic of Serbia has decreased significantly since Slobodan Milosevic left office in late October. Even so, there have been several recent cases of independent journalists who were subjected to official harassment because of their work.
On November 1, for example, three plainclothes police officers from the Serbian Interior Ministry entered the office of the Belgrade-daily Nedeljni Telegraf. The officers detained assistant editor Milos Antic without a warrant, took him to the 29 November police station in Belgrade, and interrogated him for two hours.
The officers said they were acting under the orders of a prosecutor who wanted Antic to identify the sources for an article about Milosevic that appeared in the October 25 issue of Nedeljni Telegraf. The article described Milosevic’s alleged efforts to stamp out the popular rebellion that eventually drove him from office by ordering Yugoslav Army general Nebojsa Pavkovic to crack down on pro-democracy protesters on the night of October 5-6.
The prosecutor evidently wanted the information in order to prepare a case against Milosevic. While many might approve of this motive, the manner in which Antic was detained seemed designed to intimidate the journalist and his colleagues, considering that the Serbian Interior Ministry remains stacked with Milosevic loyalists. It is also disturbing that the authorities pressured Antic to reveal his sources for the article, since the ability of journalists to protect sources is essential to their work and is generally protected by law.
CPJ is also concerned that Milosevic-era laws are still being used to intimidate journalists in Serbia. On November 9, for example, officials from the Vranje Lumber company filed misdemeanor charges against Vranjske Novine under Serbia’s draconian Public Information Law. The charges came in response to a November 2 Vranjske Novine article alleging that Vranje Lumber officials had misused company funds. And while the charges were dismissed on November 10, the Public Information Law remains on the books, allowing the Serbian government to summarily fine and ban media outlets.
We suggest that after the December 23 elections, you encourage the new Serbian government and Parliament to repeal the Public Information Law.
CPJ also notes that the April 11, 1999, murder of Slavko Curuvija, editor of the Belgrade daily Dnevni Telegraf, remains unsolved. The recent appearance of an alleged State Security Service (SDB) surveillance report about Curuvija’s activities on the day of his murder raises serious questions about possible SDB complicity in the crime.
Branka Prpa, Curuvija’s companion, and Dusan Velickovic, former editor of the Belgrade daily NIN, spent time with Curuvija on the day of his murder and are referred to in the SDB report. Both claim that the document accurately reflects minute details of Curuvija’s movements on the day of his assassination. We believe this new evidence warrants re-opening the investigation. CPJ urges that particular attention be paid to the possible involvement of SDB chief Radivoje Markovic and SDB Belgrade chief Milan Radonjic in Curuvija’s murder.
Finally, CPJ continues to monitor the case of Miroslav Filipovic. On October 10, Colonel Milan Ranic, chief judge of the Supreme Military Court in Belgrade, overturned Filipovic’s seven-year prison sentence on grounds of “procedural abuses during the investigation.” We are heartened that he has been released. But a retrial of the case based on the original charges of “espionage” and “spreading false information” is pending (a court date has not yet been set). We hope that this will be conducted in an open and transparent manner. Based on our analysis of the evidence, Filipovic should be fully vindicated.
These four cases highlight the need for fundamental reforms in laws and practices used to regulate the media in Serbia. Under Milosevic, the Ministry of Telecommunication denied frequencies to independent media, the Ministry of Justice fined news organizations under the Serbian Public Information Law, and the Ministry of Interior confiscated equipment and took over the premises of independent media. Meanwhile, the government as a whole consistently favored private media outlets that backed regime policies.
While these harsh state-sponsored attacks on the independent media have ceased, we are particularly concerned about recent government attempts to install loyalist officials on the managing boards of independent media outlets. The Belgrade-daily Politika announced in its November 28 edition, for example, that Boris Tadic, the federal telecommunications minister and vice president of the Democratic Party, had been elected to the newspaper’s executive board.
The Milosevic regime used this technique to influence the editorial policies of Serbian media throughout the past decade, but we hope that your government will signal a clean break with the repression of the past by severing its institutional connections with private news organizations. Such appointments create obvious conflicts of interest, thus damaging the credibility of independent media as impartial sources of information.
Issues related to past government policies towards the media must be addressed as well. For this reason we encourage you to establish an appropriate governmental body to review and rectify these previous injustices in an open and transparent manner. In particular, the body should address the following issues:
* Investigate past confiscations of transmission equipment from broadcast outlets and establish procedures for its return or for equitable compensation to the outlet concerned.
* Review the numerous oppressive fines imposed on media outlets under the Serbian Public Information Law and establish procedures for the government to return these funds or provide equivalent compensation through tax breaks.
* Following the December 23 elections in Serbia, encourage the new Serbian government and parliament to repeal the Public Information Law.
* Conduct a thorough investigation of the financial privileges and regulatory preferences that certain media outlets received from the Milosevic government in exchange for pro-regime coverage and establish appropriate procedures for a government body to remedy these past inequities.
By moving decisively to rectify past injustices towards the media, Your Excellency will greatly contribute to the democratization of Serbian society.
Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters. We await your response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
cc:
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Artikel 19 (The Netherlands)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Freedom Forum
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Center for Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN
International Press Institute
Harold Hongju Koh, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Alain Modoux, director, UNESCO Freedom of Expression Program
The Newspaper Guild
The North American Broadcasters Association
Overseas Press Club
Reporters Sans Frontières
Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee
Recommended Action
Similar appeals should be sent to:His Excellency Vojislav Kostunica
President of Yugoslavia
Savezna Skupstina
11000 Belgrade
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: +381 11 636 775Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
