(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ press release: Media Release April 9th, 1999 IFJ Urges NATO Secretary General Not to Bomb Serbian Media: Such a policy “threatens lives of journalists everywhere” Reports that NATO bombers may strike at media targets in Serbia, later retracted, has prompted the International Federation of Journalists to urge restraint […]
(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ press release:
Media Release April 9th, 1999
IFJ Urges NATO Secretary General Not to Bomb Serbian Media: Such a policy
“threatens lives of journalists everywhere”
Reports that NATO bombers may strike at media targets in Serbia, later
retracted, has prompted the International Federation of Journalists to urge
restraint and to ask the NATO Secretary General to clarify the
organisation’s policy regarding media targets.
“Military action against media could threaten the lives of working
journalists and media workers and lead to immediate reprisals,” warned Aidan
White, IFJ General Secretary in a letter to Xavier Solana.
“Censorship and propaganda must be exposed and condemned, but resorting to
military strikes against media sets a dangerous precedent. It will identify
journalists, media workers and media organisations as legitimate targets in
any future conflict.”
“There must be an end to hate-speech, distortion and propaganda by the
Serbian state media institutions, but that must not be achieved by putting
media workers and journalists everywhere at risk.”
At a NATO briefing yesterday Air Commodore Wilby had identified Serb state
radio and television as “a legitimate target in (NATO’s) campaign.”
The IFJ has also made an appeal to the European Union to convene an
emergency conference of independent media from the region to discuss how to
combat threats to journalists and media in the region.
The IFJ represents independent journalists’ groups in Kosovo and Serbia.
“Our colleagues are already under terrible pressure. They are being
victimised and harassed. Their media have been closed. Bombing the official
media will not help them – it will, if anything, lead to even greater
repression and worse,” said Aidan White.
