(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 24 March 1999** For Immediate Release http://www.cpj.org CPJ Condemns Media Crackdown in Yugoslavia New York, N.Y., March 25, 1999 – As NATO carries out air strikes against Yugoslavia, President Slobodan Milosevic has turned his fury on the independent journalists who are attempting […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 24 March 1999**
For Immediate Release
http://www.cpj.org
CPJ Condemns Media Crackdown in Yugoslavia
New York, N.Y., March 25, 1999 – As NATO carries out air strikes against
Yugoslavia, President Slobodan Milosevic has turned his fury on the
independent journalists who are attempting to cover the story. When a
state
of emergency was declared on March 23, Milosevic lashed out at Radio
B92,
taking the Belgrade-based station off the air, and detaining its chief
editor Veran Matic. It may be only a matter of time before all broadcast
outlets and newspapers are banned from airing or printing information
not
sanctioned by the state.
The current crackdown on the press is Milosevic’s latest salvo in a
year-long campaign against independent journalists that began in March
1998,
when war erupted between the Belgrade government and the Kosovo
Liberation
Army. During that time, independent journalists have persisted in
getting
the story of the conflict out over radio, television, and the Internet,
despite being censored, jailed, beaten, harassed, prosecuted, and fined
(see
case narratives, page 3). Nevertheless, this escalating series of
attacks,
including the shutdown of several leading newspapers, has left
Yugoslavia’s
independent journalists feeling abandoned by their supporters in the
West.
Their desolation has only intensified as Milosevic has ratcheted up his
efforts to silence them with apparent impunity.
As an organization dedicated to press freedom around the world, CPJ
rejects
any attempt to muzzle or control the press. We believe that journalists’
ability to report freely is essential to the nonviolent resolution of
conflicts, and that suppression of the press during periods of unrest or
armed hostilities only increases fear and suspicion among the general
population. The right to seek and impart information is enshrined in
international law, specifically Article 19 of the Universal Declaration
of
Human Rights. Furthermore, under international law, journalists must be
treated as non-combatants by all parties in an armed conflict. Because
we
now fear for the physical safety of journalists working in Yugoslavia,
we
demand that the Milosevic government comply with the international norms
regarding the protection of journalists during wartime.
According to Yugoslavia’s Association of Independent Electronic Media
(ANEM), on
March 24, 1999, at 2:50 a.m., Radio B92 was banned from further
broadcasts.
Two
technical operatives of the Yugoslav Federal Telecommunications
Ministry,
backed by about 10 policemen, entered the premises of Radio B92 and
instructed its staff to immediately discontinue broadcasts. The
policemen
instructed all staff present to cease work on computers, switch them
off,
turn off their mobile phones, and refrain from answering the phones.
The telecommunications officials told the B92 staff that “the Yugoslav
federal inspector for telecommunications had, according to Article 192
Paragraph 1 of the Law on the General Administrative Procedures and to
Article 1 Paragraph 1 Point 2 of the Law on the Systems of Connections,
passed the decision ordering Radio B92’s imediate cessation of the
illegal
radio-broadcasts of its radio diffusion station operating on the 92.5
MHz
frequency.”
“With the purpose of preventing further operation of the radio station,
the
[officials] will carry out temporary seizure of radio equipment until a
decision is made by the competent agency. Appeal does not suspend the
enforcement of the ruling,” read an official note presented to the
staff.
Also on March 24, at about 3 a.m., just after the ban’s imposition,
Veran
Matic, Radio B92’s chief editor and chairman of ANEM, was arrested by
police
who had accompanied inspectors from the Telecommunications Ministry. He
was
taken to the Belgrade police station, where he was detained for eight
hours.
He was released shortly before 12 p.m. While in detention, he was not
allowed to contact his family or his lawyers. He was not questioned by
police nor was he provided with a statement, written or verbal,
outlining
the reasons for his detention.
At a press conference following Matic’s release, Radio B92 issued a
statement which said: “The arrest of Veran Matic and the disruption of
Radio
B92’s broadcasts are part of an increasingly radical suppression of
independent media, creating unrest and fear in the people of Yugoslavia.
They are also a direct message to the international community that the
Serbian regime is prepared to resort to such measures against its
citizens
as part of its confrontation with the rest of the world. Radio B92 and
ANEM
have warned that this can only exacerbate division, fear and unrest in
the
society.”
Representatives of B92 have filed an appeal. The station has continued
to
transmit information on the Internet and by satellite to the other 33
ANEM
members, which, as of today, are transmitting their own broadcasts.
Attacks on the Press in Yugoslavia
March 1998 – March 1999
1999
March 22
The Pristina Albanian-language daily Koha Ditore was fined 420,000
dinars
(US$26,800) and Baton Haxhiu, the newspaper’s chief editor was fined
110,000
dinars (US$7,200) for violations of the Serbian Information Law. The
other
significant Albanian-language newspapers, Gazeta Sqiptare and Kosovo
Sot,
mentioned below, were forced to close down because of their inability to
pay
fines imposed on them. Another Albanian-language newspaper, Bujku, has
not
published regularly since January because the authorities have denied it
a
license.
March 21
The Pristina Albanian-language weekly Kombi was fined 1.6 million dinars
(US$104,500) for violations of the Serbian Information Law.
March 16
The Albanian-language daily Gazeta Sqiptare was fined 1.6 million dinars
(US$104,500) for violations of the Serbian Information Law.
March 13
The Belgrade daily Blic was fined 150,000 dinars (US$9400) and Veselin
Simonovic, the chief editor, was fined 70,000 dinars (US$ 4400) for
violations of the Serbian Information Law. The Belgrade daily Danas was
fined 250,000 dinars (US$15,600) and Grujica Spasovic, the chief editor,
was
fined 150,000 dinars (US$9400) for violations of the Serbian Information
Law. The Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti was fined 100,000 dinars (US$7000)
and
Milan Becejic, the chief editor was fined 50,000 dinars (US$3500) for
violations of the Serbian Information Law.
March 12
The Pristina Albanian-language daily Kosovo Sot was fined 1.6 million
dinars
(US$104,500) for violations of the Serbian Information Law.
March 8
Judge Krsto Bobot of the First Municipal Court in Belgrade sentenced
Slavko
Curuvija, the owner of the Podgorica-based independent daily Dnevni
Telegraf, and Srdjan Jankovic and Zoran Lukovic, two of the newspaper’s
reporters, to five months imprisonment for spreading false information.
They
were charged under Article 218 of the criminal code in connection with a
December 5, 1998, article which linked Milovan Bojic, the Serbian vice
president and director of the Dedinje Institute for Cardiovascular
Diseases,
to the murder of Aleksandar Popovic, one of the institute’s physicians.
January 21
The Leskovac magazine Prava Coveka was fined 221,000 dinars (US$14,000)
for
violations of the Serbian Information Law.
January 18
Nikola Djuric, general manager and chief editor of City Radio in Nis,
was
convicted of broadcasting a radio program without a license, on the
basis of
Article 219, paragraph 1, of the Serbian Criminal Code and given a
one-year
suspended sentence.
The station was closed by the Ministry of Telecommunications on August
18,
1998, when two policemen entered the studio and seized part of the
station’s
transmitter. City Radio was the first station to face criminal charges
in
connection with the distribution of frequencies.
City Radio, like many other independent radio stations in Yugoslavia,
had
been denied a broadcasting license in a politically based procedure that
violated the government’s obligations under both domestic and
international
law. CPJ has repeatedly objected to the politically motivated
decision-making process employed by the Ministry of Telecommunications
to
distribute licenses for private radio and television stations. After a
complex and contradictory application process, the ministry has readily
given licenses to stations that are either pro-government or provide
entertainment, while denying licenses to stations that are independent
or
report critically on the government. The few independent stations that
do
get licenses pay disproportionately high fees.
January 5
The Novi Sad magazine Svet was fined 150,000 dinars (US$9400) for
violations
of the Serbian Information Law.
1998
December 9
The Belgrade daily newspaper Dnevni Telegraf was fined 450,000 dinars
(US$28,200) for violations of the Serbian Information Law.
November 21
Dnevni Telegraf was fined 380,000 dinars (US$24,000) for violations of
the
Serbian Information Law. The daily newspaper Zrenjanin was fined 150,000
dinars (US$9400) for violations of the Serbian Information Law.
November 17
Sandra Radovanovic, a reporter for the Belgrade newspaper Glas Javnosti,
was
fined 50,000 dinars (US$3500) for violations of the Serbian Information
Law.
November 9
Dnevni Telgraf was fined 1.2 million dinars (US$75,000) for violations
of
the Serbian Information Law.
November 7
The daily newspaper Monitor was fined 2.8 million dinars (US$175,000)
for
violations of the Serbian Information Law.
October 24
The weekly newspaper Evropljanin was fined 2.4 million dinars
(US$150,000)
for violations of the Serbian Information Law.
October 20
The Serbian Parliament passed a new Information Law, codifying many of
the
provisions of the October 8 decree. It was immediately condemned by
local
and international organizations concerned with freedom of expression and
human rights as incompatible with international freedom of expression
guarantees. Since its passage, the law has been used to impose fines
equalling more than US$900,000 on newspapers and journalists. The
independent media have borne the brunt of over 95 percent of those
fines.
The law has also been criticized for stripping the accused of legal
safeguards by increasing the speed with which cases are tried and
sentences
are carried out and by severely limiting the means by which the accused
can
defend him/herself.
October 8
As the deadline for a ceasefire approached, the government issued new
censorship measures. The decree banned any news coverage deemed
“unpatriotic,” and forbade any reporting that, in the government’s view,
foments “defeatism, panic and fear” among citizens in the face of
possible
Western military intervention over Kosovo. It authorized the Yugoslav
Telecommunications Ministry to close news media after a single warning,
and
banned the rebroadcasting of programs from foreign news media, including
the
British Broadcasting Company, Deutsche Welle, Radio France
International,
Radio Free Europe, and the Voice of America.
Under the decree, the Serbian Information Ministry took the following
actions:
– On October 9, two independent radio stations – the university
student-run
Radio Index, and Radio Senta, a bilingual station near the Hungarian
border – were taken off the air in retaliation for their criticism of
the
media crackdown.
– On October 13, the ministry ordered the temporary closure of the
independent Belgrade dailies Danas and Dnevni Telegraf. Police seized
the
Danas’ computers and confiscated the entire print run of its October 14
edition. The ministry said the ban on the papers would remain in effect
for
the life of the decree. This followed their first and only official
warnings
on October 12.
– On October 7, Dejan Anastasijevic, a reporter with the independent
Vreme
weekly, was threatened with criminal prosecution for his coverage of war
crimes in Kosovo.
– On October 12, the independent daily Nasa Borba was given an official
warning.
September 30
Top Serbian government officials and a leading pro-government legislator
used a session of the Serbian parliament to warn independent media and
other
critics of the regime that they would be targeted for reprisal in the
event
of a NATO air strike. “The Americans found their fifth column here,”
charged
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj. “It is composed of
politically irrelevant parties and independent media. We can’t shoot
down
every NATO plane, but we can grab those agents who are at hand,” he
said.
Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic accused the independent media of
spreading lies and fear, while Zeljko Simic, a member of parliament,
charged
the journalists with “high treason” for aiding Albanian separatists by
reporting on the war in Kosovo.
June 6
Nearly 50 correspondents joined a convoy of envoys in a trial run of the
so-called Kosovo Observer Mission touring the Kosovo countryside to
survey
the aftermath of battles between the Serb military and the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA). As a pool video cameraman walked alongside the convoy
filming
its approach to Prekaz, a red car with press markings occupied by three
men
in civilian clothes suddenly swerved toward him, nearly striking him.
When
the motorcade stopped near the town, two journalists who were part of
the
pool, Kurt Schork of Reuters and Anthony Lloyd of The Times of London,
approached the occupants of the red car to complain about the incident.
Schork and Lloyd then turned away and started walking toward the center
of
town. Several minutes later, one of the red car’s occupants grabbed
Schork
by the shoulder, turned him around and punched him hard in the face.
Provoked by the attack, Lloyd then struck the unidentified man, who then
retaliated with two karate kicks to Lloyd’s chest, breaking two of his
ribs.
The incident took place in front of the eight foreign envoys on the
mission,
who identified the occupants of the red car as Serbian special police.
June 22
Correspondent Neils Brinch and camaraman Heinrik Gram of the Danish TV2
station, and an Albanian interpreter who asked not to be identified,
were
heading back to Pristina in their rented armored car after they were
turned
away by guards at a KLA checkpoint at Glogovac. The vehicle they rented,
painted white, was typical of the kind used by journalists to cover the
conflict. The crew felt two shots hit their car, prompting Brinch to
stop. A
Serb soldier in uniform ran up to their car and pointed his gun at the
crew.
As soon as Brinch lifted up his arms to show he was unarmed, the soldier
started shooting at the crew’s car. Brinch sped away from the scene.
Although no one was hurt, the crew found 21 bullet holes on the armored
vehicle.
May 16
The Yugoslav Telecommunications Ministry announced that it had awarded
broadcast
frequencies to 247 television and radio stations out of 425 that
submitted
applications. Of these stations, only three independent stations from
the
Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) managed to receive
temporary frequencies: Radio B-92, RTV Pancevo, and F Kanal in Zajecar.
The
other stations granted frequencies were chiefly those which openly
supported
the Milosevic government or broadcast only entertainment programs.
The ministry failed to explain why another 178 private stations,
including
38 ANEM affiliates, were denied frequencies, a decision which
effectively
bans them. All the members of ANEM submitted identical applications, yet
only three were selected. Radio B92 alone submitted four applications,
including two for radio frequencies, one for television, and one for a
satellite uplink. Yet it was awarded only one radio frequency. The
ministry
also announced it will charge stations that won frequencies monthly fees
for
their use that could range from US$12,000 to US$15,000 in local
currency.
Many station managers who won frequencies have said they may be forced
to
refuse them, because the fees exceed their total monthly incomes.
April 21
The Yugoslav Telecommunications Ministry ordered TV Pirot closed and
confiscated the station’s equipment, saying that the station was not
properly licensed. This action came just weeks before the May 15
deadline
for public disclosure of the Telecommunications Ministry’s decision on
granting licenses to independent television and radio stations
throughout
the country. According to legal experts at the Association of
Independent
Electronic Media (ANEM), the station’s application met the legal
requirements for licensing and was submitted on time.
March 21
Peter Lippman, a Seattle-based journalist, was among six American peace
activists jailed for two days by Yugoslav authorities in Kosovo. The six
Americans, including Lippman, were arrested and sentenced to 10-day jail
terms for failing to register with local police during their stay in the
troubled province, a rarely-enforced law. They were freed two days later
following protests by the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.
March 19
At least two television cameramen working for Western news agencies were
beaten by plainclothes policemen while attempting to film mass
demonstrations in Pristina. Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian camera operator
working for Reuters TV, was attacked as he shot footage of a weeping
Albanian woman who said she was struck by police during a rally.
Protsyuk
fell to the ground and his video camera was smashed. The assailants
repeatedly punched him in the face until his producer, Glen Felgate,
managed
to pull him away. He suffered minor injuries. Michel Rouserez, a
cameraman
for RTBF, French-language Belgian Radio-Television, was assaulted while
covering a demonstration near the University of Pristina. He was
hospitalized as a result of the incident. The Associated Press reported
that
two other journalists working for Western news agencies were attacked on
the
same day, but their correspondent in Pristina had no details.
March 10-11
The editors of five independent dailies in Belgrade were called in for
questioning by the city prosecutor’s office in an apparent act of
intimidation in response to their coverage of the conflict in Kosovo.
Mjedrak Tmusic, the Belgrade city prosecutor, accused the editors of
Danas,
Blic, Dnevni Telegraf, Demokratiya and Nasa Borba of encouraging
terrorism
in the Kosovo by referring to the Albanians killed by police as
“victims” or
simply “Albanians,” rather than as “terrorists” in their headlines.
Serbian
authorities and regime-controlled media openly called on the press to
give
only the official interpretation of events and use ethnic slurs against
Albanians, reminiscent of the hate speech spread by the regime to foment
the
conflict in Bosnia.
March 2
At least six journalists were beaten covering public protests against
the
Yugoslav authority’s crackdown on Albanian separatists in Kosovo, among
them
Agron Bajrami, a cultural editor at the Albanian-language daily Koha
Ditore.
That day, the independent newspaper’s Prishtina offices were ransacked,
and
several staff members were beaten. Police searched for the video camera
and
tapes of police attacking against demonstrators filmed by the paper’s
camaraman, Fatos Berisha, who fell out a second-story window as he fled
from
them. He was hospitalized with a broken leg. In subsequent weeks,
reporters
from Koha Ditore and other news media were threatened and harassed while
covering demonstrations. Koha Ditore also endured several random
financial
inspections by various government agencies. Reporters and camera crews
were
barred from areas were the police raids took place for several days.
