(HRW/IFEX) – The following is an HRW press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 22 March, 19 March, 16 March, 15 March and 12 March 1999; for background on the Law on Public Information see IFEX alerts of 23 October and 21 October 1998** FOR RELEASE March 22, 1999 For further information contact: Fred Abrahams (1-212) […]
(HRW/IFEX) – The following is an HRW press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 22 March, 19 March, 16 March, 15 March and 12
March
1999; for background on the Law on Public Information see IFEX alerts of
23
October and 21 October 1998**
FOR RELEASE
March 22, 1999
For further information contact:
Fred Abrahams (1-212) 216-1270
Crackdown on Albanian Media in Kosovo
Last Albanian Newspaper Heavily Fined
(New York, March 22, 1999)– In the midst of a large-scale military
offensive in Kosovo, the Yugoslav government has cracked down on the
last
remaining Albanian-language daily newspaper in Kosovo, Koha Ditore.
Human
Rights Watch today condemned the move as a mortal blow to press freedom
in
the region, and a continuation of the government’s systematic repression
of
ethnic Albanians.
On Monday afternoon, the newspaper and its editor-in-chief, Baton
Haxhiu,
were convicted by the municipal court in Prishtina for publishing
information that “incited hatred between nationalities,” according to
article 67 of Serbia’s controversial Law on Public Information. The
paper
was fined 420,000 dinars (US$26,800) and Haxhiu was fined 110,000 dinars
(US$7,200). They have until Tuesday, March 23, to pay the fines, or the
state may confiscate the paper’s and Haxhiu’s private property.
Koha Ditore is the last Albanian-language daily newspaper publishing in
Kosovo. Last week another major daily, Kosova Sot, and a smaller paper,
Gazeta Shqiptare, were forced to shut down after being fined 1.6 million
dinars (US$104,500) each. Another daily paper, Bujku, has not published
regularly since January because the authorities have not provided a
licence.
According to today’s Serbian press, also on March 21, the small Albanian
weekly Kombi was fined 1.6 million dinars for an article it published on
December 21, 1998.
“This is a death blow to the Albanian-language media,” said Holly
Cartner,
Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia
Division.
“If Koha Ditore is silenced, Albanians in Kosovo will be denied printed
information on the brutal campaign being waged against them by the
government.”
The conviction of Koha Ditore and Haxhiu, after a closed two-hour trial
this
Sunday, was based on two articles published in the newspaper on March
19,
1999. One article was on the statement of the Kosovo Albanian delegation
after they signed the Rambouillet Accord on March 18 in Paris. The
offending
section said: “The decision for signing the interim agreement was not
easy… Once again entire villages are being burned to the ground.
Civilians
are being killed, tortured and beaten. Once again thousands of people
are
being forced out of their homes.”
The other article was a statement by the head of the Albanian
delegation,
KLA political representative Hashim Thaci, in which Thaci labeled the
government’s attacks in Kosovo “genocide” and called on Serbs to
distance
themselves from the policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Thaci’s statement was taken directly from the Serbian-language news
agency
Beta, which was not charged with any criminal offense. The official
Serbian
television station, Radio Television Serbia, also broadcast parts of
Thaci’s
comments.
Serbia’s Law on Public Information has been criticized by human rights
groups and most western governments for falling short of international
standards that safeguard a free press. Since its introduction in October
1998, dozens of independent and opposition newspapers — in the Albanian
and
Serbian language — have been ordered to pay disproportionately high
fines
because of their articles. The government has shut down five private
radio
and television stations, along with one Serbian-language newspaper, and
two
newspapers have been forced to move their operations to Montenegro.
Foreign
broadcasts of the BBC, VOA, RFE/RL and Deutsche Welle are banned.
