(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: **Updates IFEX alert of 8 March 1999** Paris, 9 March 1999 For immediate release WAN Condemns Prison Terms For Yugoslavian Journalists The World Association of Newspapers has asked Yugoslavia to overturn prison sentences imposed on three journalists and said the country’s criminal law was “inappropriate” for […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
**Updates IFEX alert of 8 March 1999**
Paris, 9 March 1999
For immediate release
WAN Condemns Prison Terms For Yugoslavian Journalists
The World Association of Newspapers has asked Yugoslavia to overturn
prison
sentences imposed on three journalists and said the country’s criminal
law
was “inappropriate” for dealing with defamation.
The owner of the independent daily Dnevni Telegraf, Slavko Curuvija, and
journalists Srdjan Jankovic and Zoran Lukovic, were sentenced to five
months
in prison earlier this month for having published an article implicitly
accusing Serbian Vice Prime Minister Milovan Bojic of organizing the
killing
of a doctor.
In a letter to Yugoslavian Justice Minister Zoran Knezevic, WAN said
criminal law was a “wholly inappropriate means of dealing with the issue
of
defamation” and that prison terms were “a disproportionate penalty” and
should be set aside. A civil award is adequate relief in all cases of
proven
defamation, WAN said.
“The United Nations Commission on Human Rights noted in July 1992 that
detention for expressing one’s opinion constitutes one of the most
reprehensible means of imposing silence and thus is a flagrant violation
of
human rights,” said the letter from WAN, the global association of the
newspaper industry, which represents 15,000 newspapers worldwide.
The United States has also asked for the prison sentences to be
annulled,
and criticized the “wave of repression” against the independent press in
Serbia.
The independent media in Yugoslavia – or in its dominant region Serbia –
has
faced serious government interference in recent months. The Dnevni
Telegraf
and another newspaper, Danas, were temporarily closed last autumn for
publishing articles on the consequences of NATO air strikes in Kosovo.
The
closures, and a new restrictive Serbian press law, drew widespread
international condemnation.
The Paris-based WAN defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. Its
membership includes 57 national newspaper publisher associations,
individual
newspaper executives in 90 countries, 17 news agencies and seven
regional
press groups.
