(RSF/IFEX) – In letters to Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Representative on Freedom of the Media Freimut Duve and United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Former Yugoslavia Jiri Diensbier, RSF denounced the growing violence against journalists in northern Macedonia, after an Associated Press Television News (APTN) journalist was killed on […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In letters to Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Representative on Freedom of the Media Freimut Duve and United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Former Yugoslavia Jiri Diensbier, RSF denounced the growing violence against journalists in northern Macedonia, after an Associated Press Television News (APTN) journalist was killed on Thursday 29 March 2001 in Krivenik, and an Agence France Presse (AFP) car was targeted in Gracani. “Journalists are once again among the first victims of an armed conflict, and the situation is becoming increasingly alarming by the day,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We ask that you appeal to the two parties to respect the Geneva Conventions, which are once again being ridiculed in the former Yugoslavia,” added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, Kerem Lawton, a British journalist from the APTN agency, was killed by mortar fire that allegedly killed several people and injured twenty in Krivenik, a Kosovo village on the border with Macedonia, close to the Macedonian town of Gracani. For several weeks, Lawton had been covering the current conflict between Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian army in northern Macedonia. Moreover, on Thursday 29 March, a civilian car carrying two AFP correspondents was targeted by a sniper in Gracani. A large emblem marked “TV” on the vehicle’s doors and hood clearly identified it as a press car. However, it cannot as yet be confirmed that the journalists were specifically targeted.
RSF recalled that the 14 March demonstration by Albanian radical movements that drew between 3,000 and 5,000 people in the city of Tetovo (about 40 km from Skopje) was the scene of attacks against two Macedonian journalists who had come to cover the rally to support Albanian guerrillas. Atanas Sokolovski, a journalist from the private television station A1, was manhandled by the crowd while trying to interview Albanians. He was taken to hospital, where his condition was listed as serious. A correspondent from the Sitel television station was also beaten by demonstrators and her video camera was broken (see IFEX alert of 20 March 2001).
RSF also recalled that the Geneva Conventions stipulate that journalists must be considered non-belligerant persons and protected as such in times of conflict.
