(ANEM/IFEX) – The following is a 22 October 1999 ANEM press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 22 October, 18 October and 23 September 1999** Banjaluka editor in critical condition after assassination attempt Reporter banned in Serbia BELGRADE, October 22, 1999 — The Association of Independent Electronic Media in Yugoslavia deplores today’s attempted assassination of Zeljko […]
(ANEM/IFEX) – The following is a 22 October 1999 ANEM press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 22 October, 18 October and 23 September 1999**
Banjaluka editor in critical condition after assassination attempt
Reporter banned in Serbia
BELGRADE, October 22, 1999 — The Association of Independent Electronic
Media in Yugoslavia deplores today’s attempted assassination of Zeljko
Kopanja, proprietor and editor-in-chief of Banjaluka’s independent Nezavisne
Novine. Kopanja is in a critical condition after having both legs amputated
following the explosion of a bomb planted beneath his car. Nezavisne Novine
has recently began publishing stories on war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
giving rise to the suspicion that the assassination attempt was a terrorist
action aimed at intimidating journalists who investigate this issue.
ANEM further protests at the ban on distribution of Banjaluka’s weekly
Reporter in Serbia. The Association notes that a police operation on
September 21, 1999, in which all copies of the magazine bound for Serbia
were seized, was a statement of the Serbian regime’s reaction to the
critical reporting of Reporter, which had reached a circulation of more than
15,000 in Serbia and had become very influential.
On October 16,1999, the authorities resolved the “problem” of Reporter by
permanently banning its import to Serbia, obviously aware of the fact that
the magazine is published in the Republic of Srpska and thus not vulnerable
to the provisions of Serbia’s Public Information Act with its enormous
financial penalties.
In this way the Serbian authorities have crudely cleared yet one more
independent and influential periodical from Serbian territory.
ANEM warns that repression of the independent media in Serbia is being
stepped up in tandem with announcements of possible early elections,
plunging the people of Serbia deeper into media darkness.
