**Updates IFEX alerts of 12, 10, 9 and 8 March 1999** (RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Jiri Diensbier, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the former Yugoslavia, RSF expressed concern over the imprisonment of Serb journalist Zoran Lukovic. “We ask you to intervene personally in order to obtain the release of […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 12, 10, 9 and 8 March 1999**
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Jiri Diensbier, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the former Yugoslavia, RSF expressed concern over the imprisonment of Serb journalist Zoran Lukovic. “We ask you to intervene personally in order to obtain the release of the journalist and the quashing of his sentence,” stated Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general, before adding that “the arrest of Zoran Lukovic is illegal since his trial is still in progress and his sentence is the object of an appeal.”
According to information obtained by RSF, Lukovic, a journalist with the independent daily “Dveni Telegraf”, was detained on 15 August 2000 in a police station in Belgrade where he had gone to extend his registration papers. He was transferred on the same day to a prison in the capital to serve the five month prison sentence that was imposed on him the previous year. On 8 March 1999, Lukovic was condemned to five months in prison for publication of an article, on 5 December 1998, which levelled an accusation against Milovan Bojic, Serbian Vice-Prime Minister. The article implicitly accused the political leader of having organised the killing of a medical doctor. Lukovic appealed this sentence on two occasions. His first request was rejected, while the second, in January 2000, had still not received a response as of 15 August.
RSF notes that another Serb journalist, Miroslav Filipovic, correspondent for the independent daily “Danas” and Agence France-Presse in Kraljevo (central Serbia), is currently serving a seven year prison sentence. He was sentenced on 26 July for “spying” and “broadcast of false information” for articles covering the activities of the Yugoslav army, published on the web site of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an independent institute based in London. Notably, the journalist gathered testimonies from Yugoslav soldiers condemning the Serb actions in Kosovo (see IFEX alerts of 9 and 8 August, 27, 26, 24, and 21 July, 24, 23, 15, 12, and 10 May 2000).
