On 7 April 1996, six police officers entered the printing house of “Koha”, an Albanian-language weekly in Pristina, Kosovo, and ordered the stoppage of the printing presses until the issue’s contents were inspected. The police also questioned the owner of the printing house for two hours. The police then insisted that by order of the […]
On 7 April 1996, six police officers entered the printing house
of “Koha”, an Albanian-language weekly in Pristina, Kosovo, and
ordered the stoppage of the printing presses until the issue’s
contents were inspected. The police also questioned the owner of
the printing house for two hours. The police then insisted that
by order of the Prosecutor General’s Office that day’s edition of
“Koha” had to be censored; the newspaper’s editors refused to
comply. (By law, police can intervene only after a newspaper has
been printed.)
The Prosecutor General’s Office objected to a photograph montage
which depicted President Slobodan Milosevic standing next to men
in Nazi uniforms under the heading “Anschluss 1989.” According to
Veton Surroi, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, employees at
“Koha”‘s printing house have been told by the Prosecutor
General’s Office not to print their next issue without prior
consent from their office.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
unlawful censorship and is a clear violation of Article 19 of the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
guarantees the right of persons to “seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers”
future
Appeals To
His Excellency Slobodan Milosevic
President
Republic of Serbia
Fax: +381 11 656 862/+381 11 682 167
His Excellency Zoran Lilic
President
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: +381 11 656 862/+381 11 682 167
Ratomir Vico
Minister of Information
Republic of Serbia
Fax: +381 11 685 937
Dragutin Brcin
Federal Minister of Information
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: +381 11 600 446
Please copy appeals to the originator if possible.
