Serbia

(CCPJ/IFEX) – Paris, 15 May 1998 – The following is an open letter to Prime Minister Radoje Kontic, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: We, journalists’ freedom of expression and human rights groups attending the annual general meeting of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange in Paris, are deeply disturbed by the decision to impose exorbitant fees […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – According to CPJ, on 21 April 1998, officials from the Yugoslav Ministry of Telecommunications ordered local independent television station TV Pirot closed and confiscated the station’s equipment, saying that the station was not properly licensed. This action comes just weeks before the 15 May 1998 deadline for public disclosure of the Ministry of […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 21 March 1998, six American peace activists, including Peter Lippman, a Seattle-based journalist, were jailed for two days by Yugoslav authorities in Kosovo. They were sentenced to 10-day jail terms for ailing to register with local police during their stay in the troubled province (a rarely-enforced law). They were freed two days […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On March 19 1998, at least two television cameramen working for Western agencies were beaten by plainclothes policemen while attempting to film mass demonstrations in Prishtina. Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian camera operator working for Reuters TV, was attacked from behind as he shot footage of a weeping Albanian woman who said she had […]

(RSF/IFEX) – According to RSF, on 9 March 1998, the Attorney General for Belgrade confirmed that he took “appropriate measures” against the editors-in-chief of the newspapers “Blic”, “Nasa Borba”, “Danas”, “Dnevni Telegraf”, “Demokratija” as well as “certain television stations”, which encouraged “the acts of terrorists” and gave “a false image of the acts of the […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – In a 9 March 1998 press release, IFJ condemned the Serbian authorities for the attacks they have made on independent media who have been covering the actions of police in Kosovo. “They have learned nothing from the lunacy of censorship and propaganda during the Bosnia war,” says IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. “Attacks […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 2 March 1998, Ibrahim Osmani, an Albanian journalist working in the province of Kosovo for the Agence France Presse news agency, was severely beaten by police while covering a demonstration in Pristina. After checking his press identification card, police apprehended Osmani as he tried to protect himself in a doorway from their […]

(HRW/IFEX) – The following is an open letter sent by Human Rights Watch on 16 February 1998 to the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia) regarding the recent announcement on 6 February 1998 of an open bid for temporary radio and television frequencies, and other laws regulating broadcasting in Serbia. It was sent […]

(AMARC/IFEX) – The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) has deplored the Yugoslav federal authorities’ efforts to control the existence and operation of illegal radio and TV stations by requiring them to obtain temporary licences. It is unlikely, according to ANEM, that the Telecommunications Ministry will issue such licenses to all stations that apply for […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – On 29 January 1998, Serbian police confiscated video tapes belonging to Duska Jurisic, a journalist with the Television of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Fifteen tapes were seized and included footage shot in Kosova and Prishtina and material concerning recent protests by Albanian students. The tapes, confiscated at the Macedonian border, included interviews with Mahmut […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 29 October 1997, two police officers entered the offices of the Albanian-language daily “Koha Ditore” in order to review the personal identity documents of associate editor-in- chief Yiber Hysa and of journalist Fisnik Abrashi, who had covered a demonstration by Albanian students in Pristina earlier that day. The officers also demanded to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – Gordana Igric, a prominent Serbian freelance journalist, has been forced into hiding by a series of death threats against her for a recent report broadcast on the U.S. television station CBS about indicted war criminals at large in the Bosnian town of Foce. Igric began receiving threatening phone calls at her Belgrade apartment […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – Several journalists were assaulted by police during demonstrations in Belgrade protesting the recent dismissals of opposition Mayor Zoran Djindjic and the managers of the television station Studio B (see IFEX alert of 2 October 1997). Bojana Lekic and Branka Stankovic, both with Radio B-92, and Misa Savic, a reporter for the news agency […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On the evening of 1 October 1997, Slobodan Miljevic, correspondent with the Frankfurt, Germany newspaper “Vesti”, Emil Vas, photographer with the Reuters news agency, and Vladan Markovic, photographer with the daily “NT Plus”, were assaulted during the intervention by anti-riot police in a demonstration protesting the dismissal of the mayor of Belgrade Zoran […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 25 September 1997, two uniformed police officers entered the offices of the Albanian-language daily “Koha Ditore”, located in Pristina, and arrested one of the paper’s three associate editors-in-chief, Baton Haxhiu. He was released after being questioned by police. The officers also seized documents pertaining to the two other associate editors-in-chief, Yiber Hysa […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – On 30 September 1997, after ousting the opposition mayor of Belgrade, Zoran Djindjic, from office, the combined forces of the Serbian Socialists, Radicals and the Renewal Movement moved to sack the top management at the popular municipal television station Studio B TV and replace them with their own supporters. Zoran Ostojic and Lila […]