Two foreign correspondents detained

(IFJ/IFEX) – The IFJ is very concerned for the safety of two journalists currently being detained by the Serb and Yugoslav authorities. According to the IFJ’s information, Pit Schnitzler of German television station Sat1 has been held since Friday, 16 April 1999. On 8 April, his car and equipment were taken at gunpoint by police […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The IFJ is very concerned for the safety of two journalists
currently being detained by the Serb and Yugoslav authorities.

According to the IFJ’s information, Pit Schnitzler of German television
station Sat1 has been held since Friday, 16 April 1999. On 8 April, his car
and equipment were taken at gunpoint by police officers who summoned
Schnitzler to the garage of the Belgrade Intercontinental Hotel. He had a
receipt for the equipment issued by Army Post 1552 in Belgrade.

The IFJ believes that Schnitzler was detained somewhere between Belgrade and
the Serbian Croatian border on 16 April.

Unfortunately, his is not the only case of detention.

Antun Masle, who is a journalist with the Croatian weekly “Globus”, has been
detained by Serb Military Police in Podgorica, since 21 April. The IFJ
believes that he is to be charged with espionage and to be tried before a
military tribunal.

The IFJ is shocked by the continuous detention and harassment of foreign
correspondents by different members of the Serb and Yugoslav security
forces.

The IFJ has appealed to all the countries and organisations involved in this
conflict not to target the media as part of their political and military
strategies. This has included appeals to NATO, the latest only on 21 April,
not to bomb media, as they did when they targeted the Socialist Party
headquarters in Belgrade (see IFEX alerts of 21 April 1999).

Recommended Action

His Excellency Slobodan Milosevic

President of Yugoslavia

Belgrade, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Fax: +381 11 367 25 48

e-mail: slobodan.milosevic@gov.yu