(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a WPFC press release: 9 August 1999 FOR IMMEDIATE USE World Press Freedom Committee Aids Media in Kosovo RESTON, Va. — The World Press Freedom Committee today announced the award of a three-part assistance grant to support revival of Kosovo’s war-devastated independent print and broadcast media. “Reestablishment of a free […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a WPFC press release:
9 August 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE USE
World Press Freedom Committee Aids Media in Kosovo
RESTON, Va. — The World Press Freedom Committee today announced the award
of a three-part assistance grant to support revival of Kosovo’s
war-devastated independent print and broadcast media.
“Reestablishment of a free and independent press is indispensable to the
restoration of peace and democracy in Kosovo,” said WPFC Chairman James H.
Ottaway, Jr., senior vice president of Dow Jones & Co. and chairman of
Ottaway Newspapers. “Much more is needed in Kosovo,” he said, “but free
speech and a free press are basic building blocks of a civil society.”
Today’s Kosovo assistance grant includes funding for:
– Training in news and documentary production for RadioTV 21, the first
independent broadcaster to return to the air in Kosovo. The training is to
be conducted by French and American journalists experienced in TV production
in conflict situations in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Northern Ireland and
elsewhere. With broad international support, RadioTV 21 has resumed its
radio service and plans soon to start the first independent television
station in Kosovo.
– Reconstruction of an office switchboard for Koha Ditore, the leading
Albanian-language newspaper in Kosovo, with telephone extensions for
newspaper staff. All of the newspaper’s office and printing equipment was
destroyed in the recent ethnic fighting.
– Publication of WPFC’s Handbook for Journalists in the Albanian language.
The new edition of 3,000 copies is co-sponsored by Koha Ditore newspaper;
the Albanian Media Center in Tirana, Albania; and the Center for
Multicultural Cooperation and Understanding in Skopje, Macedonia. More than
100,000 copies of the handbook have been distributed free of charge to
journalists and journalism students in the major languages of Eastern
Europe.
The World Press Freedom Committee, which includes 44 journalistic
organizations on six continents, is dedicated to the promotion and
preservation of press freedom around the world. Prime functions include
monitoring and advocacy at the United Nations, the Council of Europe and
other international organizations where media issues are aired, providing
legal assistance to journalists facing penal action, training and education.
The WPFC is supported by private and media contributions and accepts no
government funds.
In addition to its support for Kosovo media, the World Press Freedom
Committee has contributed to reinforcing independent journalism in Serbia,
Croatia and Bosnia, and plans to publish a Serbo-Croatian edition of the
Handbook. Other efforts in the region include:
– Grants to “The Right to Pictures and Words,” a monthly magazine devoted to
chronicling and analyzing press censorship in Serbia;
– Funding for a small-equipment grants program for independent Serbian
journals. This is administered by the Civic Initiatives organization,
Belgrade;
– Support of a legal aid program for independent Serbian broadcasters to
help cut governmental red tape seen by the broadcasters as an instrument to
hinder the operation of local stations not under governmental control.
The World Press Freedom Committee also monitors threats to press freedom in
the former Yugoslavia, registering with the appropriate official bodies its
objections to harassment and restrictive measures imposed on news media by
Serbian and Croatian authorities as well as by the Western allies’
Independent Media Commission.
