|
|
|
|
Attacked
March 29
Srecko Latal, Associated Press (AP), ATTACKED, HARASSED
Latal, a Bosnian reporter for AP, was attacked by a crowd of Serbs when he went to investigate clashes between Serbs and Bosnian Federation police near Sarajevo. The crowd then forced Latal into a Serb police car. At this point, Italian soldiers with the Peace Implementation Force (IFOR) reportedly intervened and took Latal out of the Serb police car. The soldiers searched him, took him inside an armored personnel carrier, handcuffed him, and returned him to the Serb police, despite the fact that an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene shouted that Latal was a member of the press. Latal was released three hours later in Serb-held Lukavica. In a letter to IFOR, CPJ protested the Italian soldiers' treatment of Latal.
June 30
Miguel Gil Moreno, Associated Press Television (APTV), ATTACKED
Gil Moreno, a cameraman for APTV, was knocked unconscious after being hit in the head and stomach by unidentified assailants while he was filming the arrival in Mostar of Serbs who had been displaced from their homes there. The Serbs were coming to Mostar to vote on whether the city, now divided between Muslims and Croats, should be unified or kept divided. His colleagues said that police who witnessed the beating did nothing to stop it. The colleagues also said they could not identify Gil Moreno's attackers. Gil Moreno, who suffered a minor concussion from the attack, was back at work by July 2.
October 11
Mike Kirsch, Free-lancer, ATTACKED, HARASSED
Kirsch, an American free-lance journalist and cameraman working for Insight News Television Ltd. (INTV) of Great Britain, was attacked by 10 Serb police officers with AK-47 assault rifles. Kirsch was videotaping a destroyed house in Jusici, a Muslim village now under the control of the Bosnian Serb Republic, when Serb security police rushed toward him from around the house, ordered him to stop filming, and threatened to shoot him. They then shoved and kicked him while they tried to take his camera. Kirsch said police knocked him to the ground, spit on him, and pointed their guns at him. He said he tossed his camera to a Danish International Police Task Force (IPTF) officer, but a Serb policeman pointed his gun at the Danish officer and ordered him to give up the camera. A U.S. Army cameraman, operating under the command of the Peace Implementation Force (IFOR), filmed the entire scene. IFOR also retrieved Kirsch's camera the next day and returned it to him, but the videocassette he had been using to film the house was missing. Kirsch and INTV requested copies of IFOR's videotape of the incident, but their requests were denied. CPJ appealed to top officials at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), IFOR, the Pentagon, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Secretary of State to ensure that the IFOR video of the attack be released. CPJ also wrote to Serb Republic President Momcilo Krajisnik, condemning the attack, demanding that Kirsch's video be returned, and calling for an end to any further attacks on members of the press. On Oct. 23, IFOR officials informed CPJ that they released copies of the IFOR video to Kirsch and INTV and that disciplinary action would be taken against the local police commander responsible for the officers who attacked Kirsch.
For more information contact europeweb@cpj.org