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Imprisoned
February 8
Srdjan Ilic, Associated Press (AP), HARASSED
Hidajet Delic, Bosnian Government News Agency, IMPRISONED
Ilic, an AP photographer based in Belgrade, and Delic, a photographer with the Bosnian Government News Agency who also works for AP, were arrested near a bridge connecting Serb- and Bosnian government-held parts of Sarajevo. Both journalists were taken first to Grbavica, a Bosnian Serb-controlled suburb of Sarajevo, and then to Serb police headquarters in Pale. Ilic was released the next day, but Delic, who was carrying negatives of photographs taken in Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic's office, was kept in detention. Bosnian Serb authorities accused Delic of having served in the Bosnian government's army in 1992 and of having ordered the murder of a Serb that summer. Delic's colleagues at AP's Belgrade office informed CPJ that the accusations were false since he was excused from military service due to his work at AP. CPJ wrote a letter of protest to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, urging him to release Delic immediately and to respect the status of journalists as civilian noncombatants. CPJ Chair Kati Marton then wrote to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, calling on him to make every effort to ensure Delic's immediate release. On March 25, Delic was set free in Pale, less than 24 hours after a Serb reporter, Ninko Djuric, was released by the Bosnian government. Djuric, who works for the Pale-based Bosnian Serb weekly Javnost, was arrested on Sept. 10, 1995, on the battlefield in Vozuca in central Bosnia. No reasons were given for his arrest.
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