 New
York, October 10, 2000 - -Independent Serbian journalist Miroslav
Filipovic, who was jailed by the Milosevic regime this spring on espionage
charges, was released from a military prison today, international
and local media sources have reported.
Filipovic, a Kraljevo-based correspondent for the Belgrade-daily Danas,
Agence France-Presse, and the London-based Institute for War & Peace
Reporting, was sentenced on July 26 to seven years in a military prison
for articles in which he reported on atrocities committed against
ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo by the Yugoslav Army.
"This is a wonderful day for Miroslav Filipovic,
his family, and all those who have fought for press freedom in Yugoslavia
during a decade of repressive rule," said CPJ executive director Ann
Cooper. "We hope that the new government will take further steps to
bolster the Serbian press by repealing the punitive press law and
creating an environment in which all journalists are able to work
freely without fear of reprisal."
The oddly contradictory charges leveled against Filipovic were "espionage"
and "spreading false information." The journalist's article that stirred
the most controversy cited a Yugoslav military intelligence report
which included testimony from officers who then documented the scale
of the Yugoslav Army's crimes against civilians in Kosovo.
Today at a hearing in Belgrade, chief judge Colonel Milan Ranic of
the Yugoslav Army's Supreme Military Court overturned Filipovic's
conviction on grounds of "procedural abuses during the investigation."
Filipovic's wife Slavica received a copy of the ruling and went immediately
to Nis where she gave it to authorities at the military prison, who
ordered Filipovic released.
Retrial Ordered
The journalist's family, however, continues
to insist his conviction should be overturned in a court of law to
fully clear his name. A retrial has been ordered.
When Filipovic left the prison with his wife and defense attorney,
he was greeted by a group of local and international journalists,
the Nis mayor Zoran Zivkovic and top officials from the Nis municipal
assembly, according to the Belgrade-based Media Center.
The reporter was imprisoned in May and spent most of September in
a military hospital because of a heart condition. He was transferred
back to prison four days before the Yugoslav elections because authorities
feared protestors might free him in any civil unrest following the
elections, according to CPJ sources in Serbia. Filipovic now plans
a period of recuperation.
Another Boost For Independent Journalism
On Thursday, September 5, in a separate development in Serbia, members
of the student activist group Otpor (Resistance) entered the premises
of Radio B92 in Belgrade and reclaimed it for its owners, according
to a statement by Veran Matic, the editor in chief of the B92. The
station had been under the control of the Milosevic regime since April
1999 when a Belgrade court issued a decision, ousting the independent
radio station's management and employees.
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