December 7, 2000
His Excellency Vojislav Kostunica
President of Yugoslavia
Savezna Skupstina
11000 Belgrade
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: (381 11) 636-775
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent press freedom
organization dedicated to the defense of journalists around the world,
congratulates you on your electoral victory. We are heartened by the improved
press-freedom climate in the Republic of Serbia since you took office
on October 7.
In the coming months, the federal government, along with the Serbian parliament
to be elected on December 23, will be formulating and implementing political
reforms designed to democratize Yugoslavia and initiate the country's
integration with pan-European institutions. The emergence of a fully independent
press is central to this process, and we would like to raise several issues
that we believe are crucial to the development of press freedom in your
country.
According to our research, state repression of independent media in the
Republic of Serbia has decreased significantly since Slobodan Milosevic
left office in late October. Even so, there have been several recent cases
of independent journalists who were subjected to official harassment because
of their work.
On November 1, for example, three plainclothes police officers from the
Serbian Interior Ministry entered the office of the Belgrade-daily Nedeljni
Telegraf. The officers detained assistant editor Milos Antic without
a warrant, took him to the 29 November police station in Belgrade, and
interrogated him for two hours.
The officers said they were acting under the orders of a prosecutor who
wanted Antic to identify the sources for an article about Milosevic that
appeared in the October 25 issue of Nedeljni Telegraf. The article
described Milosevic's alleged efforts to stamp out the popular rebellion
that eventually drove him from office by ordering Yugoslav Army general
Nebojsa Pavkovic to crack down on pro-democracy protesters on the night
of October 5-6.
The prosecutor evidently wanted the information in order to prepare a
case against Milosevic. While many might approve of this motive, the manner
in which Antic was detained seemed designed to intimidate the journalist
and his colleagues, considering
that the Serbian Interior Ministry remains stacked with Milosevic loyalists.
It is also disturbing that the authorities pressured Antic to reveal his
sources for the article, since the ability of journalists to protect sources
is essential to their work and is generally protected by law.
CPJ is also concerned that Milosevic-era laws are still being used to
intimidate journalists in Serbia. On November 9, for example, officials
from the Vranje Lumber company filed misdemeanor charges against Vranjske
Novine under Serbia's draconian Public Information Law. The charges
came in response to a November 2 Vranjske Novine article alleging
that Vranje Lumber officials had misused company funds. And while the
charges were dismissed on November 10, the Public Information Law remains
on the books, allowing the Serbian government to summarily fine and ban
media outlets.
We suggest that after the December 23 elections, you encourage the new
Serbian government and Parliament to repeal the Public Information Law.
CPJ also notes that the April 11, 1999, murder of Slavko Curuvija, editor
of the Belgrade daily Dnevni Telegraf, remains unsolved. The recent
appearance of an alleged State Security Service (SDB) surveillance report
about Curuvija's activities on the day of his murder raises serious questions
about possible SDB complicity in the crime.
Branka Prpa, Curuvija's companion, and Dusan Velickovic, former editor
of the Belgrade daily NIN, spent time with Curuvija on the day
of his murder and are referred to in the SDB report. Both claim that the
document accurately reflects minute details of Curuvija's movements on
the day of his assassination. We believe this new evidence warrants re-opening
the investigation. CPJ urges that particular attention be paid to the
possible involvement of SDB chief Radivoje Markovic and SDB Belgrade chief
Milan Radonjic in Curuvija's murder.
Finally, CPJ continues to monitor the case of Miroslav Filipovic. On October
10, Colonel Milan Ranic, chief judge of the Supreme Military Court in
Belgrade, overturned Filipovic's seven-year prison sentence on grounds
of "procedural abuses during the investigation." We are heartened that
he has been released. But a retrial of the case based on the original
charges of "espionage" and "spreading false information" is pending (a
court date has not yet been set). We hope that this will be conducted
in an open and transparent manner. Based on our analysis of the evidence,
Filipovic should be fully vindicated.
These four cases highlight the need for fundamental reforms in laws and
practices used to regulate the media in Serbia. Under Milosevic, the Ministry
of Telecommunication denied frequencies to independent media, the Ministry
of Justice fined news organizations under the Serbian Public Information
Law, and the Ministry of Interior confiscated equipment and took over
the premises of independent media. Meanwhile, the government as a whole
consistently favored private media outlets that backed regime policies.
While these harsh state-sponsored attacks on the independent media have
ceased, we are particularly concerned about recent government attempts
to install loyalist officials on the managing boards of independent media
outlets. The Belgrade-daily Politika announced in its November
28 edition, for example, that Boris Tadic, the federal telecommunications
minister and vice president of the Democratic Party, had been elected
to the newspaper's executive board.
The Milosevic regime used this technique to influence the editorial policies
of Serbian media throughout the past decade, but we hope that your government
will signal a clean break with the repression of the past by severing
its institutional connections with private news organizations. Such appointments
create obvious conflicts of interest, thus damaging the credibility of
independent media as impartial sources of information.
Issues related to past government policies towards the media must be addressed
as well. For this reason we encourage you to establish an appropriate
governmental body to review and rectify these previous injustices in an
open and transparent manner. In particular, the body should address the
following issues:
- Investigate past confiscations of transmission equipment from broadcast outlets and establish procedures for its return or for equitable compensation to the outlet concerned.
- Review the numerous oppressive fines imposed on media outlets under
the Serbian Public Information Law and establish procedures for the
government to return these funds or provide equivalent compensation
through tax breaks.
- Following the December 23 elections in Serbia, encourage the new Serbian government and parliament to repeal the Public Information Law.
- Conduct a thorough investigation of the financial privileges and regulatory preferences that certain media outlets received from the Milosevic government in exchange for pro-regime coverage and establish appropriate procedures for a government body to remedy these past inequities.
By moving decisively to rectify past injustices towards the media, Your
Excellency will greatly contribute to the democratization of Serbian
society.
Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters. We await your
response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Send a letter to:
His Excellency Vojislav Kostunica
President of Yugoslavia
Savezna Skupstina
11000 Belgrade
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: (381 11) 636-775