The war against independent journalism in Serbia continues

VIENNA, 11 November 1999 -- Freimut Duve, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, addressed the Contact Group on 10 November drawing its attention to the continuing onslaught against independent media in Serbia by the Belgrade regime. Duve stressed that journalists were being harassed, newspapers and publishing houses fined. These acts were being committed under the 1998 Serbian Law on Public Information, widely condemned as the most draconian press law in the region.

Duve noted several recent cases:

• Alliance of Change activist Cedomir Jovanovi was fined 320,000 dinars for circulating an unregistered periodical Promene. The publisher of this periodical, ABC Grafika, and its Director were fined, respectively, 65,000 and 15,000 dinars.
• Danas publisher DanGraf and its Director, Dusan Mitrovic, were fined 200,000 and 80,000 dinars, respectively, for violating the personal rights of Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj, a notorious former paramilitary leader and outspoken racist.
• Desa Trevisan, a journalist representing The Times, was sentenced to 10 days in prison for, allegedly, "illegal entry" into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Ms. Trevisan entered FRY through Montenegro and is in possession of a valid visa. Ms. Trevisan was 75 years-old.
• The School of Electronic Engineering in Belgrade, which administers the entire Yugoslav Academic Network, had blocked access to the Netherlands server which hosts the FreeB92 web site that provides, among other things, news from Radio B292.

Duve underlined that on 25 June 1999, he appealed to all OSCE Foreign Ministers to bring about a repeal of the Serbian law. However, the law, which Duve once described as a "declaration of war" against independent journalists, is still in force. Now it is aggressively used against those who are trying to bring change to their country.

MEDIA CONTACT: Representative on Freedom of the Media, Kärntner Ring 5-7, Top 14, 2.DG, A-1010 Vienna, Austria, Tel.: (+43-1) 512 21 45-0; Fax: (+43-1) 512 21 45-9; e-mail: pm-fom@osce.org