Vienna, 13 July 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned the grenade attack on the office building of Ukrainian TV channel 112 Ukraine in Kyiv.
In the night 12/13 July 2019 an unknown person shot at the premises of the channel with a grenade launcher. No one was injured.
Vienna, 11 July 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is supporting the Independent Association of Serbia’s Journalists (NUNS). NUNS condemned on Thursday the statement by a senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) headed by President Aleksandar Vucic for accusing the journalists of imperilling the state security by asking some questions, the FoNet news agency reported.
In a parliamentary debate, Aleksandar Martinovic, the chief of the SNS Deputy Club, said reporters, as well as the NGOs, posted security-sensitive questions calling upon the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, and that they did not wish well to their country.
He also accused former Commissioner of Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic of working for foreign security agencies and Serbia’s opposition and against the SNS and Serbia.
NUNS said the questions the journalists asked about some affairs had nothing to do with the security of the state, but the problem was that they never received answers, despite their and Sabic’s insistence.
The Association added it would inform the international organisations and journalists’ associations and media and request their reaction regarding the latest accusations by the members of the country’s authorities.
Vienna 9 July 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) and 20 other human rights and freedom of expression organisations condemn a Turkish pro-government think-tank’s report that accuses leading international media of being biased against the government.
Published on 5 July by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), a think-tank created by İbrahim Kalın, who is nowadays an adviser to President Erdoğan, the report is billed as an academic study of the news coverage of the Turkish-language services of seven leading international media outlets, including the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, Sputnik and Euronews.
In reality, it consists of a blistering attack on all of these media outlets except China Radio International, the only one not accused of anti-government bias on the basis of a comparison of their coverage of the July 2016 coup attempt, Turkey’s military intervention in Syria and other recent developments with the official Turkish version of these events.
The report names the correspondents of these media outlets, details their professional history and traces what they have said and done on social networks, in an attempt to establish their political affinities, question their journalistic ethics and even suggest links with terrorist organizations. Covering the trials of journalists and sharing the tweets of RSF and such media outlets as Cumhuriyet and Evrensel are cited as evidence of “anti-government positions.”
Organisations listed below deplore the report’s malicious use of the political files that have been kept on the targeted journalists, using crude assumptions, with the sole aim of intimidating them. Such a witch-hunt is especially dangerous in the tension and political polarization that currently characterize Turkish society.
It is also hard not to see the report as an attempt to discredit these international media at a time when several of them are stepping up their Turkish-language reporting in order to compensate for the destruction of media pluralism that has been orchestrated by the Turkish authorities.
The Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS), Turkey’s Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) and the journalist Fatih Polat announced on 8 July that they filed a legal complaint against SETA on several grounds including “inciting hatred and hostility” and “retaining personal data.” In response to all the criticism of the report, SETA has insisted that it is “scientific.”
As the rule of law is steadily dismantled in Turkey, the situation of its media has become critical, especially since the 2016 coup attempt. Ranked 157th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index, Turkey now holds the world record for the number of journalists in prison.
• ARTICLE 19
• ARTICOLO 21
• Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI)
• Civic Space Studies Association
• Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
• Danish PEN
• English PEN
• European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
• European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
• Global Editors Network (GEN)
• Index on Censorship
• International Press Institute (IPI)
• Norwegian PEN
• Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT)
• P24
• PEN America
• PEN International
• Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
• South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)
• Swedish PEN
• WAN-IFRA
Vienna, 5 July 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisaton (SEEMO) condemns the yesterday (on 4 July) attack of the headquarters of the Athens Voice weekly by a group of anarchists in Athens. Approximately 12 masked individuals stormed into offices of the weekly armed with steel bars. None of the journalists was injured.
In a post published on video-sharing website LiveLeak, a Greek anarchist group claimed credit for the attack
SEEMO urges the Greek authorities to do everything possible to ensure that acts of violence of this kind do not go unpunished.
Vienna, 2 July 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) conednmns death threats in a comment on the YouTube channel, against authors and hosts of the “The good, the bad, and the evil” show on the local TV in Sabac.
According to the threat, a person wrote that he will kill them when he comes to power,” because “being a Serb means the highest goal and the readiness to sacrifice.”
Vienna, 28 June 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisatiion (SEEMO) condemns Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has threatened Peter Tiede, chief reporter of the BILD daily from Germany, with legal action.
Bild published an article in the online editon on 5 June 2019 which accuses the chief of government of using mafia money to buy votes during the 2017 election. The newspaper supported the report with telephone wiretap tapes.
Rama announced that he would go to a German courts and sue reporter Peter Tiede working for Bild.
Vienna, 20 June 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is shocked to learn that Vadym Komarov, an Ukranian journalist, died today from the head injuries he sustained in an attack on 4 May in Cherkasy.
Vienna, 9 June 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation
condemns the violent actions taken against at least 16 journalists during the protests and events of on 7, 8 and 9 June 2019. Protesters and politicians threatened the journalists who wanted to cover the event.
Gordana Igric has been active in journalism for 34 years, starting as a journalist in 1981.for Belgrade based Politika and Borba dailies, covering the whole territory of former Yugoslavia.
During the war years she reported on the fighting and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Croatia in places such as Banja Luka, Zvornik and Foca.
Marked as a traitor, during 1999 she was forced to leave Serbia traveling in secret to Sarajevo and then on to London where she began working as an editor for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and manager of the Balkans project.
The need for continued impact in the Balkans inspired Gordana Igric to localize the IWPR Balkans Project in 2005. establishing new regional organisation – Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. Ten years later, BIRN, with a pool of close to 500 journalists, has offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, with editorial presence in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Montenegro, is one of the biggest media networks in the South Eastern Europe.
SEEMO: How often BIRN journalists are target of a threat? Can you give us some examples, please?
BIRN is celebrating decade of its existence and occasionally our investigations were cause for attacks, mostly threatening emails or phone calls. Some of the attacks were seriously vicious. Our editor in BIRN Albania, Besar Likmeta has been physically attacked by an Albanian politician, while the director of BIRN Kosovo, Jeta Xharra, has had several government campaigns orchestrated against her, branding her as “Serbian spy”. Currently, against BIRN Serbia, the government and allied media have launched smear campaign, branding us as liars, spies, mercenaries and lobbyists for some companies. The main accusation is that we are trying to overthrow the Government, being paid for that by the EU. All that for raising legitimate concerns about public interest and validity of Government spending. The proportion of latest smear campaign is beyond anything seen on media scene in Serbia.
SEEMO: It is very hard to be an investigative journalist…
Professional investigative reporting rarely receives plaudits from politicians or states, since in most cases it exposes corruption or malfunctioning of the state institutions. In its ten years of work, BIRN was exposed to different kind of reactions from the states in the Balkans. Control over the media is such that investigative reporting is limited mainly to non-governmental organisations, with rare access to mainstream media. Usually, this means the media, deeply dependent financially and politically on authorities are forbidden to carry sensitive stories, compromising for the governments.
SEEMO: How you see the media situation in the region BIRN covers?
Macedonia is for years a trouble spot, with the closure of independent media, arrest and conviction of investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski while the Government is one of the main media advertisers. The situation in Serbia is quickly deteriorating, with numerous complains about censorship and self-censorship. Shutting down of programmes, and increased government pressure on media outlets, with some TV stations and tabloids tasked to perform smear campaigns against political opponents, or anyone with different opinion is happening as we speak.
SEEMO: Your comment about the critics from the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic – he spoke about BIRN.
How does one respond to allegations that we are liars, undermining Serbian reforms on EU orders, lobbying for some international companies, etc? The prime minister keeps going out on TV and repeating outrageous accusations against BIRN. This in turn is then carried on all media in the country without anyone even approaching BIRN for response. We have no intention to get into a shouting match with the ones screaming “traitors!” but rather participate in a quality debate about the issues have raised on misuse of public spending.
The unprecedented reaction of the Serbian government to our latest story sends two fold message, both to the journalists in Serbia and to the EU. One, that anyone who dares to dig into the topics the Government deems inappropriate will have end up in a similar fashion. At the same time, the PM has used this case to test the limits of EU’s patience, in a situation when Brussels is rarely interested in developments beyond relations between Serbia and Kosovo.
All information and reference, which are contained in this webpage, were compiled after best knowledge and examined with greatest possible care. This disclaimer informs readers / users of the web and information that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in an interview by the interview partner or in a statement by the author belong solely to the interview partner / author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) Assumptions made within an interview-analysis are not reflective of the position of SEEMO. The visitors / users of the SEEMO webpage should take all steps necessary to ascertain that information you receive from SEEMO is correct. We ask every user to check references, double-check information from additional independent sources. SEEMO assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of information published on the SEEMO website / SEEMO partners website.
Vienna, 2 June 2019
The South East Europe Media Organisation condenmns the attack on blogger Vadim Kharchenko in Krasnodar in Russia. On 1 June unknown assailants attacked Karchenko, after he went to meet a source for his story.