20/1/2018: GREECE – NEW ATTACK

Vienna, 20 January 2019

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemns the today attacks on reporters and photojournalists by extremist groups in Athens during a protest.

Thomas Iacobi, working for La Croix from France, was attacked while covering the protest connected to the name change deal with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Iacobi is co-authors of Golden Dawn: a Personal Case, a documentary about the Golden Dawn far-right political party.

Additional photojournalist Kostis Ntantamis, a freelance photographer working for the Russian state TV Sputnik, suffered serious head injuries during the protest.

Also Albania TV correspondent Artur Bibe was attacked during his live transmission on the Top Channel, Attacked was also CNN freelancer Lefteris Partseris.

Vienna, 19 January 2019

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemns the today physical attack against a journalist in Skopje During an event organised by the Orthodox church in the city centre of Skopje, Mirjana Mircevska-Jovanović, working for Kanal 5, was assaulted while carrying out her work. She was attacled by security guards after attempting to pose questions to a participant at the event.

Vienna, 17 January 2019

Turkey deported Ans Boersma, a journalist working for the largest Dutch financial newspaper, Het Financieele Dagblad. She had been visiting an immigration office in Istanbul to extend her visa when she was detained.

The South East Eurolpe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condenms this decission by authorities in Ankara.

Vienna, 15 January 2019

The South East Eurolpe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is alarmed regarding the recent court sentence against investigative journalist Jovo Martinović in Montenegro.

Today Martinović was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “membership in a criminal organization” and “drug trafficing” after he had been investigating a criminal organisation.

Martinovic was doing journalistic investigation on trafficking in the Balkans for the French TV current affairs production company CAPA Presse when he was arrested on 22 October 2015. He spent till today 14 months in prison and was released from per-trial detention in January 2017.

Martinović, won the Peter Mackler award for courageous and ethical journalism in 2018.

Vienna, 8 January 2019

Today journalist Pelin Ünker was convicted by a Criminal Court of First Instance to 13 months and 15 days in prison, and fined 8,660 Turkish lira (1,350 EUR) for “insulting” and “slandering a public official”.

The lawsuit was filed by former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and his two sons, connected to the “Paradise Papers” and about what Ünker reported in November 2017.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condenms the court decission.

Vienna, 2 Janaury 2019

According to information from the Croatian Journalist Association (HND) several journalists and HND members had received lawsuits from the public broadcaster Hrvatska Radio i Televizija – HRT.

The public broadcaster HRT has brought 33 lawsuits against their own journalists, as well as other reporters and the HND itself over their critical reports on HRT, demanding in total 2.17 million kuna (293,000 EUR) in damages.

The HRT management sued HND for 200,000 kuna (27,000 EUR) in damages and the head of the HND’s HRT branch, Sanja Mikleusevic-Pavic for 50,000 kuna (6,700 EUR) for “harm to reputation”.

Additional in December 2018 the satirical portal NewsBar.hr was condemned for writing “falsehoods” in a fantasy article.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned all lawsuits.

Vienna, 1 January 2019

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condenms the attempt on 30 December 2018 to break into the apartment of Milan Jovanovic: Jovanovic was forced to move in this appartment after his house in Grocka was burned down in a fire started by a Molotov cocktail on 12 December 2018.

Jovanovic is an investigative reporter working for Zig Info, and he covered in his reports corruption involving local politicians.

Vienna, 26 December 2018

Journalist Bujar Vitija has been threatened and offended by University Clinical Center of Kosovo staff member. The South East Europe Media Organisation condenmns this threats against the journalist

Vienna, 26 December 2018

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) calls for the release of Alexander Valov. Valov, a Russian blogger, well-known in the Sochi region for criticizing, was sentenced by a court in Sochi to 6 years i prison and a fine of about 9,000 EUR..

The court process against Valov was despite a lack of material evidence .

Vienna, 21 December 2018

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is worried about the today court decision in Azerbaijan against a journalist. According to information before SEEMO the court is ordering investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova to pay a high fine over 23,000 EUR for an alleged tax debt.

One year ago in December 2017 Ismayilova’s bank account was suspended.