22/4/2013 – KOSOVO: JOURNALIST ATTACKED

Vienna, 22 April 2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned the today attack on Gezim Bimbashi, a reporter with public broadcaster RTK.

Bimbashi was beaten while filming protests in Mitrovica.

Vienna, 17/04/2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is concerned at the number of press freedom violations, and the pressure directed at the media, in South East Europe in recent weeks.

In Albania on 7 April 2013, a cameraman for one of the country’s leading TV channels, Top Channel, who covered a football match between Tirana and Skenderbeu, was allegedly beaten by police, stopped from filming and taken to a Tirana police station where he was allegedly beaten by high-ranking police officers. This happened after an incident involving the football fans and police, when the Top Channel cameraman was waiting fans who had been detained to come out. According to the police, the cameraman was taken to the police office because he refused to identify himself, no violence was used, and after he was identified he was immediately released. Top Channel rejects these declarations as untrue.

SEEMO notes that this is not the first attack on Top Channel. In March this year the studios of the channel were surrounded by police as a result of a state decision, without prior notice, to terminate a rental contract with Top Channel. Top Channel received a letter from a minister with a one-sided termination of the rent contract – which had in theory been valid until 2025.

Meanwhile, in Trebinje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 14 April 2013, a bishop from the Serbian Orthodox Church verbally attacked Nebojsa Vukanovic, a correspondent for the BN TV channel, apparently because he was displeased by the journalist’s reporting. “If I were to judge you, it would be a knockout, so it is better that you be judged by Saint Vasilije,” the bishop said, according to media reports. The bishop also suggested that journalists were maligning Trebinje, naming Vukanovic as an example.

SEEMO is also concerned at the threats, including death threats, against the journalist Predrag Lucic made on various web portals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is not the first time that web portals in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been used for death threats against journalists.

In another development, SEEMO is surprised to hear that Bulgarian journalist Boris Mitov, who works for Mediapool, was summoned on 5 April 2013 to the prosecutor’s office for questioning over one of his reports. This appears to be a clear-cut case of pressure directed at a journalist.

SEEMO is also surprised to hear that on 11 April 2013,without prior announcement, cable platform IPKO moved national licensed broadcaster Kohavision (KTV) from Pristina from the position of channel three to that of channel 83 in the cable system, in addition preventing viewers from rearranging and listing the channels as they wish. KTV, one of the only three national broadcasters, has thus been reclassified in the category of local broadcasters.

SEEMO calls on the Kosovo authorities to investigate an attack with automatic weapons on the building and studio of the radio station Kolasin in Zubin Potok in Kosovo, which occurred on 16 April 2013 in the morning hours.

SEEMO welcomes the police investigation into, and criminal charges brought against, the chief of the heating plant of the City of Nis in Serbia, and two other persons, after death threats against Predrag Blagojevic, a journalist and web editor of Juzne vesti.

SEEMO Secretary- General Oliver Vujovic urges Serbian authorities to keep the promise they made to investigate the three unsolved killings of journalists in Serbia: Radislava Dada Vulasinovic; Slavko Curuvija; and Milan Pantic. The authorities in Belgrade must ensure that both the perpetrators and masterminds are prosecuted after so many years. Vujasinovic was killed in 1994, Curuvija in1999 and Pantic in 2001.

Finally, SEEMO is concerned at the circumstances under which Denis Latin, Ruzica Renic and Katja Kusec were relieved of their positions within the Croatian public broadcaster Hrvatska Radio Televiija (HRT) in March this year. Vujovic calls on the government and the HRT management to refrain from any action that could lead to censorship and threaten editorial independence.

Speaking of the regional surge in press freedom violations as a whole, Vujovic said: “I urge the authorities to create a safe environment for journalists, to investigate all forms of attacks and threats against journalists, and to cease activities that could make the work of journalists harder. Different views, and investigative reporting, need to be accepted, promoted and supported by state authorities, including through transparent investigations into all forms of attacks on journalists”.

Vienna, 16 April 2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) expressed concern about threats and attack on the Greek journalist George Tselika.

Tselika works as a sport reporter at Greek TV station SKAI and he was attacked in the near of the Giorgos Karaiskakis football stadium in Athens on 14 April 2013. Tselika is a well known sport reporter and he was severely beaten. As result of the attack he had fractured pelvis and broken ribs.

Vienna, 16 April 2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is concerned about attacks on media in Kosovo. Today gun shots were fired at the radio station Kolašin in Zubin Potok. It is the second attack against this radio station in one year. Since the first attack, the radio station has stopped broadcasting its news programme and is broadcasting only music.

Vienna, 16 April 2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned today threats against journalists Nebojša Vukanović and Predrag Lucić in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Vienna, 10 April 2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned today the sending of a package bomb to the Turin-based headquarters of the daily La Stampa.

Vienna, 8 April 2013

The Vienna South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) expresses deep sorrow at reports of the death of Mikhail Beketov (Михаил Бекетов). Beketov, who was former editor in chief of Khimkinskaya Pravda in the city of Khimki never fully recovered from injuries after a violent attack in 2008.

On 13 November 2008, Beketov was beaten and spent months in a coma. Head injuries left Beketov unable to speak. His leg and several fingers were amputated.

Beketov covered the construction of the motorway Moscow–Saint Petersburg and its potential damage to the environment before he was attacked.

Vienna, 6 March 2013

Yesterday on 5 March, three unidentified men attacked Taras Chornoivan, editor in chief of Tarasova Pravda. The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemns this brutal attack on a journalist.

The journalist believes that the attack had been prompted by his articles accusing a former official of vote rigging

Vienna, 10/02/2013

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is alarmed at the number of press freedom violations in South East Europe in recent months. Additionally, SEEMO is worried that some media are not respecting basic professional standards, and are thus endangering colleagues from other media.

Milorad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, verbally attacked, in a phone call and using coarse language, Vlado Trsic, director of the BN TV channel from Bijljina. It is not the first time that Dodik’s behavior has been unbecoming of a politician – he has reacted similarly in the past when unhappy with media reports.

On 14 January, 2013, Etelva Skonja, a famous investigative journalist from the daily Kosova Sot from Pristina, met Zef Prendrecaj, a member of the Judicial Council of Kosovo, at his office for an interview. During the conversation Prendrecaj called security who took Skonja to the police station. She spent more than three hours there, and half an hour after she was released she received a phone call from a policeman ordering her to return to the police station. She went with a lawyer, and they were informed that she had to remain under arrest after a call from the prosecutor. She was detained for further six hours.

The editor-in-chief of Kosova Sot, Margarita Kadriu, contacted the district prosecutor and thanks to his help Skonja was released the same day.

Skonja was arrested after she recorded the interview with Prendrecaj in his office during an official appointment. As the newspaper learned, off the record, the idea behind the arrest was to scare Skonja, who was investigating the work of several judges.

On 5 February 2013, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov attacked journalists at an informal press meeting with the words “I can give instructions to the secret services to launch similar cases for all of you journalists, without exception”, as the news agency BGNES reported. This was the reaction of the prime minister after the webpage Bivol.bg published details about his alleged activities in the 1990s. According to Bivol the police used Borisov as an informant with the code name of “Buddha” while he was chief of a security company.

“Political representatives and persons working for public and state institutions must be open to communication with journalists, without using any form of pressure against them, said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. “Arresting journalists who are doing their job, but also the making, by politicians, of verbal threats against journalists is not acceptable and a clear attack on press freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of reporting.”

SEEMO is also worried about the fact that one daily newspaper in the Republic of Macedonia / Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has asked its readers to name which journalists they think are gay. Given how often members of the LGBT community are attacked in this part of the world, including physical attacks, it was a clear step of putting the life of the named journalists in danger.

In Serbia, in recent weeks, there have been clear public verbal attacks on staff members of the public radio and TV company in Vojvodina (Radio televizija Vojvodine – RTV) and members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina (Nezavisno drustvo novinara Vojvodine – NDNV) by one magazine and several internet portals, using, in the attacks, the ethnic background of these persons. It was a clear form of discrimination and hate speech, endangering the journalists targeted.

“Media must work responsibly and not endanger journalists by using hate speech or by presenting them as members of a specific ethnic or other minority group,” said Vujovic. “We should not forget that as a result of hate speech in media there have been physical attacks against – but also murders of – journalists in the past.”

Vienna, 04/02/2013

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), supports the establishment and work of the Commission to investigate the murders of journalists Radislava Dada Vujasinovic, Slavko Curuvija and Milan Pantic in Serbia.

The decision to establish the Commission came into force on 2 February, 2013. The goal of the Commission is to determine the agenda and time frame for fact-gathering and ascertaining other circumstances related to the investigations into the murder of the journalists, thus establishing cooperation with the bodies authorised to lead investigations. Based on the gathered information and circumstances related to the ongoing investigations, the commission will prepare a review of the current course of the investigations, including preparing its opinion on the effective ways of leading the investigations that could result in further progress, and offering concrete measures to be taken in that respect.

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said: “SEEMO supports the work of the Commission established with the aim of resolving the murders of the journalists Radislava Dada Vujasinovic, Slavko Curuvija and Milan Pantic. It is notable that the Commission’s establishment was initiated by journalists, and that they successfully exerted pressure on the Government of the Republic of Serbia to make this initiative offical. Up till now, there have been several initiatives and investigations, but never has such a strong front been formed by the united forces of journalists and representatives of the authorised institutions. The advantage of a Commission established in such a manner lies in its diverse character. Due to their personal relations with the journalists in question, journalist-members of the Commission, will most certainly make the work of the Commission more effective, which will, in turn, contribute to its achieving expected results. We call on international institutions and experts to contribute their experience and professional practice to the work of the Commission which – due to the way in which it was established and due to its constitution and mandate – represents novelty on the international level”.

“We expect to get impartial information on what were the major obstacles in the investigations, and who is responsible for them, and that the final outcome of the Commission’s work will be the solving of these murders, including revealing the perpatrators and those who gave the orders, as well as convictions in criminal trials – which will bring relief to everyone, especially to the families of the victims”.

“It is of the utmost importance that the Commission works without any pressure to come up with the results as soon as possible, as the most important thing is to achieve its aim, a process supported by the broad mandate of the Commission. It would be very significant to make the best of the investigations conducted so far, in a process resulting in the identification of the perpetrators, as this would be the best way to dispel suspicions concerning its establishment, its members and the motives involved – all of which should be completely separated from everyday political influences seeking to maintain the status quo”.

SEEMO will offer all its existing resources in order to support the Commission and its activities.