18/01/2012: ROMANIA – SEEMO CALLS ON ROMANIAN AUTHORITIES TO IDENTIFY AND PROSECUTE AGGRESSORS OF JOURNALISTS

Vienna, 18/01/2012

Numerous reporters were physically assaulted by protesters and policemen while covering peaceful anti-government protests that degenerated into violence in Bucharest between 15 and 16 January 2012. It appeared that the journalists were deliberate targets. Catalin Lupasteanu, from the Mediafax news agency, said that he was beaten up by the police although he shouted:”Press! Press!”

Several employees of Bucharest-based Antena 3 TV were injured. Most of them were victims of protesters’ violence: Adrian Anghel was hit by an inflammable object; Alexandru Capraru, suffered a head injury when hit by a stone; Petre Nichita was hit by a metal bar and suffered head injuries; Dragos Stoian was hit by a metal chain; and Carmina Othman’s hair was set on fire.

The car belonging to the Romanian public broadcaster TVR was stoned by protesters.

Meanwhile, Lucian Negrea from the DC News Website was allegedly beaten by riot police. The scene was filmed. Some other reporters, including Radu Lungu, were briefly detained. Cristian Zarescu (Romania TV) reported being assaulted by the police.

The exact number of assaulted journalists, either by protesters or the police, is not known.

The Romanian Press Club called police actions excessive. Some assaulted journalists had their press cards visibly displayed. According to SEEMO sources, some journalists did not have experience or the training in conflict reporting and volatile situations.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute, expresses profound concern at the level of violence against reporters who were covering the clashes. “Beating up journalists does not promote press freedom and it does not guarantee well-balanced information,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General.

Vujovic added: “I urge the police authorities to investigate all cases of violence against journalists during the demonstrations. Every single person who used force – whether protester or police officer – should be sanctioned. Silencing journalists is silencing freedom. Romania is an EU country and has to respect international standards. Violence is not acceptable.” Further, Vujovic stated: “Media owners should train journalists in how to act when covering conflict situations.”

Vienna, 19/01/2012

Transforming state television channels into public broadcasters has been a slow and difficult process in most post-communist countries, including those that are already in the European Union or are about to join. Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) has been struggling and failing to fulfil this task. The December 2010 law regulating the public broadcaster did not meet expectations. The theoretically non-partisan Programme Council has not been functioning as such. Its members are perceived to represent political interests. Journalists feel ignored and sidelined. The open conflict between the Council members and journalists is aired on TV. This conflict has many causes: the persistence of direct and indirect political pressure, top-down appointments of editors without professional credibility, arbitrary suspension of programs without plausible explanations, public suspension of journalists, selective censorship and an overall absence of transparency.

As a result, journalists, their professional associations and other civil society institutions stage protests, write appeals and public letters. On 22 January, Croatia celebrates a referendum on EU membership. As other cases in the region have illustrated, joining the EU is not a synonym for problem solving.

The new government, installed in December 2011, promised to address the issue. Yet, the newly appointed minister of culture, Andrea Zlatar-Violic, admitted: “Among the 500 employees of the ministry, nobody is specialised media,” according to the press release published on the Croatian Journalists’ Association website. Andrea Zlatar spoke during the meeting dedicated to HRT problems and attended by journalists, editors, NGOs, and different professional organisations that took place in Zagreb on 16 January 2012. While criticism abounded, the meeting ended with a joint appeal calling, among other things, for the end of political meddling, censorship and nepotism, as well as for transparency, clear strategy and respect for professional standards.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), supports the appeal signed by the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) and 26 other NGOs and associations in demanding professionalization of the public broadcaster, and an end to political pressure and censorship.

“It is high time for the government and all relevant institutions to address the problems of the public broadcaster and create a proper legal and institutional environment for the Croatian public to receive information of public interest,” declared Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “I remind the politicians of all political orientations that the role of media is to disseminate information in a truthful and balanced way and respect all professional standards.”

Vienna, 26/01/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute, expresses surprise at the latest warning of Croatia’s seven-member Electronic Media Council, an electronic regulatory body. On 19 January, 2012 the Council ordered RTL TV Croatia (RTL Hrvatska) to translate its programmes from Serbian into Croatian. The decision, based on the electronic media law, states that RTL Hrvatska is legally obliged to “broadcast in Croatian or translate into Croatian”. On the same day, RTL had to change its programming and suspend the only program that was not translated: a Serbian TV series. If the broadcaster does not abide by the decision, it could lose its licence.

Reacting to the warning, RTL replied that it considered the decision discriminatory and announced court action. It was the first time, according to the RTL press release, that the regulatory body had asked a Croatian broadcaster to translate from Serbian into Croatian. Other TV channels also broadcast series and films in Serbian and Bosnian without any translation.

The Council replied that the electronic media law did not take into consideration the connectivity between the Croatian media environment and that from neighbouring countries. Sociolinguist Ivo Zanic declared in the Croatian daily Novi List on 24 January, 2012: “It is legal, but it is stupid …We have three neighbouring languages that are neither foreign nor domestic, they are not quite Croatian, but they are not foreign. I think that the films from Serbia and Montenegro, or generally the films from former Yugoslavia, should be exempted from the category of foreign films, from the linguistic point of view. They can be a third category.”

The language issue is politicised in former Yugoslav countries. Prior to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, in 1991, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian were considered one language: Croatian-Serbian. After the disintegration, newly independent countries introduced their languages. Although not identical, these languages are so similar that nobody needs translation. During the past decade, films have been shown without subtitles.

SEEMO considers that translating from Serbian into Croatian or vice verse, would be like translating German films in Austria, Austrian films in Germany or Argentina or Cuban productions in Spain.

“I am surprised by the decision of the Electronic Media Council,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “If RTL is the only broadcaster that has to apply this rule, the decision is discriminatory. If all TV channels transmitting films from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro or Serbia have to translate their programs, the costs would increase considerably. In case of the public broadcaster, HRT, licence fee payers would be paying for absurd translations. The money spent on subtitles could be used to improve cultural, sport or political programs. I urge the Council to reconsider its decision or suggest legal provisions that would avoid these situations in the future. Their credibility has been seriously tarnished by this latest warning.”

Vienna, 02/02/2012

The 2010 overhaul of Hungary’s media laws set a dangerous precedent in Europe. Instead of guaranteeing press freedom in a European Union member country, they seem to guarantee press freedom for the governing party at the expense of the right of the public to free information.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), expresses concern at the State appropriation of the Hungarian media landscape.

The Hungarian Media and Telecommunication Authority and its Media Council are controlled by the parliament in which the governing party, Fidesz, has a majority. Although the law prescribes a two-thirds majority of votes in parliament for the council members to be elected, all four members were nominated by Fidesz. The legal procedure was respected but Fidesz controls two thirds of parliament seats in the parliament and can easily choose its candidates. The political independence of the Chairperson of the Media Council is not guaranteed.

The Chairperson appoints, dismisses and remunerates the Director of the Programming Service Support and Property Management Fund. The Fund may be considered ”the public service media company”, because it disposes over the employees, the property and the funding of the public service broadcasters Hungarian Television (MTV), Hungarian Radio, and Danube Television.

From 1 January 2011 all assets and most of the staff of the three public service media organisations (Hungarian Television (MTV), Hungarian Radio, and Danube Television) and the National News Agency (MTI) were allocated to the Media Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). The fund is solely supervised by the Media Council which controls all incomes and properties of the broadcasters. The director of the fund and the supervisory board are appointed by the President of the media authority who in turn is appointed by the Prime Minister. This structure creates the possibility of direct governmental control and direct political influence over public service media.

The national news agency, MTI now operates as the single concentrated newsroom for public service television in Hungary. According to observers, MTI operates as a government service. Public media must buy news from MTI, which publishes its news online for free, and offers media service providers to download and republish them. “This leads to an unprecedented market dominance and power of MTI, destroying the business model and viability of other agencies and is contrary to the European rules of fair competition,” concluded the International Partnership Mission on Press Freedom to Hungary (November 14-16, 2011), in which SEEMO and IPI participated.

In other words, the state controls public broadcasters politically and economically, and the Media Council can prescribe the content, as well: In December 2011, liberal talk radio Klubradio had to renew its licence and lost its frequency to a less experienced broadcaster that offered mainly music programmes. The Media Council published the frequency tender and set out that the applicants should offer mainly music, and not more than five minutes of news per hour. Klubradio was known for its talk shows.

The above mentioned decisions generated street protests as well as a hunger strike by MTV journalists.

Further, although the Constitutional Court annulled certain parts of the controversial media law, some questionable regulations remained. This led a group of Hungarian media experts to write:”The Hungarian legal system is not capable to protect the principles of freedom of expression anymore.”

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said: “I urge the international organisations to do everything they can in order to underscore that people in Hungary have the same right to information and professional public service as in the rest of Europe, and to guarantee that right.”

SEEMO and the International Press Institute will continue to closely monitor the media situation in Hungary and organise further regular visits to the country.

Vienna, 07/02/2012

A Slovak court last week reportedly blocked publication of a book implicating a private equity group in a high-level graft scandal.

Local media said a Bratislava court on Thursday granted the Penta group’s request for a preliminary injunction against a book containing information from the so-called “Gorilla” file.

The file, which has already circulated online, is said to contain transcripts of conversations intercepted by the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) in 2005 and 2006 during a meeting between top officials in the right-wing government of then-Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and Penta executives who allegedly bribed the officials in exchange for lucrative privatization deals.

Reports indicated that the injunction prohibits Canadian-Slovak investigative journalist Tom Nicholson from publishing or distributing the book for the time being. However, local media said the court had neither confirmed having issued the order nor cited a reason for its ruling.

Nicholson, who reportedly intended to release his book prior to early elections set for 10 March, told Slovak news agency TASR: “I haven’t seen the court ruling and I don’t even know about it. I’ll consult it with my lawyers and we’ll fight for the truth.”

TASR reported that Penta spokesman Martin Danko declined comment on the case, but the agency quoted him as saying: “As long as we’re in a law-based state, every individual or organisation has a right to claim its rights in a legal way.”

IPI Vice Chairman Pavol Múdry, a member of the board of IPI’s Slovak National Committee, said: “This decision reflects a strange understanding of the Slovak Constitution, which clearly states that censorship is forbidden. I hope that after an appeal by Nicholson and [book publisher] Petit Press a higher court will overrule this really strange ruling.”

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “This ruling is extremely troubling coming just over a month before the people of Slovakia are scheduled to vote in early elections. IPI and its subsidiary, the South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), believe that journalists’ right to report on politicians’ alleged wrongdoing is always of vital public interest, but such information is even more important when citizens are preparing to elect their leaders.”

The scandal caused by the Gorilla file – reportedly named by an unknown SIS analyst – has rocked Slovakia for weeks. On Friday, thousands of angry Slovaks gathered around the country in protest, with demonstrators in Bratislava pelting government buildings with bananas and eggs.

The file first became public in December after it was leaked to the media. Slovakia’s Interior Ministry last month confirmed that it had carried out a surveillance program, but the Ministry declined to confirm the file’s authenticity.

Disclosure of the Gorilla file came on the heels of another wiretapping scandal in November, when reports surfaced indicating that the military counterintelligence service had intercepted the telephone conversations of journalists. Those reports led to the sacking of Defence Minister Lubomir Galko.

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) supports this statement.

Vienna, 13/02/2012

On 24 February 2012, the Court of Appeal in Komotini, north-eastern Greece, is expected to revise the sentence against the Turkish-minority publications Gundem and Millet which have been ordered to pay 150,000 Euros and 120,000 Euros respectively to a local teacher who sued them.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), considers the proposed fines excessive and hopes that the court will revise its decision. Gundem and Millet sell between 1,200 and 1,500 copies each and employ one or two regular staff, in addition to their owners. Located in Western Thrace, they address the Turkish-speaking minority disseminated in small town and villages. The excessive fines could imply their closure and even imprisonment for their journalists.

The case involving Gundem and Millet goes back to January 2011. Both weeklies published a story about a local teacher who had volunteered to come from the capital, Athens, and work in the village of Mega Derio (Buyuk Derbent), and who allegedly asked her primary school pupils to draw a picture of God. Many of the children are Muslims, and since Islam prohibits the depiction of God they refused to comply with the teacher’s request, and complained to their parents. Both newspapers reported on the incident and were subsequently sued by the teacher.

The incident gained nationwide publicity because of the excessive fines. Analysing Greek media laws, the Athens-based daily Eleftherotypia recalled in 2011 that the court had based its ruling on the fact that the story´s impact went beyond the local community since it was taken up by the Greek national media. Eleftherotypia noted that the law stipulates that for a national publication the minimum fine is 29,325 Euros while for a local one it is 5,865 Euros. In other words, the fines of 150,000 Euros and 120,000 Euros go far beyond the stipulated legal amounts.

“I hope that the court in Komotini will revise the previous decision concerning the fines,” said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. “Such excessive fines can lead to silencing small media in general and minority media in particular. I think that this trial will is a test of the willingness of the Greek authorities to respect media freedom and minority rights. In fact, since I attribute such importance to this case, my personal advisor Jorgos Papadakis will attend the trial on my behalf on 24 February.”

Vienna, 17/02/2012

The International Press Institute (IPI) today condemned attacks yesterday on the offices of Turkish-language newspaper Zaman in Paris and in the German city of Cologne allegedly carried out by supporters of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Zaman reported that a group of nearly 15 PKK supporters wearing masks entered its Paris office and threatened employees, broke windows, and damaged furniture, televisions and computers.

AFP reported that arsonists torched Zaman’s Cologne headquarters and that police said they arrested two people, aged 17 and 22, in the attack. AFP said that a cafe frequented by Cologne’s Turkish community was also attacked yesterday.

A Cologne police spokesperson told AFP that assailants shouted “typical PKK slogans” in both attacks in the city, and AFP reported that police had not ruled out a link to the PKK, which the European Union, the United States and Turkey consider a terrorist organization.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said: “We condemn these attacks and we hope that German and French authorities conduct swift, transparent and complete investigations that hold all of the perpetrators accountable. We also reiterate that it is absolutely unacceptable to resort to violence against journalists to express political disagreement with them.”

Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of the arrest of PKK leader and founder Abdullah Öcalan, who remains incarcerated in Turkey.

A Zaman spokesperson said that the Paris attack was the third on its office there in the last six months. The newspaper also accused PKK supporters of carrying out prior attacks on its offices in London, Vienna and Zurich.

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) supports this statement.

Vienna, 22/02/2012

According to the statistics by Serbia’s Ministry of Interior, attacks on journalists in the country have decreased in the past two years. In 2010, there were seven recorded attacks against journalists. In 2011, three cases of threats to journalists’ safety were recorded. The police had solved all of the above-mentioned cases, Serbia’s Minister of the Interior, Ivica Dacic, said during a recent meeting with a delegation of the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), headed by Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. The meeting took place at the Ministry’s headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia.

During the meeting, SEEMO, an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), reminded Dacic that the murders of three journalists – Dada Vujasinovic in 1994, Slavko Curuvija in 1999 and Milan Pantic in 2001 – were still unsolved. Neither the perpetrators nor the masterminds have been arrested. Dacic assured the delegation that the police would re-examine these cases and determine whether there have been any new developments that need to be considered. He said that all the material related to these cases had been delivered to the prosecution, but “it does not mean that the material suffices to press charges.” In other words, there may not be enough conclusive evidence.

Currently, five journalists in Serbia, all specialised in reporting on corruption, have been given 24-hour police protection by the Ministry of the Interior. While SEEMO praises the Ministry for providing protection, it expresses concern at the fact that police have been unable to eliminate the sources of threat, which come mostly from mafia-like organisations.

Since all protected journalists continue to work and travel, their protection abroad is of particular concern. Every country has its own laws regarding the allowance of armed policemen on their territory, said Dacic, who explained that Serbian policemen cannot travel abroad with their licensed weapons in order to protect journalists. Some countries maintain that journalists are not in any danger on their territory. Dacic and Vujovic agreed that threats persist even beyond Serbia’s borders.

Considering that international criminal organisations have cross-border networks, threatened journalists are not safe once they leave their country’s borders. Vujovic therefore proposed an international initiative, aimed at improving police cooperation. “We would like to ask international police authorities, starting with the countries in South East Europe, to cooperate better and to respect the analyses made by their colleagues. If journalists need police protection in one country, they need the same form of protection beyond their country’s borders. This initiative may involve legal changes. Some form of cooperation has to be found in order to protect threatened journalists. Living with police protection is not easy and it is even worse when travelling without it in the knowledge that your life is in danger,” Vujovic said.

Vienna, 23/02/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemns the alleged assault against a Studio B TV crew.

On 22 February 2212, reporters from Belgrade-based Studio B were filming in the downtown area of the Serbian capital when a person approached and threatened them, and subsequently hit the camera assistant. The police detained him.

SEEMO recalls that in the cases of previous assaults against journalists, alleged perpetrators were briefly detained, before being released. Any subsequent sentences were inordinately light. SEEMO joins the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS) in demanding more significant sanctions in such cases.

“I applaud any prompt police action, but I also call on the authorities to guarantee the safety of journalists,” said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. “Sentences for this type of offense are often very light, and courts take a long time to deliberate and implement them.”

Vienna, 23/02/2012

The Republic of Macedonia / Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia appears to be sliding towards a tightly controlled media environment. The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), has observed a steady trend towards increasing pressure on journalists. Reporters are subject to pressure from different sources.

On February 16, 2012, a TV crew from the Albanian-language broadcaster Alsat M was the only television crew to be prevented from filming an official meeting between the leader of the Islamic Religious Community in Macedonia, Sulejman Rexhepi, and the Albanian ambassador in Skopje, Arben Cejku.

On February 17, 2012, the city council in the municipality of Karpos decided that journalists could not follow the entire session. Journalists were expelled when deliberations focused on the local budget.

“I see a worrying tendency to curb press freedom through different types of pressure,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “I call on the authorities – both national and local -to stop exerting pressure on media, and to, instead, show that the country is committed to following international standards.”

Link to Macedonia report: https://seemo.org/files/Media%20Scene%20in%20Macedonia%20edited.pdf