28/06/2012: SERBIA – SEEMO CONCERNED AT SUGGESTIONS TO ELIMINATE LICENSE FEE FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTER IN SERBIA

Vienna, 28/06/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), expresses concern at calls by individuals and some civil society organizations in Serbia to eliminate the license fee for the public broadcaster, Serbian Radio-Television (RTS). Advocates of the elimination of license fees quote the electoral promise of the recently elected president Tomislav Nikolic.

SEEMO considers that the elimination of license fees would open the door to political interference in the operation and programming of the public broadcaster: international experience has demonstrated that other sources of financing, as for example through the state budget or the parliament, cannot guarantee editorial independence. SEEMO recalls that public broadcaster is not a state or a party broadcaster.

“License fees are a guarantee that public broadcaster can remain independent, “said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “International experience shows that public broadcasters that depend on the parliament for their budget have problems serving the public. They have to comply with political demands,” he added.

“If the public is not satisfied with the quality of programming, there are other channels to demand better broadcasting, “said Oliver Vujovic

Vienna, 02/07/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), has been monitoring developments related to Romanian public television (TVR) and has observed a growing politicisation of the management of the public service broadcaster, which has affected journalistic quality and audience share, and has contributed to economic problems.

On June, 26, 2012, deputies from the two chambers of the Romanian parliament elected new members of TVR’s Board of Managers. Of a total of 452 deputies, only 240 were present. Seven out of 13 board members were re-elected and a director general will be chosen from among them. Although the Board of Managers has a four-year mandate, since 1995 only one director general has completed the mandate. According to a 1994 law regulating public broadcasting, eight members of the Board must be chosen by parliament, one by the president, one by the government, two by employees, and one must represent a national minority.

Technically, the TVR management should not change when the government or distribution of party seats in parliament are reshuffled, but in practice it does. As a Bucharest-based media expert pointed out, pluralism is understood as party representation rather than the pluralism of views.

The latest Board operated for only two years. In 2010 the parliament voted a new Board, and as soon as the government of Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu was unseated in a no-confidence vote in April 2012, the new parliamentary majority called for new elections of board members.

Political interference in managing the public broadcaster has had diverse consequences:

Between 2004 and 2008, TVR registered a 73 per cent decline in total audience, according to a study by Cristian Ghinea and Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, prepared for the Mediadem project. Its current audience share is estimated at 7 per cent.

Credibility is another challenge: One need only recall the January 2012 antigovernment demonstrations, when over 2,500 demonstrators marched to the public television offices. TVR was accused of biased coverage of the rallies and a failure to cover them as extensively as other channels did. TVR responded with a public statement saying that TV was an institution of “national security concern”, according to the Nine O’Clock web portal.

TVR’s management of human resources has contributed to overstaffing. According to SEEMO sources, different political parties have employed their associates and members. TVR employs over 3,300 people.

In recent years, mismanagement has contributed to accruing debt. By 2012, according to information from the Ministry of Culture, TVR has accumulated a debt of 117, 6 million Euros.

In May 2012, tax authorities froze TVR’s accounts but later unfroze them for a period of six months. TVR’s income comes from license fees, advertising, and from the state budget.

Further, TVR has witnessed different scandals. The latest occurred in June 2012. The police is currently investigating a contract through which TVR allegedly ceded to a private television station some of the rights to broadcast EURO 2012 games. “The Bucharest Municipal Police has announced that it is conducting an investigation into the manner in which TVR directly attributed to DOLCE TV the rights to broadcast European Football Championship EURO 2012 games,” Nine O’ Clock reported.

In 2004, there was an attempt to change the law regulating the public broadcaster, but the initiative failed. The current law, dating back to 1994, does not comply with all the recommendations of the Council of Europe. Yet, it is not the law but its interpretation that is the problem, according to a Bucharest-based media expert.

SEEMO recalls that in most transition countries the process of establishing independent broadcasters has been slow. Distinguishing between public and party interests has been particularly challenging.

As a first step towards strengthening public trust and credibility in TVR, SEEMO calls on the government of Romania and the parliament to find a mechanism to stop political interference in the running of TVR.

“The upcoming parliamentary elections are a good opportunity for the politicians to establish solid grounds – legal and practical – for TVR to function as a true public broadcaster,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General.

Vienna, 04/07/2012

Turkish security forces on June 26 conducted a raid at the offices of the Istanbul-based Güneş News Agency as part of a large-scale operation against the underground Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), according to news sources. Police units carried out the search at the news agency, which oversees the technical affairs of Etkin News Agency and weekly newspaper Atılım, at the behest of an Istanbul Court, it was reported.

Security forces allegedly seized notes, archived material and personal belongings while holding 15 or so employees in their offices for several hours, without having produced detention orders. So far, the police have not publicly provided a foundation for the suspected link between the news outlets and the MLKP: according to an IPI media source in Turkey.

Condemning the use of anti-terror laws against journalists, IPI’s Turkish National Committee released a statement saying: “We are hoping for changes to those articles of the law that give way to free speech and press violations. Accusations made against media outlets suggesting links to illegal organisations are nothing but tactics to pressure news agencies, newspapers and journalists into self-restraint.”

In response to the raid, the chairman of the Turkish Journalists’ Union and the Freedom for Journalists Platform, Ercan İpekçi, criticised the increasing use of “anti-democratic measures” in the country. In a statement made on Wednesday he claimed there was no difference between the detention of journalists as terrorists, and the branding of press organisations as mouthpieces for illegal organisations, and he called for the amendment of existing laws.

Earlier this year, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) released a study indicating that the number of journalists imprisoned in Turkey has nearly doubled over the previous year, prompting the group to call for immediate reform of the country’s broadly interpreted anti-terror laws. OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović specifically denounced Articles 5 and 7 of the Anti-Terror Law, relating, in part, to propagandising on behalf of terrorist groups. The interpretative scope of those provisions is so wide, the report noted, that “media outlets reporting about sensitive issues (including terrorism or anti-government activities) are often regarded by the authorities as the publishing organs of illegal organizations”. It added: “Courts often consider reporting about such issues as equal to supporting them.”

Turkey has drawn widespread criticism for its failure to protect press freedom. Last November, a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Turkey had the worst press freedom record among all 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

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

Vienna, 06/07/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), today expressed concern at new threats against Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip, the Minsk correspondent of Moscow-based daily newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

On 22 June Khalip found a chicken head in a plastic bag placed inside an unstamped envelope left in her mailbox, Belarusian website Charter 97 reported. Khalip told the website: “I see it as a direct life threat.”

According to reports, Khalip has suffered threats and beatings, especially following protests against the disputed December 2010 presidential election, which led to the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko and which many international observers decried as fraudulent.

A court in May 2011 gave Khalip – the wife of Belarusian politician and activist Andrei Sannikov, who challenged Lukashenko in the 2010 election – a suspended two-year prison term. She remains barred from leaving the country.

Earlier that year, authorities attempted to take custody of Khalip and Sannikov’s 3-year-old son after both were arrested following protests against the 2010 election results. Authorities, however, eventually abandoned the effort.

In 2010, the Central European Initiative (CEI) and SEEMO selected Khalip for a special mention in relation to the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism.

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic commented: “I call on the police authorities to investigate and bring to justice those who have been threatening Iryna Khalip. I also call on the Belarusian authorities to free all detained journalists and to abstain from threats and prosecution of all media professionals.”

In other news, Belarusian authorities last weekend released Andrzej Poczobut, Belarus correspondent for Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a Polish minority activist, who was detained in Grodno on 21 June.

Poczobut reportedly faces up to five years of prison for allegedly defaming Lukashenko, as well as the possibility of further time in prison under a previous, three-year sentence for insulting the president. Poczobut was imprisoned for 91 days under the previous sentence before a court in July 2011 suspended the sentence and ordered him freed.

Vienna, 12/07/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemns the July 10, 2012 attack against Kosovo journalist Halil Matoshi who told Kosovo KTV that he was beaten by three unidentified men.

Matoshi, a commentator with the Koha Ditore daily, was attacked as he returned home in Pristina. One of the aggressors pulled out a knife but Matoshi managed to avoid serious injury. He was nonetheless treated in hospital. The police said they were investigating the assault with the aim of identifying those responsible.

“I call on the police to find the perpetrators as soon as possible and bring them to justice,” said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic.

Vienna, 13/07/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), welcomes the July 11 ruling of Moldova’s Supreme Court dismissing previous court decisions on a defamation lawsuit against the Chisinau-based investigative weekly Ziarul de Garda. The Supreme Court decision quashed an Aug. 1, 2011 ruling by the Central Court of Chisinau as well as a subsequent court decision sentencing the publication to pay 30,000 EUR to two prosecutors who sued the paper. The excessive fine, as SEEMO had warned, imperiled the very existence of the publication.

The case goes back to Feb. 10, 2011, when Ziarul de Garda published a story on two district prosecutors allegedly involved in corruption. The case was investigated by the Centre for Combating Economic Crime and Corruption (CCECC) but later the charges were dropped. The two prosecutors sued the paper and demanded compensation for moral damage.

The Supreme Court decision was welcome by the Ziarul de Garda director, Alina Radu, and the magazine’s staff. “The decision means a lot for us: if the decision of the first court would have been upheld, the newspaper would have gone bankrupt and would have had to be closed,” said Alina Radu in a conversation with SEEMO. “The decision shows that the law can work properly in Moldova that prosecutors as well as other public officials should accept criticism, and that journalists should keep digging on corruption scams.”

On their behalf, the Chisinau-based Independent Journalism Center (IJC) praised the court decision and encouraged Moldovan courts to apply European standards for defamation – especially the provisions on freedom of expression.

“I am very happy that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of press freedom and hope that in the future, defamation and libel will be addressed according to international standards,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General.

Vienna, 17/07/2012

The head of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) permanent representation in Greece reacted to a news story published by the Athens-based daily To Vima by summoning the journalist to his office and demanding to know how the journalist had obtained the IMF report used to write his article. When the reporter, Zois Tsolis, refused to reveal his sources, Bob Traa, the Head of the IMF in Greece, warned that To Vima would be denied information in the future and that the IMF would collaborate with other media.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO), an affiliate of the international Press Institute (IPI), expresses concern at the reaction of the IMF representative – which appears to be a violation of press freedom.

On 24 June 2012, Tsolis published an exclusive report, including figures, on how many civil servants were hired by some ministries in 2010 and 2012, despite contrary recommendations in the memorandum of understanding that Greece agreed with the the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. Tsolis stated that 70,000 civil servants were hired.

When Tsolis continued to refuse to provide the information, Traa, as quoted by Tsolis in an article published on 1 July 2012 said: “We will not speak again to To Vima. We thought that you are the official newspaper of Pasok [ Panhellenic Socialist Movement]). We have other newspapers that write our data precisely.” The IMF did not deny the report obtained by To Vima.

“Multilateral organisations cannot threaten journalists by denying them access to information and demanding the revelation of their sources,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “The Greek people have to know what is happening in their country, especially at a time of crisis. I hope this will remain an isolated incident and that the IMF representatives will fully respect freedom of expression.

Vienna, 18/07/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute(IPI), condemns the latest insults against journalists launched by Velimir Ilic, leader of the New Serbia party, and potential minister in the upcoming coalition government. Ilic has insulted reporters on several occasions over the past ten years and in 2003 he hit a journalist during an interview.

The latest incident involving Ilic occurred on 17 July 2012 during a press conference. Targeting the host of the high-profile talk show, Olja Beckovic, Ilic said that he would find someone to re-educate the reporter and continued: “I no longer understand Mrs. Olja Beckovic, what it is that she wants from me. Is she normal, is she healthy – and I am asking those responsible people at B92 to send her to analysis,” according to the B92 website. In 2002, Ilic publicly insulted Beckovic with vulgar chauvinist language. B92 is a well-known radio and television broadcaster in Serbia.

Ilic has had a hostile attitude towards the media since he entered public life, first as a mayor of Cacak (1996-2004), a town 140 kilometers south of Belgrade, and then as a government minister (2004-2008). He has insulted, threatened and even hit journalists. In May 2012, the court fined him for hitting Vladimir Jesic from TV Apolo during the interview in 2003.

On 19 August 2005, to note one example, SEEMO sent a public letter to the then prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, demanding an investigation into the alleged threats by Ilic and his media advisor Zoran Lazovic against B92. Ilic said during the press conference that B92 journalists “were sick and needed psychiatric treatment”, and right after the press conference Lazovic approached the reporter Ana Veljkovic and told her to convey to the B92 director, Veran Matic, that he would kill him.

“I call on party leaders in Serbia to stop threatening and insulting journalists. Respecting press freedom is an essential part of democracy and a fundamental criteria for joining the European Union, “said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic.

Vienna, 23/07/2012

More than two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, top politicians and party leaders in South East Europe are still struggling to accept free media and live with criticism. They publicly accuse journalists of undermining national interests, treason, mafia ties, conspiracies, etc.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), observes with growing concern the way top politicians in South East Europe speak to media and about media. “Press freedom is the basis of democracy,” underlines Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “Public figures have to live with criticism in media.”

Numerous recent examples illustrate this trend.

On 17 July 2012, Romanian interim president Crin Antonescu labeled the U.S. daily The Washington Post and the French newspaper Le Monde as “contaminated publications.” Antonescu blamed the papers for Romania’s deteriorated international image. One week earlier, Senator Dan Sova accused the Brussels correspondent of the Romanian public radio of”intoxicating the international public opinion and foreign officials by transmitting false information that compromise the current Romanian government.”

In Bulgaria, on 5 July 2012, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lost patience with the media that had criticized the work of the Ministry of Interior and said: “Whoever criticizes the Ministry of the Interior serves the mafia.”

President of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, the man who dominated Montenegro’s political scene for two decades, either as a prime minister or a president, said in an interview to the Belgrade magazine Vreme that the objective of the Montenegrin dailies, Vijesti and Dan, and the Monitor weekly was to “destroy and smear Montenegro” and him personally.

Molorad Dodik, president of the Serb-governed territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, declared on 4 June 2012, that press freedom was guaranteed. Two days earlier, as SEEMO reported, on 2 June 2012, Dodik asked Ljiljana Kovacevic, the local correspondent of the Belgrade-based Beta News Agency, to leave a press conference and to not return. Using disrespectful language to address the journalist, Dodik also called her a liar.

On 13 May 2012, Tomislav Nikolic, then presidential candidate and currently Serbia’s president, said during the TV show Rec po Rec (Word by Word), produced by Serbia’s public broadcaster, Radio Television Serbia (RTS), that once elected president, he would call RTS and say: “I am coming to the television tonight, you will inform about everything I do, I am the president of Serbia,” quoted the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS).

In an interview with the state news agency, MIA, published on 18 October 2011, the prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, criticized the journalist Borjan Jovanovski for posing a particular question during a 12 October 2012 press conference in Brussels, Belgium. Gruevski accused the journalist of asking a “prearranged question,” intended “to prepare the terrain” for next year’s “withdrawal of the recommendation [to start accession talks], if the name dispute [with Greece] is not solved by then.” Gruevski asked why Jovanovski was sitting in the press room, and why it was him and not another journalist who had the right to ask a question.

“I call on politicians in South East Europe to stop publicly naming and shaming journalists,” said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General. “Politicians have to understand that press freedom is the basis of democracy. If media do not comply with ethical standards, there are channels to place complaints. Accusing journalists of being traitors or mafia agents, without any proof, does not contribute to the respect of the rule of law. It can only lead to self censorship, ” he added.

Vienna, 24/07/2012

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI,) condemns the physical and verbal attacks against a Moldovan Prime TV crew and calls on the authorities to prosecute the perpetrators.

On 19 July 19 2012, a Prime TV crew was filming a report in the Soldanesti forest, which is registered as public property by Moldsilva, the country’s agency in charge of administering forests. While filming, the journalists were physically and verbally attacked by two men who claimed to be property owners, according to a press release signed by six journalists’ associations in Moldova. The reporters filmed the attack. It was later broadcast by the Prime TV news.

“I ask the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice and guarantee security for journalists to operate freely, “said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic.