Attacks and developments throughout the region
Committee to Protect Journalists
Macedonia
Attacks on the Press
| Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine
Attacks on the Press
| Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Yugoslavia
Attacks & Developments Throughout the Region
| Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia
December 11
Jonathan C. Randal, The Washington Post
The U.N. International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY) ruled to limit compelled testimony from war correspondents. The decision, announced at the tribunal's Appeals Chamber, came in response to the appeal by former Washington Post reporter Jonathan C. Randal, who had been subpoenaed to testify in the case of former Bosnian-Serb housing minister Radoslav Brdjanin, who is facing charges of genocide because of his alleged role in the persecution and expulsion of more than 100,000 non-Serbs during the Bosnian war. The subpoena against Randal was set aside, and he is no longer required to testify.
| Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia
Emboldened by the growing number of U.S. troops in
the country, President Askar Akayev has used the threat of
international terrorism as an excuse to curb political dissent and
suppress the independent and opposition media in Kyrgyzstan. Compliant
courts often issue exorbitant damage awards in politically motivated
libel suits, driving even the country's most prominent newspapers to
the brink of bankruptcy.
Lingering political instability, pervasive official
corruption, and interethnic tension kept Macedonia on edge in 2002.
Sporadic clashes between the Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian
rebels continued despite a peace accord signed in August 2001 to end
the country's short-lived civil war, which began in January 2001. As a
result, independent journalism remains a tenuous and risky profession
there.
| Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia
Press freedom is generally respected in Slovenia,
but journalists investigating sensitive issues continue to face
occasional intimidation or pressure in retaliation for their coverage.
| Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia
Press freedom is generally respected in the United
Kingdom, but CPJ was alarmed by a legal case in which Interbrew, a
Belgium-based brewing group, and the British Financial Services
Authority (FSA), a banking and investment watchdog agency, demanded
that several U.K. media outlets turn over documents that had been
leaked to them. The case threatened to erode the media's ability to
protect sources, and to deter whistle-blowers from talking with the
press.
New York, September 6, 2002—The Interior Ministry of Macedonia announced today that it is filing criminal libel charges against Marjan Djurovski, a journalist with the weekly magazine Start, which is based in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. The ministry also stated that additional steps would be taken against other local journalists.
According to the Interior Ministry, the charges were in response to an article by Djurovski in today's issue of Start (www.start.com.mk) claiming that the government was prepared to start a war to delay the September 15 parliamentary elections.
Attacks on the Press
| Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia
The exhilarating prospect of broad press freedoms that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago has faded dramatically in much of the post-communist world. A considerable decline in press freedom conditions in Russia during the last year, along with the stranglehold authoritarian leaders have imposed on media in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, has put journalists on the defensive across the region.
Fighting between the Macedonian government and ethnic Albanian rebels seeking increased civil liberties escalated throughout the year, pushing the country to the edge of civil war. Unprofessional reporting and outright hate speech by both ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanian journalists played a central role in radicalizing their respective communities and polarizing the political atmosphere.
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