OSCE

by Ann Cooper

Criminal defamation cases and news documented by CPJ

ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN JOURNALISTS WHO FOUNDED THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS NEARLY A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO, I THANK YOU FOR THIS GREAT HONOR.

THIS PRIZE COMES AT A CRUCIAL MOMENT FOR GLOBAL PRESS FREEDOM—A TIME WHEN MANY GOVERNMENTS, INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES, INCREASINGLY CITE THE WAR ON TERRORISM AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR CURBING FREE MEDIA AND FREE EXPRESSION.

CPJ documents Milesovic's attempts to throttle the independent media. Including breaking news, bulletins, and background.

Background
Text of Serbian Information Law
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When is official control of the press necessary? Never, say U.S. press freedom advocates. But in Kosovo, many local journalists support a new regulatory board designed to censor hate speech.

There are two views of the press in Armenia today. The first holds that the press is entirely free to report as it chooses. The second is that the press is irresponsible. One thing is certain: In the absence of censorship, Armenian officials resort to verbal pressure and sometimes physical retribution, to knock journalists into line.

The collapse of Soviet-style journalism has brought a new type of writer to the fore-youthful, enthusiastic, but often without training or experience. A problem in Armenian journalism is the need to replace Soviet-era training with new methods. Ruben A. Satyan says he assigns new recruits at Vremya to senior editors for on-the-job training. Astghik Gevorkian, chair of the refashioned Soviet-era Union of Journalists, says journalism departments in state educational institutions have been unable to adjust to new conditions because their professors are holdovers from the Communist era.

A 1993 censor's log book, revealing the interplay between censors and the cuts they made, has been circulating among Baku editors. Some extracts from the purloined document:
³24/VIII/93
³An article cut from Azadliq. It said that S. Husseinov demanded the resignation of President Aliyev at his press conference at Ganja. If you see such information in other newspapers, cut it out immediately.

At 25, Gunduz M. Tairli is a chain - smoking, ink - stained journalist. His face is angular; his expression intense. He is also chief editor of Azadliq, one of Baku's most popular newspapers, and the organ of the opposition Popular Front party. Putting out Azadliq is a daily struggle for Tairli, who labors 12 hours a day, six days a week for the equivalent of $50 a month.

Faced with a mounting toll of Russian journalists' abductions, the new Chechen government has heavily restricted reporters' movements. The May kidnapping of independent Russian NTV's prominent war reporter Yelena Masyuk and two crew members was the latest in a string of kidnappings, possibly related to the intention of some Chechen factions to derail the 1996 peace settlement with the Russian Federation. In March, the Chechen Interior Ministry announced that all journalists must register with the ministry, travel to the republic only by air, stay in the government compound at the airport, and accept armed government bodyguards--for which they must pay. As of May 12, CPJ had documented at least 14 media employees missing in Chechnya--more than anywhere else in the world. Those abducted in 1997 and still held are believed to be alive; seven who disappeared in 1995 and 1996 are feared dead.