Dear Prime Minister Kostunica: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply dismayed by the Serbian Interior Ministry’s failure to promptly respond to a credible death threat made against Grujica Spasovic, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade-based independent daily Danas (Today). An anonymous telephone threat was made to the newspaper on June 11 after Danas reported that your government has identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is hiding. We call on you to ensure that the threat is thoroughly investigated and that appropriate protection is provided to Spasovic.
JUNE 11, 2005 Posted: June 30, 2005 Grujica Spasovic, Danas Danas THREATENED An anonymous telephone threat was made to the Belgrade-based independent daily after Danas reported that the Serbian government had identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic was hiding.
New York, June 6, 2005— Unidentified assailants shot journalist Bardhyl Ajeti from a passing car in Kosovo last Friday, according to international press reports Ajeti, a reporter for the Albanian-language daily Bota Sot (World Today), is now in a coma. Ajeti, 28, was driving from Kosovo’s capital of Pristina to the eastern Kosovo town of…
Overview by Alex Lupis Authoriatarian rulers strengthened their hold on power in many former Soviet republics in 2004. Their secretive, centralized governments aggressively suppressed all forms of independent activity, from journalism and human rights monitoring to religious activism and political opposition.
Serbia and MontenegroPolitical paralysis consumed Serbia for much of 2004. Conservative reformists and ultranationalists argued over the bloody legacy of former President Slobodan Milosevic and refused to extradite Serbs indicted for war crimes to The Hague–based U.N. -tribunal. Amid a chaotic and polarized atmosphere, journalists were vulnerable to -intimidation from politicians, government agencies, businessmen, accused…
New York, September 24, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed that Fatmire Terdevci, an investigative reporter with the Kosovo independent daily Koha Ditore, was shot and wounded yesterday, according to The Associated Press and local CPJ sources. Yesterday, Terdevci, 30, was traveling from Glogovac, a small town in central Kosovo, to the capital, Pristina,…
New York, May 28, 2004 – Dusko Jovanovic, the controversial publisher and editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Dan, was killed in a drive-by shooting early Friday morning as he was leaving his office in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, according to local and international news reports. Unidentified assailants used an automatic rifle to shoot Jovanovic…