23. 02. 2009

ANEM CONDEMNS VIOLATION OF FREEDOM OF THE MEDIA AND PRESSURE EXERTED ON THE DAILY NEWSPAPER "BORBA"

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) strongly condemns pressures exerted on the daily newspaper "Borba" after publication of the information about the decision made by the Government of Serbia to pay one million dollars to ensure that the trial of Miladin Kovacevic, accused of inflicting injuries on American student Brian Steinhauer, will be held in Serbia instead in the USA.

The police first announced a hearing and examination of "Borba" because of publishing of state secrets, but later the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dacic, said that investigators would not be sent. At the same time, he informed the owner of the newspaper, Ivan Radovanovic, and the editor in chief, Olivera Zekic, that they would be required to make an official statement in the police. Dacic said that the police is obliged to acquire all necessary information about the case on orders from the prosecutor's office.

ANEM reminds that the media are allowed to publish information of public importance regardless of the manner in which such information was discovered, in accordance with the Law on Public Information. ANEM also points out the same Law stipulates that the journalist is not required to reveal the source of information in this case.

The acting public prosecutor, Slobodan Radovanovic, said that the prosecutor's office is not interested in the media outlet and the journalist who published the information about the case of Miladin Kovacevic, which has been declared a state secret, but in persons who gave the journalist the information and violated its confidentiality. The prosecutor pointed out that the prosecutor's office has always supported and protected the freedom of the media and the public discourse and will continue to act in such manner in this case.

ANEM supports the correct point of view of the acting republic public prosecutor, who announced that criminal charges may be brought against the persons who revealed the state secret, but not against the journalists and the media who report on the information that has already been made public. ANEM points out that this has not always been the case, and appeals to the prosecutor's office to drop the criminal charges against the journalists of TV B92, Ivana Momcilovic, Jasmina Karanac and Antigona Andonov, who will be examined at the court hearing demanded by the Fourth Municipal Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade because of violation of confidentiality of the criminal procedure. The journalists have been accused of publication of parts of the wiretapping transcriptions in the case of the the so-called "road mafia", whose confidentiality had already been compromised by other persons.

ANEM supports the demands for clear legal definition of criteria for confidentiality of information that would prevent abuses and wrongful classification of information of public importance as secret information.

ANEM Chairman, Sasa Mirkovic