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The
Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors,
media executives and leading journalists in South East Europe and an affiliate
of the International Press Institute (IPI), is deeply concerned about the
worsening situation for journalists in the South Eastern European (SEE)
region.
 
The murder of
the Armenian-Turkish writer and editor, Hrant Dink in Turkey on 19
January 2007 shows once again that journalists may easily become victims in the
fight for press freedom and freedom of speech. Dink worked as the columnist and
editor-in chief of the Agos weekly newspaper. He started this paper in
1996 as a bridge for better understanding between the larger Turkish population
and the Armenian–Turkish community. For his reporting, he received a six-month
suspended sentence on 7 October 2005 under article 301 of the penal code for
insulting Turkishness. In December 2005, a Turkish court opened a new case
against Dink after he expressed comments about the court’s original decision.

 
SEEMO hopes
that, after a 17-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of killing Dink, there
will be a full and transparent investigation by the Turkish authorities. SEEMO
also hopes that article 301, which in its opinion is a legal absurdity, will be
removed from the Turkish penal code.
 
The killing of
Dink is a reminder that there are still a number of unsolved cases of
journalists killed because of their reporting in the SEE region. There are three
such cases in Serbia. SEEMO calls
on the Serbian officials to investigate the murder of Slavko Curuvija, owner
of
the Belgrade daily Dnevni Telegraf and the
magazine Evropljanin, as
well as the murder of Milan Pantic, a local
reporter for the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti.
Curuvija was gunned down near his
home in the centre of Belgrade on 11 April 1999,
while Pantic was murdered on 11 June
2001, in the central Serbian town of Jagodina. SEEMO calls on the Belgrade authorities to
investigate once again the murder of the journalist Dada Vujasinovic on 8 April
1994.
 
SEEMO is also
alarmed about the December 2006 criminal
defamation charges laid against Dogan Harman and the daily newspaper
Kibrisli, where he is the publisher and editor-in-chief. Dogan and
Kibrisli are charged with allegedly insulting officials in the Turkish
controlled area of Cyprus,
the Turkish
Republic of Northern
Cyprus.
SEEMO believes that criminal defamation and
insult laws are an anachronism that should be removed from every legal system.
Moreover, public officials need to be afforded less, not more, protection from
defamation than ordinary citizens. The world’s leading courts, including the
European Court of Human Rights, and leading inter-government organisations,
support the decriminalisation of defamation.
 
With the above
in mind, SEEMO is concerned by the decision of the Romanian Constitutional
Court to annul a
parliamentary decision removing defamation from the Romanian Criminal
Code. SEEMO asks Romanian
officials to stop jailing journalists and to
end the criminalisation of insult and libel in Romania.
 
In addition,
in her December 2006 decision, the Romanian Minister of Justice, Monica Macovei,
attacked freedom of the media in her country. The Emergency Ordinance 131/2006
was adopted regarding free access to the personal information of the staff
belonging to the Department for the Investigation of Offences, Organized Crime
and Terrorism (DIICOT). The Emergency Ordinance represents a new threat to
privacy and to freedom of the press. In 2006, SEEMO protested the decision of
DIICOT investigators to remove information saved on computers belonging to
several Romanian journalists. The removal of information was made without any
foundation in law.
 
Regarding press
freedom developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, SEEMO notes
that on 12 January 2007 the Vice Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Ante
Kasipovic, announced a boycott of the Bosnian-Herzegovian state-wide public
broadcaster and its TV channel BHT
1. According to
SEEMO, this is a clear attempt to apply political pressure on the editorial
independence of a public broadcaster.
 
Commenting on
these press freedom violations in the SEE region, SEEMO Secretary General,
Oliver Vujovic, said, "SEEMO strongly condemns these threats and attacks, as
well as any government or state action that restricts the work and movement of
journalists. I am very concerned about the worsening working conditions for
journalists in the SEE region at the beginning of this year; particularly as
many of the cases show that pressure was exerted by politicians or their
representatives."
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SEEMO is a regional network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East Europe. ****SEEMO - IPI, Spiegelgasse 2/29, 1010 Vienna, Austria, Tel (SEEMO+HELP LINE): +43 1 513 39 40, Tel (SEEMO): +43 1 512 90 11 11, Fax: +43 1 512 90 15, E-mail: info@seemo.org, Web: http://www.seemo.org ****