Syndicate: about koha ditore

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

For those who wonder why there is no news coming from Kosovo...
Koha Ditore, the independant daily, plus (net) radio, does not
exist anymore:

"On March 25, the Serbian police shot and killed the guard at the
Koha Ditore newspaper office in Pristina, and then ransacked the
office. Koha Ditore is the largest Albanian-language daily in
Kosovo. Its publisher, Veton Surroi -- a signatory of the
Rambouillet Accords -- is in hiding, as are some of the paper's
staff."

One day before, Human Rights Watch published this report:

"Crackdown On Albanian Media In Kosovo 
Last Albanian Newspaper Heavily Fined  

(New York, March 22, 1999)-- In the midst of a large-scale military
offensive in Kosovo, the Yugoslav government has cracked down on the last
remaining Albanian-language daily newspaper in Kosovo, Koha Ditore. Human
Rights Watch today condemned the move as a mortal blow to press freedom in
the region, and a continuation of the government's systematic repression
of ethnic Albanians.  
  
"This is a death blow to the Albanian-language media. If Koha Ditore is
silenced, Albanians in Kosovo will be denied printed information on the
brutal campaign being waged against them by the government."  

Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and
Central Asia Division  

On Monday afternoon, the newspaper and its editor-in-chief, Baton Haxhiu,
were convicted by the municipal court in Prishtina for publishing
information that "incited hatred between nationalities," according to
article 67 of Serbia's controversial Law on Public Information. The paper
was fined 420,000 dinars (US$26,800) and Haxhiu was fined 110,000 dinars
(US$7,200). They have until Tuesday, March 23, to pay the fines, or the
state may confiscate the paper's and Haxhiu's private property.

Koha Ditore is the last Albanian-language daily newspaper publishing in
Kosovo. Last week another major daily, Kosova Sot, and a smaller paper,
Gazeta Shqiptare, were forced to shut down after being fined 1.6 million
dinars (US$104,500) each. Another daily paper, Bujku, has not published
regularly since January because the authorities have not provided a
licence. According to today's Serbian press, also on March 21, the small
Albanian weekly Kombi was fined 1.6 million dinars for an article it
published on December 21, 1998.

"This is a death blow to the Albanian-language media," said Holly Cartner,
Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia
Division. "If Koha Ditore is silenced, Albanians in Kosovo will be denied
printed information on the brutal campaign being waged against them by the
government."

The conviction of Koha Ditore and Haxhiu, after a closed two-hour trial
this Sunday, was based on two articles published in the newspaper on March
19, 1999. One article was on the statement of the Kosovo Albanian
delegation after they signed the Rambouillet Accord on March 18 in Paris.
The offending section said: "The decision for signing the interim
agreement was not easy... Once again entire villages are being burned to
the ground. Civilians are being killed, tortured and beaten. Once again
thousands of people are being forced out of their homes."

The other article was a statement by the head of the Albanian delegation,
KLA political representative Hashim Thaci, in which Thaci labeled the
government's attacks in Kosovo "genocide" and called on Serbs to distance
themselves from the policies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Thaci's statement was taken directly from the Serbian-language new agency
Beta, which was not charged with any criminal offense. The official
Serbian television station, Radio Television Serbia, also broadcast parts
of Thaci's comments.

Serbia's Law on Public Information has been criticized by human rights
groups and most western governments for falling short of international
standards that safeguard a free press. Since its introduction in October
1998, dozens of independent and opposition newspapers -- in the Albanian
and Serbian language -- have been ordered to pay disproportionately high
fines because of their articles. The government has shut down five private
radio and television stations, along with one Serbian-language newspaper,
and two newspapers have been forced to move their operations to
Montenegro. Foreign broadcasts of the BBC, VOA, RFE/RL and Deutsche Welle
are banned."

http://www.hrw.org/hrw/press/1999/mar/kosovo0322.htm