VIOLATION OF THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: MIROSLAV FILIPOVIC, PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE

Amnesty Internationl

LONDON, 21.08.2000 - Miroslav Filipovic, journalist for the independent newspaper Danas, correspondent for the London-based Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), and Kraljevo correspondent for Agence France Presse (AFP), was imprisoned on 26 July 2000 for seven years on charges of “espionage” and of “spreading false information”. Amnesty International believes that he is a prisoner of conscience and is calling for his immediate and unconditional release. Miroslav Filipovic was arrested at his home in Kraljevo on 8 May this year and, apart from ten days, was held in custody until 26 July 2000 when he was sentenced by Nis Military Court to seven years’ imprisonment. He was found guilty of both “espionage” under Article 128 (paragraphs 1 and 4) of the Federal Criminal Code and of “spreading false information” under Article 218 of the Serbian Criminal Code, and sentenced to five and two years’ imprisonment respectively. The sentences are to be served consecutively. Since the case allegedly concerned “state secrets” no details were made available about the charges, evidence or progress of the trial, part of which was held in camera. Miroslav Filipovic appears to have been indicted as the result of a number of articles he had written, one of which reportedly alleged eye-witness accounts of human rights violations carried out by members of Serbian and Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) forces in Kosovo, and which were published by the London-based Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Miroslav Filipovic was arrested at his home on 8 May by Serbian State Security Police who searched his apartment and seized a large quantity of documents, computer disks, his computer’s hard-drive, his personal organizer and his passport. He was taken into the custody of the civilian court and ordered to be held for 30 days. Four days later, he was released, apparently on the basis of decision by the military court in Nis, which overturned the civilian court’s ruling. When he was released, Filipovic stated, in relation to the accusations of espionage, that if he had been a spy, he would hardly have published the articles under his own name. On 22 May he was rearrested, taken before the military court in Nis and ordered yet again to be held for 30 days pending investigations into charges of “espionage” and “spreading false information”.. On 14 June he was indicted for “espionage” under Article 128, paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Federal Criminal Code, and for “spreading false information” under Article 218 of the Serbian Criminal Code. Before the trial Amnesty International expressed concerns that Miroslav Filipovic was unlikely to receive a fair trial. Concerns included the fact that he had reportedly only been permitted to meet with his lawyer in the presence of a guard, in contravention of international standards on fair trial. On 26 July Miroslav Filipovic was tried before the Nis Military Court. The prosecution requested that the trial be held in camera, claiming that military secrets were involved, though the court was reopened for the hearing of the charges of “spreading false information”. He was convicted on charges of “espionage” and of “spreading false information”, having been accused of “collecting data representing military secrets with the intention to sell them to foreign institutions like IWPR and AFP”.. His accounts of alleged eye-witness reports of human rights violations by members of the Yugoslav army and Serbian police and paramilitaries in Kosovo were described as “spreading false information with the intention of provoking disturbance among the citizens and jeopardizing public peace and order”. Amnesty International believes that rather than persecute Miroslav Filipovic for his work as a journalist, the Yugoslav authorities should investigate the allegations made in his articles. Under FRY law, espionage is the communication of secrets to any foreign organization, or any person working for one, and allows wide discretion in the definition of a “secret”.. Amnesty International is concerned that the law is open to such wide interpretation that it has been used as a measure to diminish freedom of expression rather than as a legitimate defence of the security of the state. Though, under Article 14 of the ICCPR “The press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial for reasons of morals, public order (ordre public) or national security in a democratic society”, Amnesty International believes that because the espionage law has been used as a measure to diminish freedom of expression, rather than as a legitimate defence of the security of the state, the trial should have been held in public before an independent and impartial tribunal. On 3 August, Miroslav Filipovic became unwell and was taken to Nis military hospital where his heart was monitored for several hours. He has an existing heart condition, arrhythmia - an irregular heart-beat.. Against the advice of the doctor present, he was returned to the prison, but on 8 August was transferred to the Belgrade military hospital. Despite a diagnosis of chronic arrhythmia, he was returned to Nis military prison on Friday 11 August against medical advice. On Monday 14 August, he was again transferred from Nis military prison to Nis military hospital. His family remain extremely concerned for his health. Miroslav Filipovic was named European internet journalist of the year in the London NetMedia European Online Journalism awards on 6 July. His award was collected by his son and daughter. He was also short-listed in the Amnesty International UK section’s International Award for Human Rights Journalism at the Amnesty International Media Awards 2000 in June of this year. He has been awarded the Stanislav Sasa Marinkovic prize for journalistic bravery by the Belgrade independent daily Danas. Pressure on Journalists and the Media and restrictions of Freedom of Expression Since introduction of the Law on Public Information in 1998, pressure on independent journalists and the media in FRY continues to increase. The law has been used to impose huge fines on media firms, their owners, individual journalists and printing houses. Journalists have been detained and questioned while attempting to cover demonstrations against the regime. Other members of the media jailed for asserting their right to freedom of expression include: Nebojša Rištiƒ sentenced to one year’s imprisonment in 1999 for displaying a poster protesting at the repression of the media in Serbia; Dušica Raduloviƒ, owner of the independent Borske Novine, sentenced to three months for allegedly libelling the municipal authorities in Bor, though she was not the author; the satirist Boban Militiƒ, sentenced to five months’ imprisonment on 9 June 2000 for ridiculing President Miloševiƒ at a public reading, marking the publication of a book of his aphorisms. On 17 May the authorities took control of the independent television station Studio B, sacking its staff and appointing a new editor in chief. This effectively rendered Radio B2-92, the most prominent independent radio station, unable to broadcast, as it had been using Studio B's equipment and premises since the authorities took control of its predecessor, B92, in April 1999. The print media also suffered restrictions, mainly because of the 1998 law, but also because of the refusal of the authorities to grant import licenses for newsprint.

SERBIA: WHISTLE BLOWER JOURNALIST UNWELL

Amnesty International press release

LONDON, 17 august 2000 - Miroslav Filipovic, a Serbian journalist who recently blew the whistle on Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, is suffering from deteriorating health as he launches his court appeal today against his conviction for espionage and spreading false information. Amnesty International called for him to be given the medical attention he urgently requires. Since his initial arrest in May, Filipovic has lost twenty kilograms in weight and been diagnosed as having an irregular heart-beat. He has a history of heart problems and became unwell on 3 August, after a week in Nis Military Prison. Doctors at the Belgrade Military Hospital indicate that Filipovic is in desperate need of medical care. They believe this is next to impossible at the Nis Military Hospital where Filipovic is being held. Filipovic was arrested on 8 May in Kraljevo, southern Serbia. He stated in press interviews that he had been accused of "collecting…data important to the country's defence and supplying it to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London" and that articles that he had published had been cited in evidence. Some of these articles concerned eye-witness reports of alleged human rights violations by members of the Yugoslav army and Serbian police and paramilitaries in Kosovo. Amnesty International believes that he is a prisoner of conscience and is calling for his immediate and unconditional release. Amnesty International UK Communications Director Mark Lattimer said: "Rather than persecute Miroslav Filipovic for his work as a journalist, the Yugoslav authorities should investigate the allegations made in his articles." Miroslav Filipovic was recently nominated for the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism for the articles he wrote for the Institute for War and Reporting. To view these articles online, please refer to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting website: www.iwpr.net.

JOURNALIST SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS' IMPRISONMENT
ANEM press release

BELGRADE, July 27, 2000 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media protests strongly at the sentencing of Kraljevo journalist Miroslav Filipovic to seven years imprisonment by the Nis Military Court. Filipovic was convicted of the criminal acts of espionage and dissemination of false information.

The arrest of Miroslav Filipovic and the charges against him followed a wave of bans on independent broadcasters Studio B Radio and Television and Radio B2-92 and police brutality against demonstrators who protested against these bannings in May this year. This was the beginning of the government's final crackdown on disobedient media and journalists, as well as the beginning of a campaign to purge Serbia of all dissident thinkers, mainly by daily violent harassment of members of the Otpor student movement as well as independent journalists and media. It was also a test before the introduction of the legalisation of violence by the much-heralded Anti-Terrorism Act which is intended to provide a legal basis for state terrorism.

ANEM regards the conviction and sentencing of Miroslav Filipovic as the product of hysteria deliberately whipped up by the regime and aimed at anyone who attempts to shed light on the causes for the tragic situation in which Serbian citizens live today. At the same time it is a warning to anyone who dares speak openly about the role of the Yugoslav Army, which remains a taboo subject. The regime is obviously using any means possible to promote the claim that it enjoys absolute popular support. Only in this way may it preserve the concept of collective guilt and prevent the revelation of particular crimes. The absurdity of the espionage allegations against Filipovic is obvious at a glance, because each of the articles named in the indictment was signed with the full name of the author, the material presented in them was available to the general public and they did not quote from any secret documents of the Yugoslav Army.

ANEM calls on all journalists and media to show unreserved solidarity with any action opposing this court verdict. In its programs, ANEM will appeal to the citizens of Serbia and the whole world in order to assist in having the conviction of our colleague Miroslav Filipovic overturned.

Veran Matic,
Chairman, ANEM

IPI CONDEMNS THE CONVICTION OF A SERB REPORTER

BOSTON - July 27, 2000 - In letter to President Slobodan Milosevic, IPI condemned in the strongest possible terms the conviction of a Serb reporter by a military court. According to the information before IPI, Yugoslav journalist Miroslav Filipovic, working for the independent Serbian newspaper ”Danas” and Agence France-Presse, and a contributor to the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on 26 July. The court found Filipovic guilty of espionage, spreading false information and gathering information for foreign intelligence agencies.

Filipovic, 49, was arrested on 8 May at his home in the central Serbian town of Kraljevo. He was released four days later but was detained a second time on 22 May, again on spying charges.

Filipovic was charged with publishing a secret Yugoslav army intelligence report on alleged massacres of ethnic Albanian civilians, indiscriminate shelling of villages and looting by Serb troops and paramilitaries during last year’s NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo. Prosecutors charged that the information he published was false. However, the information that formed the basis of the charges was contained in articles that Filipovic had filed for, among others, the London-based IWPR. The articles have received international attention for their eyewitness accounts of the behaviour of the Yugoslav military which was substantiated by high-ranking officials within the army.

IPI is gravely concerned by the decision to try the defendant before a military court. The trial of a civilian by a military court is in contradiction of internationally recognised standards for a fair trial, including Article 10 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone shall have the right to a “fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal”. Furthermore, it is IPI’s belief that the speed of the trial, less than two days, compromised the fairness of the trial and did not provide enough time for careful examination of the evidence. In addition, the definitions of espionage and false information under article 128 of the Yugoslav criminal code are extremely broad and arbitrary. All proceedings were held behind closed doors and relevant data labelled military secrets. Therefore, any attempt at monitoring the fairness of the trial by international organisations was prevented.
Filipovic conducted his work as a reporter and was therefore a civilian.
Consequently, his case should have been tried before a civilian court, presided over by civilian judges. Furthermore, bearing in mind that Filipovic reported on issues pertinent to the conduct of the Yugoslav armed forces, IPI believes that the impartiality and fairness of the trial was questionable from the outset. In IPI’s opinion, journalists should not be jailed for articles they write. Therefore, finding Filipovic guilty of a criminal offence infringes his fundamental right of freedom of expression and runs counter to all forms of European jurisprudence.

IPI regards the arrest of Filipovic and his subsequent trial before a military court as only the latest in a long series of attempts by the Serbian government to silence the critical voice of the country’s independent media. The trial sets a dangerous precedent that has serious consequences for the freedom of the media. IPI believes the arrest is a gross violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Instead of convicting Filipovic on arbitrary charges, the government should thoroughly investigate the allegations contained in his articles.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Send appeals to the president: - urging His Excellency to ensure Filipovic’s immediate release and the repeal of his sentence - further urging him to take all necessary steps to ensure that reporters are allowed to report freely and safely on any developments in his country

APPEALS TO: H.E.
Slobodan Milosevic President Belgrade,
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: +381 11 636 77 55 

IFJ CONDEMNS SEVEN YEAR SENTENCE FOR MIROSLAV FILIPOVIC

BRUSSELS, July 27, 2000 - The International Federation of Journalists, the world’s largest journalists’ organisation has condemned as “savage and spiteful victimisation of a decent journalist” after a Serbian military court sentenced to seven years in prison of independent journalist Miroslav Filipovic today.

Filipovic, a leading Serbian investigative journalist charged with espionage and spreading false information for his coverage of alleged atrocities committed by Yugoslav Army soldiers in Kosovo during the 1999 NATO bombardment, has been found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. A military tribunal in the town of NIS announced the verdict on Wednesday after one day of court proceedings, mostly held behind closed doors.

Filipovic, a correspondent for the independent daily Danas and Agence France-Presse in the central Serbian town of Kraljevo, was sentenced to five years in jail for ‘espionage’ and three years for ‘spreading false information’ by the Nis military court. The presiding judge finally decided to sentence the journalist to a single seven-year term. Filipovic, first arrested on 8 May in his Kraljevo flat by members of the security police, was released on 12 May. He was again detained ten days later. On 13 June, he was charged with “espionage and spreading false information”. The indictment was based on articles about the activities of the Yugoslavian army, published on the Internet site of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), an independent London-based organisation for which the journalist is also a correspondent. Filipovic had notably gathered testimonies by members of the Yugoslavian army, condemning Serbian acts of violence in Kosovo.

The IFJ believes that Filipovic behaved as a journalist at all times, and his texts contained information which had already been published by other media houses and which could or should not be considered as espionage or the spreading of false information. The IFJ suspects that this case is intended as a warning message to other media.

Further Information:  +32 2 223 22 65

The IFJ represents more than 450,000 journalists in more than 100 countries around the world.

ARTICLE 19 CONDEMNS CONVICTION OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST

LONDON, July 27, 2000 - ARTICLE 19, the Global Campaign for Free Expression, is extremely disturbed at the news that Serbian journalist Miroslav Filipovic was convicted on 26 July by a military court to seven years imprisonment for “espionage” and ”spreading false information” for publishing articles denouncing the atrocities committed in Kosovo by the Yugoslav army.

ARTICLE 19 views this incident as yet another form of repression by the Yugoslav authorities in their attempt to silence dissenting voices. ARTICLE 19 denounces the complete disregard for the right to freedom of expression by the Yugoslav authorities in imposing the heaviest sentence ever on a journalist, despite the fact that this right is guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, to which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is signatory. ARTICLE 19 is particularly concerned about the fact that a civilian was tried by a military court behind closed doors, which is contrary to international standards of fair trial as well as causing a lack of transparency of the proceedings.

ARTICLE 19 condemns all recent measures undertaken by the Yugoslav authorities to muzzle opposition voices, of which this is merely one example, which have created a generalised “chilling effect” on the work of journalists and an atmosphere in which the media cannot operate free from government interference.

AN EYEWITNESS REPORT FROM THE FILIPOVIC TRIAL IN NIS

By Vesna Peric

NIS, July 27, 2000 - A military court in the southern Serbian town of Nis sentenced Serb journalist Miroslav Filipovic, 49, to seven years in prison yesterday for espionage and spreading false news.

The verdict and sentence against Filipovic were pronounced by the presiding judge, Col. Radenko Miladinovic, who said, “It was established beyond any doubt that Filipovic collected, processed, and sent military information, described as military secrets, to foreign organisations, which means that he engaged in espionage.” Since the sentence exceeds five years in prison, Filipovic is to remain in custody while the Supreme Military Court in Belgrade hears his appeal.

According to the court decision, Filipovic was found guilty of “deliberately collecting, processing, and sending sensitive military material to foreign organisations---namely the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in London and Agence France Presse (AFP) in Paris.”  Judge Miladinovic added that Filipovic had written about alleged Yugoslav Army atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo during last year’s NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia, and that he had described Yugoslav military strategy as “the tactics of killing and burning.” Filipovic specifically alleged that army and Serbian police forces had looted deserted Albanian villages and killed Albanian women and children, Judge Miladinovic said.

The judge claimed that these reports, along with Filipovic’s articles on the situation in the Serbian territory of Sandzak, which is populated predominantly by Muslims, were “all false” and contained “great untruths” about the army.

The judge also rejected as untrue Filipovic’s reports that the army had surrounded Muslim villages with tanks, sometimes evicting villagers from their homes or burning the villages.

Judge Miladinovic also cited Filipovic’s reports on the situation along the border between Serbia and the Serbian province of Kosovo, which has been under United Nations control since June 1999. In particular, the judge quoted Filipovic’s descriptions of Yugoslav Army and Serbian police efforts to destabilise the area around Bujanovac and Presevo by intimidating the local ethnic Albanian population. (The territory belongs to Serbia, but is mainly populated by ethnic Albanians.) Such reports, some of which appeared in the independent Belgrade daily Danas, could have caused “disturbance and dissatisfaction” among the public, the judge said.

At the same time, the judge ruled that other military information included in Filipovic’s articles (dealing with army organisation, movements, and other activities) was “all exact and true.” ”The degree of secrecy of the material that Filipovic obtained ... was not important for this court,” the judge said. “The important thing is that such information was sent to foreign organisations.” Commenting on the defence argument that Filipovic merely published information that had already appeared in other media, the judge said: “We did have a dilemma  about the fact that many of those things were already available to the public. But there will be time for those others who were responsible for publishing such information.” After the verdict was pronounced, Filipovic’s wife Slavica was allowed 15 minutes in private with her husband. No one besides her and the defence attorneys was permitted to speak with Filipovic.

Slavica Filipovic then told journalists that the case against her husband was clearly political. “I am not surprised by the sentence, since the court was obviously put under pressure,” she said. “My husband is not guilty and the court did not say what he really did. This sentence is a message to Miroslav’s colleagues not to work for foreign media or for Danas.” Serb journalists present at the court agreed with this assessment, saying that they now fear being forced into self-censorship.

Filipovic’s attorney Oran Ateljevic told journalists that he would use all legal means at his disposal to prove his client’s innocence. After receiving the written verdict, the defence has 15 days to file an appeal with the Supreme Military Court in Belgrade, which must rule within 90 days.

”The harsh sentence was not based on law and is groundless,” Ateljevic said.

”Filipovic did not do the things the court said he did. Is it really espionage if a journalist publishes signed articles about matters that are already known to the public?”

BREAKING THE SILENCE

By Anthony Borden (IWPR's executive director)

LONDON, July 27, 2000 - It is a vengeful and cowardly verdict. With a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment for a Serbian journalist, the Belgrade authorities have officially criminalised the truth.

Miroslav Filipovic becomes the first known journalist convicted as a spy for reporting over the Internet, and with such a draconian sentence his family, friends and professional colleagues and admirers are devastated. In the context of the massive on-going attacks on all sectors of civil society within Serbia, the verdict was matched with an explicit warning against other local journalists that they too can expect the Filipovic treatment.

Riven with contradictions, the judgement is nothing more than shooting the messenger. According to the judge himself, the information in most of Filipovic’s articles was “correct and true”. There was no effort to suggest that Filipovic published secret or purloined documents or obtained information unlawfully or even furtively.

Filipovic’s main crime was to send (or even supposedly to intend to send) information on military mobilisations to foreign organisations, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting as well as Agence France-Presse. There was no argument that these are espionage organisations - being foreign is enough.

This is a distinction that cannot hold: in the world of the Internet, local media have equal ability to disseminate reports across the globe and the position of IWPR as a foreign organisation becomes meaningless. The judge saw no contradiction in condemning Filipovic for his presumed aim, through his reporting to international organisations, of creating “dissatisfaction” among the local population.

This only recognises the power of the new electronic samizdat, and the reality that free speech is truly indivisible. Local independent media - all of whom depend on international connections and support - have been put on direct notice, and the Serbian media community faces a difficult dilemma.

So far, none of Filipovic’s key articles have appeared locally, and press stories often avoid even mentioning his Internet reporting. Would it not be more effective to pursue true solidarity with Filipovic - in the first place by republishing his key texts - than to exercise further caution and self-censorship? The same question can also be put to the Serbian opposition. The only sure way to combat attacks on free speech is more free speech.

This strategy question goes to the core issues of the case: war and war crimes. Filipovic received an additional sentence for “spreading false information”, but intriguingly the case may have at least in part served to vindicate the accuracy of some of his reporting on Kosovo, as well as on military mobilisation over Montenegro. Rather than attack a journalist, the authorities would do far more to uphold the dignity and laws of Serbia by further and openly investigating the allegations in Filipovic’s reporting of atrocities against infant Yugoslav citizens in Kosovo during the NATO bombing campaign.

These are the taboos in Serbia, and the silence so professionally broken by Filipovic. One can say almost anything about Milosevic himself, but touching on the real issues that sustain the regime is strictly out of bounds. As with Zeljko Kopanja, whose legs were blown off by a car bomb in Banja Luka last year after he reported on atrocities by Bosnian Serbs, Filipovic has shown the extraordinary penalty meted out to those who investigate war crimes.

Serbia thus seems bent on turning only further from the world - and ensuring that its citizens, too, are equally cut off. In the days before the trial, the authorities refused to accept a meeting with the presidency of the European Union in Belgrade, at which a demarche on the case was to be presented. For several weeks, the foreign ministry has rejected the efforts of former Finish President Martti Ahtisaari - the man who negotiated the end of the bombing campaign - to serve as an intermediary in the case. Freimut Duve, the media representative for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe who has also raised the case, has been accused of CIA-sponsored “media aggression.” Yet the strategy, in time, will fail. Free speech never loses. A low-key and in fact loyal Serbian professional has overnight become an international symbol for courage and honesty - and a fresh campaigning point for diplomats and human rights activities. Every single day Filipovic remains in jail will present glaring proof of the authorities’ fear of their own people - not Croat or Muslim or Albanian but Serb.

More important still, Filipovic from his cell stands as a constant reminder that the silence has been broken - and once disturbed, cannot be restored.

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