ANEM press release

NEW ATTACKS ON MEDIA IN YUGOSLAVIA

BELGRADE, May 10 -- ANEM, the Association of Independent Electronic Media in Yugoslavia protests strongly at the murder of three Chinese journalists in the NATO air strike on the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Belgrade.

ANEM also protests at the imprisonment of a correspondent of the Belgrade daily Danas and demands the immediate release of two foreign journalists in detention in Yugoslavia on suspicion of espionage.

Sao Yun Huan, a journalist with the Chinese news agency Xinhua, and two correspondents for the Beijing daily Guangming, Xu Xinhu and Zu Ying, were killed in the NATO strike on the Belgrade Embassy of the People's Republic of China on the night of May 7. Although this incident has been seen primarily as an attack on diplomacy and the People's Republic of China, it is also yet another attack on media and journalists, who have become increasingly frequent victims of the NATO air raids against Yugoslavia. ANEM expresses condolences to the families of the murdered journalists and again emphasises that it is completely unacceptable to regard media outlets and journalists as legitimate military targets.

The Vranje correspondent of the Belgrade independent daily Danas, Vojkan Ristic, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in the a Vranje court on April 27 for failing to register his address in Vranje. Mr Ristic is registered as a Belgrade resident who for many years has spent periods living and working in Vranje, but has never previously been convicted of failing to register his address in the city. Ristic is currently serving his sentence, despite having lodged an appeal against the conviction.

Ristic is a well-known critic of the local Vranje authorities and the moguls of south Serbia. This and other circumstances of the case imply that the conviction is merely a formal device to put him in prison. It is most likely that the local lords have used the difficult situation in the country to take revenge on Ristic for his earlier writing. The sentence should probably be seen as a warning to all journalists writing critically in the current circumstances in the country that they should change the angle of their reporting and resort to self-censorship.

ANEM emphasises that the abuse of the state of war in the country for the purpose of imposing restrictions on the freedom of the press and to take revenge on the critics of local authorities is absolutely unacceptable.

ANEM joins the demand of the International Federation of Journalists and the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia for the immediate release of two foreign journalists, a correspondent for German SAT1 television and a writer for the Croatian Globus. The two have been detained on suspicion of espionage. ANEM warns that the arrest of journalists and their prosecution for espionage on the grounds that they report news from local media in Yugoslavia can only serve as an argument in propaganda activities against Yugoslavia.

ANEM demands that all journalists be permitted to work in safety and without hindrance in order to provide reports which are as objective as possible on all developments in Yugoslavia to the domestic and international public.