THE MEDIA AND WAR CRIMES: WILL THE HAGUE PROSECUTE JOURNALISTS?

by Emir Habul

During a debate entitled “What To Do With Freedom of Information” held as part of the First Communication University of Southeast Europe (Sarajevo, October 18-20, 2001), the audience asked the following question: “Should journalists also be tried in The Hague?” The issue of responsibility of the media and journalists and their role in the crimes committed in the post-Yugoslav wars in the 90s was brought up again, but the dilemma – will journalists be tried and should The Hague be the one to try them – was not removed.

On several occasions related to the announcement or issuance of new indictments for “classical” war crimes, the possibility of bringing charges against journalists from the former Yugoslavia was brought up. A statement made by the spokesperson of The Hague Tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Florence Hartmann, that no indictments have been issued against journalists because no evidence has been found showing that journalists had directly instigated killings, recently provoked opposing comments. Vice-President of the HDZ party in Croatia Vladimir Seks (“Vjesnik”, September 10) said he “does not know on what grounds journalists could be held responsible under the Statute of the court in The Hague.”

Let us first look at the legal basis of responsibility. The Statute of the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) provides the legal basis for potential indictment of journalists in two places – in Article 4 (Genocide), paragraph (e) “direct and public incitement to commit genocide,” and in Article 7 (Individual Criminal Responsibility), paragraph 1 “A person who instigated… or otherwise aided and abetted” (…). Therefore, legal basis is not at dispute here. What is at dispute is finding evidence to prove “direct and public incitement” to commit genocide or war crimes and issuing indictments. During a roundtable called “The Media and The Hague Tribunal” (Mostar, September 7-8, 2001), Florence Hartmann said The Hague had found no evidence as to the responsibility of journalists, but added that the “Prosecutor’s Office would not ignore it if it received valid documentation.” Hartmann explained that the judges and prosecutors, who come from all over the world, have not had a chance to follow wartime reports on the broadcast media and do not have firsthand experience of war propaganda. As for war crimes committed in Rwanda, indictments have been issued against journalists because it was established that journalists had directly incited killings.

In the wars in the former Yugoslavia there are no known cases of direct incitement to commit killings. However, many studies and books (for example Mark Thompson, “Forging War”, 1995) show that there had been warmongering reporting, hate speech, ethnic and religious intolerance inflamed by the media, propagating of the aims of war, justification of territorial conquest and ethnic cleansing, satanizing of the enemy, etc. Lawyers warn that it would be difficult to directly link propaganda engineering, practiced by many “patriotic” journalists, with criminal responsibility under the ICTY Statute, and they say that the process of proving this would be very uncertain from a legal point of view. It would be much simpler to apply national legislation, namely to sanction the criminal act of “inciting religious, national or racial hatred or intolerance.” This provision was adopted in the penal codes of all the newly established states, but not a single spearhead of nationalistic journalism has ended up in court. If the prosecutors were doing their work, courts would have their hands full because there is a long list of journalists who openly stood in the service of political and military oligarchies. It would not be hard to prove this criminal act. But the passivity of the prosecutors may be explained by their connection with national politics and the fact that the public at large would qualify such indictments as “national betrayal.”

Croatian Radio and Television Director Mirko Galic said in a newspaper poll that prosecution of journalists is not a task for The Hague, but a task for their profession and the public at large. This idea is not a new one. Journalist associations from Serbia (Independent Association of Journalists) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Independent Union of Professional Journalists) agreed several years ago to implement a project on journalist responsibility for war crimes. They failed to take into account, however, that this is a demanding, exhausting and responsible task, a real scientific and research adventure. Promised international financial support failed to come through, without which this work cannot be done properly. Another question is how much journalist associations are actually competent to document the role of their colleagues in crimes. Also, what we failed to see is public “retaliation” against TV and newspaper figures who instigated hatred and reduced their profession to that of a war trumpeter. There is no critical public opinion and memory is short.

As things stand now, neither will The Hague prosecute journalists nor will their profession punish those who betrayed it. The only thing journalists can do is choose between their homeland, their profession and their own conscience.

Emir HABUL is editor of Sarajevo daily ‘Oslobodjenje’. Translation by: K.H. ©Media Online 2001. All rights reserved.

source: MHxJU
published by: Roland Brunner rbr@medienhilfe.ch date of release on this site: 16-11-2001

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