Interview: Miroslav Filipovic, the journalist from Kraljevo accused of espionage

My Sources Walk Through the Town

All articles were signed with my full name and surname, therefore without any aliases. Spies do not sign their reports

by V.S.

Reporter, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, May 24, 2000

Miroslav Filipovic, a journalist from Kraljevo, was arrested on May 8 and after a search of his apartment and almost 24 hours of questioning he was accused of espionage and spreading of false information. The charges were filed by the Serbian Police, the State Security Department, at the Kraljevo District Court. The court conducted the usual pre-indictment procedure and decided that the charges deemed a further investigation and that Filipovic should remain in custody until further notice. At the request of the prosecutor, who attended the questioning, the District Court in Kraljevo agreed to transfer the case to the jurisdiction of the Military Court in Nis. Filipovic spent some time in jail in Nis, after which the military prosecutor established that he would not be able to issue an indictment by the time demanded by the law so that the journalist from Kraljevo was released.

The man who only did his job, and was accused of spying against the state, exclusively for Reporter talks about his situation, "provincial" journalism and colleagues...

Reporter: The charges filed against you state that you spied and spread false information. As an experienced journalist, what is your attitude with respect to this alleged spying?

Filipovic: The charges state that between October 1999 and May 2000 I collected, processed and published information that affects the defense of the country and sent it to the London Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). As far as the other set of charges is concerned, the one regarding the spreading of false information, that refers to the news regarding the Police and the Army. All articles I wrote were published under my full name and surname, therefore without an alias. Thus, it is strange that charges would be filed after that, since one would assume that spies do not publish their reports under their full name and surname. As a journalist, that hurts the most. That is a dishonorable accusation. In practice, my articles published in foreign media could have only disturbed the British and the American public and to the much smaller extent the domestic public, since only Internet users could access them.

To arrest a journalist for something he has signed and published legally and publicly, to handcuff him and parade him through the whole town, that is simply wrong. I am always at service of all those about whom I write in my articles, but is the state security service supposed to protect the state from me, a journalist? To me that does not make any sense. Fortunately, that opinion is shared by many in the country and abroad.

I assume that your sources were a very important issue during the questioning?

Yes, at the questioning they demanded from me to reveal my sources. They were more concerned about my sources than about myself. But in general my sources were not those they expected to find. I wrote about the presence of the Yugoslav Army (YA) in Sandzak, about the attitude of the members of the YA with respect to civilians in Kosovo, but I did not break into any military safe. My articles are based on conversations with hundreds of individuals I met in Sandzak, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bujanovac or Presevo. Out of 120,000 inhabitants of the Kraljevo Municipality, 23,000 served as YA reservists in Kosovo. Therefore, each one of them can provide more or less relevant information. I published some of their testimonies.

Therefore reservists from Kraljevo are a source for your articles. How did they react to your arrest?

After my release, many of them called. In March 2000 these people participated in significant protests that shook up the military establishment in Kraljevo. They told me that, in case of a trial, they would testify in court and repeat everything they had told me.

I am an officer's child. I was brought up by the Army. My father, who passed away recently, was a retired lieutenant-colonel of the YA. I would never want to hurt the YA as an institution.

You earned your journalistic reputation in the local periodical "Ibarske Novosti" more than ten years ago. Now you work as a corespondent for Belgrade daily Danas and the French news agency AFP. What is it like to be a correspondent from the so-called "hinterland".

As far as news go, Kraljevo is far from being provincial. A lot happens here. Most of my subjects were to be found in Sandzak since that region is still unknown in media sense, even mystical with a lot of oriental character. The cause of a lot of that has happened in the last ten years can be found in the lack of mutual knowledge. My theory is that the war in Kosovo would not have happened had someone made an effort to bring people closer and let them get to know each other. It has been said for a while now that Sandzak is the next crisis region. People who live outside Sandzak have prejudices about the region and the other way round. Because of that I wanted to bring them closer with my articles.

A rumor has it that your employment with AFP came almost by chance?

I have been AFP's correspondent from Kraljevo for a year already. As I am the president of the Kraljevo Alliance Yugoslavia-France, in some contacts, looking for journalistic work, I met Milan Dragovic, the then director of AFP's bureau in Belgrade. When I asked what in the central Serbia could be interesting for the agency, Dragovic said: "Miroslav, if you do not know what could be interesting for the agency, put yourself in the position of a taxi driver in Bangkok who is listening to news from Serbia. Report to us whatever you think would be interesting to him." At first, I thought that there would be no events that would be interesting for that virtual taxi driver, but later I realized that that is not necessarily true.

Perhaps, this is an inappropriate question, but... are you satisfied with the reaction of your colleagues journalists to your arrest? Indeed, something like that could happen to any journalist?

I am truly amazed by what the journalists of Serbia and all over the world have done for me, and my family. Unfortunately, the support of my colleagues from Kraljevo, barring few exceptions, did not materialize. All but a few failed to support me. They published information about me, as if I were a foreigner, and it's almost a matter of chance who will be next. I expected from the colleagues who know me the best to say "we know that man and he did not do that". Although I am extremely pleased by the reaction of Danas, the paper I have been working for for a year, the reaction of AFP and IWPR in London, where the controversial articles were published, I am extremely disappointed by the reaction of the colleagues with whom I developed as a journalist and a human being. Personally, I do not care about that, since I believe that that it a result of journalistic jealousy on the one, and envy because of the amount of money they believe I earn working for foreign media, on the other hand. Simply, the campaign of protection by the profession in Kraljevo did not materialize. That is the best indication of the state of our profession at the time of the worst repression against media in Serbia.

Wouldn't you agree that many of us, journalists, could use "Filipovic affair" as a lesson and a warning?

Definitely. You know, the "limit" was not where I thought it was. When they ask me what I did, I say, as Ivo Andric did: "I did not do anything, but people have died for doing even less than that". My experience is much more ugly than what I can say and words are not the best medium for describing the whole situation. Somebody else's experiences should be used by the media to urgently educate their journalists, to explain to them how to behave in a situation similar to mine, including an arrest and imprisonment. A family is very important in all of that. It can help immensely. In my case my wife and children helped a lot. My family managed to within one hour after my arrest alert the whole journalistic public, institutions for the protection of journalists, both within the country and abroad.

Will Miroslav Filipovic continue to write articles about the military?

My lawyers advised me to continue with my journalistic work. While the espionage charges are not resolved I will not write about "sensitive topics". I simply have to work.

Translated on June 15 2000

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