Peacekeeper team shuts down Bosnian TV station

By Gene Mater

The Freedom Forum Online

18.2.2000

A television station in Bosnia-Herzegovina was shut down today under the watchful eyes of the international military force, according to local news reports.

The station involved — TV Erotel — was ordered shut down last November. A similar order went out on Dec. 16.

Today, according to reports on two local television stations, a team of International Media Commission technicians went to the station in Mostar with security backup by the Stabilization Force (SFOR) troops. The team "cut Erotel's broadcast from the studio," as one local television station stated.

This reportedly is the first time that SFOR troops had been used to shut down a broadcast facility. SFOR's 30,000 troops have helped maintain peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina after the 1992-1995 war.

The station had been ordered off the air for various reasons, including that it had rebroadcast Croatian state television broadcasts although other stations were supposed to serve the Croatian population in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The International Media Commission is an arm of the Office of the High Representative, the international civilian operation that supervises implementation of the Dayton Accords that ended the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Also this week, the U.S.-based World Press Freedom Committee expressed concern that steps proposed by Western allies to "protect" journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina could be used instead to restrict news.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, WPFC referred to a six-point program "intended to protect journalistic inquiry and free speech in Bosnia-Herzegovina," announced jointly by the U.N., the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Bosnia's Independent Media Commission.

The plan, according to WPFC, provides for drafting new media laws for Bosnia-Herzegovina; establishment of a press council to provide "a means for self-regulation of print journalism"; guidelines for journalists and police; a "media summit" to result in recommendations for additional steps; a survey of media freedom in Bosnia-Herzegovina; a monitoring system to track possible abuse of authority by public officials and to provide a help line for journalists.

WPFC letter noted that experience has shown that some of these same activities, even when developed with good intentions, "can have unintended negative results such as restrictions on news and harassment — or worse — of journalists."

WPFC stated that in countries lacking the foundations of democracy — including free and fair popular elections, free and independent news media and independent courts — mechanisms such as press laws, media councils and ethics codes have been used routinely as tools of restriction on the free flow of information and news.

The WPFC letter suggests that the principles of the Charter for a Free Press and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights serve as bench marks for press freedom in Bosnia.

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