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Alert

RSF publishes report on Rwanda tribunal's disturbing precedents as ex-Yugoslavia tribunal fines Croatian journalist

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is a 31 August 2006 RSF press release:

Report on Rwanda tribunal's disturbing precedents is published as ex-Yugoslavia tribunal fines Croatian journalist

A day after a Croatian journalist was fined by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Reporters Without Borders today published a report about the often fraught relations between journalists and international courts, looking in particular at the precedents set by the disputes between journalists and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The ICTY yesterday imposed a fine of 20,000 euros on Slobodna Dalmacija editor Josip Jovic for revealing the identity of a protected witness who secretly testified in 1997 in the trial of Croatian general Tihomir Blaskic. The witness was Croatia's current president, Stipe Mesic.

Another journalist, Domajov Margetic, was meanwhile arrested again on 4 August at the ICTY's behest for posting the names of 102 protected witnesses on a website. The ICTY has found him in contempt of court for defying a ban on identifying the protected witnesses who testified at Blaskic's trial in 1997.

To read the report, see http://www.rsf.org