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Alert

RSF asks for release of detained journalists

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is a 26 April 1999 RSF press release:





**Updates IFEX alerts of 26 April, 23 April and 22 April 1999**

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)

Reporters sans frontières is asking for the release of journalists detained
by the military.

Reporters sans frontières, an independent organisation working to defend
press freedom worldwide, is protesting the improper detention of foreign
journalists by the FRY military authorities (Serbia-Montenegro).

Eric Vaillant, a cameraman with the French television station TF1, was
arrested by soldiers on 20 April near the village of Rozaje (in eastern
Montenegro). His materials were seized. The authorities accuse him of having
filmed battles involving the Yugoslav army in Kaludzerski Laz, near the
border with Kosovo, without proper authorisation.

Antun Masle, a journalist with the Croatian weekly Globus, has also been
detained by Montenegran military authorities since 20 April. He is accused
of having entered FRY territory without a visa. The journalist is also
suspected of "disclosing military secrets." If found guilty, he may face a
ten-year prison sentence.

On 23 April, Pit Schnitzler, a correspondant with the German television
station SAT 1, was accused of espionage by the Belgrade military
authorities. Detained since 16 April, the journalist had all of his
materials seized at gunpoint by the Serbian military police. He allegedly
filmed "sensitive" military targets.

Reporters sans frontières protests the improper detention of journalists
working within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and asks for their
immediate release. Our organisation recalls that over fifty media personnel
have been detained, jailed and interrogated by the Yugoslav military
authorities since the beginning of the conflict on 24 March. Most have been
expelled from the country. A good number of them have complained of being
victims of violence and mistreatment during their interrogations.