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Alert

Journalist served with summons to begin prison sentence

(ANEM/IFEX) - The following is a 20 July 1999 ANEM press release:





**Updates IFEX alerts of 2 June, 13 April, 12 April, 16 March, 15 March, 12
March, 10 March, 9 March and 8 March 1999**

JOURNALIST SUMMONSED TO BEGIN PRISON SENTENCE

BELGRADE, July 20 - Dnevni Telegraf journalist Srdjan Jankovic has received
an official summons to begin a five-month prison sentence on July 26. Mr
Jankovic and another Telegraf staffer, Zoran Lukovic, were each sentenced to
five months imprisonment on March 8 1999. Jankovic and Lukovic were
convicted under Article 218 of the Serbian Criminal Code for spreading false
information in an article with the headline "Murder victim had criticised
Milovan Bojic" published in Dnevni Telegraf on December 5, 1998. (Bojic is a
deputy premier of Serbia).

At the time the article was published, the daily was registered, printed and
distributed in Montenegro only. Two severe fines imposed earlier under the
Serbian Public Information Act had led to the paper not being distributed in
Serbia. The March 1999 prison sentence came at the peak of a government
crackdown on Dnevni Telegraf. A similar sentence was also imposed on the
paper's proprietor, Slavko Curuvija, who was assassinated in April. In the
days before his murder, Curuvija had been denounced as a traitor and an
enemy of the people by senior officials and state media. Despite their
efficiency and expediency in prosecuting and imprisoning dissenting media
and journalists, Serbian state agencies have so far reported no progress at
all in investigating this brutal assassination. The perpetrators of this
grave crime are still at large and appear likely to remain so.

ANEM demands that Jankovic be pardoned or that the charges against him be
re-heard, as the country does not need another independent journalist in
prison. ANEM also demands that the case of Curuvija's assassination be
promptly investigated and that the perpetrators be brought to justice. ANEM
demands that Serbian state agencies permit all journalists to work
professionally without hindrance. The physical security of journalists
should be a normal condition for the work of the media and the right of all
citizens to obtain truthful, full and up-to-date information.