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Alert

CPJ report highlights lack of progress in police investigations, ongoing threats against journalists

(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a 27 June 2002 CPJ press release:




SERBIA/BOSNIA: CPJ report highlights lack of progress in police investigations, ongoing threats against journalists

New York, June 27, 2002-According to a report released today by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), members of the media in Serbia and Bosnia remain vulnerable to violent attack despite the advent of democratic reforms following the October 2001 ouster of dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

The report, titled "Progress Denied," was recently published in the Summer 2002 edition of CPJ's biannual magazine, Dangerous Assignments, and is now available on CPJ's Web site http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2002/Bosnia_Serbia_june02/BosniaSerbia_june02

In the report, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator Alex Lupis examines the lagging police investigations into the April 1998 murder of Dnevni Telegraf editor-in-chief Slavko Curuvija in Belgrade, the June 2001 murder of Vecernje Novosti reporter Milan Pantic in central Serbia, and the October 1999 car bombing of Nezavisne Novine editor-in-chief Zeljko Kopanja in Bosnia.

"Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica promised to democratize Serbia and establish the rule of law after he succeeded Milosevic in the fall of 2001 .... But many Serbian journalists say they will not feel secure until the cycle of impunity is broken," writes Lupis.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is a New York-based, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide. For more information about press conditions in Serbia and Bosnia, please visit our Web site at www.cpj.org.