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21.06.2007.

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Reporters Without Borders

PRESS RELEASE

20 / 06 / 2007

English

CROATIA

Disturbing precedent seen in proceedings against
journalists covering international tribunal

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today
about a decision by one of the trial chambers of
the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to order prosecutors to
find out how a document classified as
confidential by the court was leaked to several
Croat media. The order could lead to the media
being prosecuted.

Journalists have until now only been prosecuted
by international courts for allegedly revealing
the identity of notionally protected witnesses
(see http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/rapport_fr.pdf).
This order poses a new kind of threat to
journalists covering the ICTY and could
constitute a disturbing violation of press
freedom and the right to critical and independent
coverage of international tribunals.

The order was issued by the chamber that is
trying three former Croat generals, Ante
Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac. The
chamber told the prosecutor's office on 1 June to
investigate the origin of the leak four days
earlier of a confidential annex that had been
submitted by the prosecutor's office.

No international tribunal has ever brought a
prosecution of this nature against news media
that cover its proceedings. Until now, the only
prosecutions were based on the claim that
journalists had, potentially at least,
jeopardised the safety of witnesses who had been
beneficiaries of protection orders issued by the
tribunal. Reporters Without Borders last year
voiced concern about the grounds and
circumstances of such prosecutions by the ICTY
and the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda). Some of these prosecutions resulted in
severe sentences.

"The investigation ordered by ICTY judges on 1
June and the statements by the tribunal's
spokesperson at a press briefing on 31 May are
even more disturbing," Reporters Without Borders
said. "If the ICTY prosecutes journalists for
divulging legal documents simply because it had
declared them to be confidential, this would be a
serious abuse of authority and a retrograde step
in press freedom."

The organisation added: "The threat of such
prosecutions would undermine the ability of
journalists to cover international courts in an
independent fashion. It would inevitably be used
by other courts, including international ones,
against journalist considered overly critical. We
reiterate our concern about the precedents being
set by this UN tribunal and we voice concern
about the threats to press freedom that these
latest developments represent."

The leaked document, submitted to the chamber on
17 May, contained the names of seven senior Croat
officials identified by the prosecutor's office
as being party to the criminal enterprise for
which the three generals are being tried. The
prosecutor's office produced the document in
response to a request from the chamber's judges
for more details about the alleged criminal
enterprise and its participants. The list
consists of three former ministers or junior
ministers, a former gendarmerie chief and three
former military commanders (two of whom have been
publicly charged by the ICTY and have been
transferred for trial in Croatia).

The prosecutor said the document would have to be
confidential because, in certain countries, the
names of accomplices not formally included in an
indictment are not normally supposed to appear in
public court documents. But at the same time, he
acknowledged that the ICTY and other
international tribunals do not observe this
restriction. He also acknowledged that, even if
there was no new indictment, the names of the
seven persons would almost certainly be mentioned
during the trial.

According to the news agency Sense, which
permanently covers the ICTY, the document's
contents were revealed by Croat TV station HRT on
28 May, and were then picked up by other local
media including Jutarnji List, Vecernji List and
the news agency Hina.

As a result of the leak, one of the defence teams
asked the chamber to declassify the document and
the court complied on 31 May. Since then, it has
officially been in the public domain.

Nonetheless, according to the ICTY website's
account of a press briefing on 31 May, ICTY
registry and chambers spokesman Refik Hodzic
said: "If there was a confidential document that
was leaked in the media, this would be a breach
of the document's confidentiality, and it could
cause consequences for those responsible." It
could "constitute contempt of court," he said.

Hodzic then went on to say: "There was a very
strange interpretation in the media that it would
be a fair game to publish a document filed
confidentially before the trial chamber ruled to
lift its confidentiality. Publishing a document
filed confidentially constitutes a breach of
tribunal's rules and there are no two ways about
it [ICTY Weekly Press Briefing, 31 May 2007]."

It was the day after the press briefing that
judges ordered the investigation that could
result in contempt of court proceedings being
brought against HRT at least, if not the other
media involved, as well.

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Alix Armanet
Assistante du Desk Europe

Secrétariat international de Reporters sans frontières
5, rue Geoffroy Marie
75009 Paris

Bureau Europe/ Europe Desk

Tél. 00 33 (0)1 44 83 84 65

europe2@rsf.org



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