The bombing of 'journalists'
From Ann Cooper Sir: Charles Glass ('When it's OK to kill a hack', 5 February) infers a position that the Committee to Protect Journalists never took: namely, that because CPJ does not believe Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) employees are journalists, we do believe that Nato had a right to bomb them. This is not so, and has never been our position.
On 23 April, the same day that Nato forces bombed the RTS studios in down- town Belgrade, CPJ sent a letter to Nato secretary-general Javier Solana condemn- ing the attack, which killed 16 people. We have not moved from that position and remain dismayed that Nato forces would deliberately target a civilian media installa- tion. Under international humanitarian law a civilian facility only becomes a legitimate military target if it is used for military pur- poses. In CPJ's view, broadcasting anti- Nato propaganda is not a military function. Meanwhile, Nato has yet to provide evi- dence backing its claim that the station was integrated into the Yugoslav military's command and control apparatus.
However, whether or not RTS was a legitimate military target is an entirely dis- tinct question from whether or not the sta- tion's employees are journalists.
Each year in January, CPJ publishes a list of journalists killed around the world. Dur- ing 1999, 34 journalists were killed while carrying out their professional responsibili- ties in countries ranging from Sierra Leone to Colombia. CPJ applies an extremely broad definition in determining who is a journalist. In general, we do not make dis- tinctions based on content, political views, or whether or not a particular media outlet is state-run or privately owned. There is one exception to this rule, however: our consistent policy has been to exclude any media outlet that is used to incite violence.
While RTS played a limited role in incit- ing ethnic violence in Kosovo last spring, during the decade of the Balkan wars the station was a critical instrument in the eth- nic violence carried out by the Belgrade regime. It played a direct role in fanning ethnic hatred during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, repeatedly broadcasting images of massacred Serb civilians, many of them staged or invented, and urging Serbs to seek revenge.
The RTS executives and staff who con- ducted these broadcasts are largely still in place and, obviously, the government that used the station for this purpose is still in power. This was the reason for CPJ's deci- sion not to include in our annual list the 16 RTS employees killed in the 23 April attack.
Let me repeat, though, that regardless of whether or not CPJ considers RTS employ- ees to be journalists, they are civilians under international humanitarian law and, as such, are entitled to certain basic protections.
Ann Cooper
Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists, New York, USA
Previous page
