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International Freedom of Expression eXchange Clearing House
________________________________________________________________
Date: 25 June 1996

BALKAN REGION: Belgrade seminar sees media freedom as a
precondition for peace and reconciliation

ORIGINATOR: ARTICLE 19, London

        **For background to seminar, see IFEX press release
                                dated 4 June 1996**

An international seminar on the theme of Media Freedom As A
Precondition For Peace And Reconciliation was held in Belgrade,
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 16-18 June 1996. Organized by
ARTICLE 19 (London) and the Media Center (Belgrade), the seminar
brought together over 30 participants from countries of the former
Yugoslavia, 8 participants from other Balkan countries (Albania,
Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania) and 11 international participants
including representatives of the Council of Europe, the United
Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO)
and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
and of international non-governmental organizations.

A set of recommendations directed at promoting and protecting
media freedom as a critical precondition for the establishment of
sustainable peace and democracy in the region arose out of the
seminar.

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Having discussed media freedom in the Balkan region, the current
limits and restrictions on enjoyment of media freedom and the
continuing threats to that free media which exist;

Considering that the absence of media freedom reduces the
possibilities for informed political debate and that political
control of the media increases the possibility of the use of the
media as an instrument to manipulate public opinion;

Considering that full and genuine media freedom is a critical if
not sufficient precondition for sustainable peace and democracy in
the Balkan region;

Recognizing that media freedom implies not only an independent,
pluralistic print media but also a pluralistic electronic media
space with both independent/private radio and television, and
state-funded (publicly-funded) media which play a public service
role and have full editorial independence from government;

The participants in the ARTICLE 19/Media Center Seminar on Media
Freedom as a Precondition for Peace and Reconciliation discussed
the following recommendations:

To Journalists and Journalists Professional Organizations

To adopt and rigorously to promote respect for professional
codes of ethics and to monitor adherence to these standards;
To support the decision of the International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) Santander Congress which proposed an
international professional commission to examine the role of
journalists in forging hatred and war;
To work to ensure that all professional training for journalists
(both in higher  education and as part of on-going education for
working journalists) includes courses designed to promote an
understanding of professional codes of ethics and of international
standards of media freedom in law and practice;
To campaign against existing or proposed legislation which is
inconsistent with the highest international standards and which
allows for the suppression or control of independent, plural,
professional media;
To defend all attempts at suppression of media freedom,
including through informal censorship, such as the use of
privatization laws, against media enterprises;
To increase efforts to exchange information between countries
in the Balkan region in order to fulfill the journalists'
professional objective of  providing readers or listeners with
comprehensive, balanced information and thereby increasing the
potential for understanding and tolerance between different
groups of peoples;
To arrange visits of journalists to crisis regions in order
that first hand and accurate accounts of the actual situation may
be obtained by journalists and presented through the media;
To involve the media in confidence-building projects,
particularly through increased exchange of information;
To initiate round-tables between senior members of all media with
a view to increasing dialogue and promoting understanding of
professional standards.

To National Human Rights NGOs

To promote media freedom as an essential aspect of the
fundamental human right to freedom of expression and information;
To work to increase awareness of the right to media freedom
amongst lawyers, judges, members of government and other relevant
actors in society;
To work with journalists and their professional organizations to
challenge all attempts at censorship, including through mounting
legal defences to such attempts;
To work to identify and expose all attempts at "informal" and
hidden censorship through economic, legal and other mechanisms
designed to control the media and suppress dissenting voices.

To International NGOs

To support national efforts to promote and protect media
freedom through the provision of expertise and materials in
translation;
To provide professional training for journalists on issues such as
professional journalism, journalist ethics, reporting in a pluri-
ethnic context and confidence building through the media;
To include in training programmes expertise on marketing and
management of media enterprises;
To support and complement national campaigning efforts with
campaigning at the international level;
To support journalists and human rights activists in countries
which are members of the Council of Europe to defend attacks on
media freedom through the courts with a view to taking such legal
cases to the European Court of Human Rights where necessary
and appropriate.

To Governments

To ratify and comply with all relevant international treaties
and agreements, including those protective of freedom of
expression and information and those which prohibit incitement to
violent hatred and to war;
To commit to respecting national constitutional and legal
provisions which guarantee freedom of expression and media
freedom;
To  make clear commitments to refrain from all forms of censorship
and interference with media freedom, including through the
harassment or intimidation of media professionals;
To ensure that defamation laws are interpreted in line with
international standards, including in particular greater tolerance
of criticism of public figures;
To ensure that the legal, economic and practical environment
exists for development of independent and professional media,
including independent broadcast media;
To ensure that there is no discrimination (legal, economic or
practical) between state-funded media and independent/private
media;
To ensure that state-funded media fulfill the role of public
service media, enjoying full editorial independence;

To State-Funded Media

To fulfill the role of public service media, including by covering
all issues of public interest and by providing access to all
minority groups in the society, in their own languages where
appropriate;
To increase exchange information with media from neighbouring
countries in the region;
To work actively against presenting negative stereotypes of
different ethnic or religious groups and of those with different
political opinions from that of the ruling party.

To the Council of Europe

To increase awareness of the case law of the European Court of
Human Rights, particularly among judges, lawyers, and government
officials as well as among journalists and human rights activists;
To increase awareness of how to bring cases to the European
Commission and Court of Human Rights and to provide all possible
support to facilitate the bringing of such cases;
To work to educate members of the judiciary in order to create a
media freedom sensitive judiciary;
To work to promote confidence-building projects;
To press governments to comply with their obligation to respect
media freedom, including through the broadcast media;
To press governments to bring their laws into conformity with
Council of Europe standards.

To UNESCO

To continue to urge at the international level that media freedom
be one of the conditions contained in all international agreements
(in the way that respect for freedom of expression  was a
condition of the Dayton accords);
To continue to support independent media, including independent
broadcast media, at the financial and political levels;
To continue to press governments to ensure that state-funded media
are public service media;
To continue to support the work of NGOs engaged in the promotion
of freedom of expression.

To the OSCE

To continue initiatives to enable discussion between media
professionals on questions of professionalism, particularly as
related to the practice of journalism in areas of conflict and
tension;
To continue with conflict resolution and confidence building
initiatives and to ensure that media are informed about and
involved in such initiatives;
To continue monitoring of human rights situations in member
states, including monitoring of violations of the right to media
freedom, and to raise concerns through the office of the
Chairperson of the OSCE.

To the European Union

To ensure that media freedom is included as a condition in trade
and association agreements with the European Union and actively to
press for respect for these conditions;
To continue to provide significant support for the independent
media in the former Yugoslavia and the Balkan region;
To continue to provide support for projects which aim to
strengthen and defend the right to freedom of expression and media
freedom, including through support for journalists associations
and other NGOs to carry out the training of journalists.

To all donors

To continue to provide significant support for the independent
media in the former Yugoslavia and the Balkan region;
To continue to provide support for projects which aim to
strengthen and defend the right to freedom of expression and media
freedom, including through support for journalists associations
and other NGOs to carry out the training of journalists;
To ensure that such support reaches media and NGOs outside the
national capitals.

For further information, contact ARTICLE 19, 33 Islington High
St., London N1 9LH, U.K., tel:+44 1 71 278 9292, fax:+44 1 71 713
1356, e-mail: article19@gn.apc.org

The information contained in this press release is the sole
responsibility of its originator.
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________________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
AMARC - Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.net/amarc/pulsar.html
Tel: +(593-2) 525-521    Fax/Tel: +(593-2) 542-818
Avenida America 3584, Casilla 17-08-8489, Quito, Ecuador