By Ian Williams
PRISTINA — In today's Kosovo, coverage of suspected war criminals sometime skirts the line between watchdog journalism and outright vigilantism. One newspaper's fight with the United Nations over a policy designed to tame the press shows just how exceptional media boundaries are here.
It isn't everywhere that the press must ask whether the fourth estate is the right place to judge issues of life and death. Like most media, the Kosovo press ranges over the good, bad and the ugly. But press elsewhere isn't often forced to abide by regulations such as those installed by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). None of the variety of press outlets is ecstatic with the U.N. policies, and the relationship will be tested even further, shortly, since the election coverage guidelines, issued by the Central Elections Commission, are of a kind that few Western editors would be prepared to accept.
The main victim — or perpetrator, depending upon your point of view — is the newspaper Dita, which has been suspended for publishing in April the name and picture of Peter Topolsky, a U.N. employee some allege to be guilty of war crimes. Dita was later fined over $11,000 when the newspaper published clearly identifiable photographs of 15 Serbians, implying they were war criminals. While the newspaper appeals suspension, members of the media worldwide have rushed to defend Dita as a free speech cause. Others in the international community have been equally reflexive in condemning the newspaper.
The incident highlights the difficulties, some of them self-inflicted, facing the UNMIK administration. On the one hand, the justice system for actual criminals is ineffectual; on the other, the arbitrary system of media management is up and running. In fairness, the media policy is in response to equally arbitrary assassinations of individuals. However, Albanian editors also point out that while the Albanian press is supervised, UNMIK and KFOR — the NATO-led international peace-enforcement force — facilitate the distribution to Serb enclaves of media, both printed and electronic, from Belgrade, none of which is noted for moderation or delicacy of tone when discussing opponents of Milosevic.
"I understand about freedom of the press. Freedom of press, yes, yes, yes! Freedom of death, no, no, no! They can publish the story, but not the name," said Bernard Kouchner, U.N. Special Representative in Kosovo. "We cannot have them printing fatwahs [rulings under Islamic law]; it is a sentence of death. They killed Peter Topolsky, our employee. ... I don't want more people dying because of this stupid revenge."
Meanwhile, Belul Beqaj, editor of Dita, is unrepentant and cites the enthusiastic support of bodies like the International Federation of Journalists as defense. "The international community or the [Central Elections] commissioner thinks that there is a danger to the freedom of the people suspected of war crimes if details about them are given in the newspaper. I think Kosovo's freedom is endangered while these persons are free. These two concepts are not the same."
While Dita is not held in high regard among newspaper peers in Kosovo, its punishments have served as a rallying point. On August 5, Koha Ditore, editor of Baton Haxhiu, wrote a tongue-in-cheek open letter to Kouchner:
"Today three Serbs accused of war crimes fled Mitrovice prison. The court has yet to prove if they are guilty or not. Let us consider a hypothetical situation. Say, during their escape, they lost their way and entered a village inhabited by Albanians and were killed in village X. After some days KFOR finds their dead bodies. They are Serbs by nationality and we, today, have published their names, given by UNMIK. How are you going to interpret the media regulation, and do we of Koha Ditore bear responsibility for this?"
The controversy began when Dita published the name and picture of Topolsky who, the paper claimed, had been a paramilitary soldier and committed various crimes. He was found dead eleven days later. In normal conditions, if U.N. security in New York had hired a man against whom a newspaper made accusations of war crimes, it would be prize-winning journalism. In fact, newspapers did once write articles about a suspected war criminal employed by that organization. His name was former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and, perhaps luckily, the United Nations had no means of taking action against the press. However, in the context of post-Milosevic Kosovo, with seemingly untrammeled killing of the remaining minorities, international officials argued that there was a special case.
"We welcome any case and evidence that could help to discover people implicated in crimes," was the headline in the Dita article. It goes on to say that Topolsky had changed his name to the Western form [from Petar Topoljski] and gives his former family address (although not, as some U.N. officials have alleged, his current address). It alleges that, with his father, he acted with a paramilitary group, and that the two "have stolen, robbed and beaten and burnt their Albanian neighbors out of their homes. They have continuously terrorized inhabitants of the quarter. He always walked around with his dog and any time someone casually turned their head his way, without hesitation, he attacked and beat him up." The article's authors further allege that he took part in the wartime deportations and that after the war, according to the inhabitants of this quarter, KFOR found a large number of armaments at his apartment.
Finally, the article cites the initials of four alleged witnesses, including "F.B.," who described herself as a neighbor of Topolsky; she was clearly upset to see her former persecutor working for UNMIK at the Pristina municipal office. The story carried a picture of Topolsky, which was taken paparazzi-style outside his office, according to Dita editor Belul Beqaj.
While he is appealing the latest decision against his paper, Beqaj promises to refrain from giving details on suspected war criminals until the issue is resolved in the courts. "We have been sentenced without any trial, and I think now Kouchner or someone else [should] be punished by the court," the editor said. "The commissioner's decision was arbitrary. It seems paradoxical that those who have to build democratic institutions have behaved in an undemocratic way. I am capable of bearing the responsibility if my journalists did not tell the truth in the newspaper. The problem is that up to now, no one has contested the facts I have put in the paper, so the commissioner is contesting my right to give facts, evidence, documents and information on people who are suspected of committing war crimes."
Those in agreement with Dita on this point, such as Veton Serroi, publisher of Koha Ditore, say that while they would not have published the story, the newspaper was entitled to a hearing, not arbitrary judgment. Temporary Media Commissioner Douglas Davidson said: "I simply moved to enforce [a regulation] which Dita proudly admitted to violating." Davidson, whose tenure ended at the start of August, thinks the policy was beginning to have some effect, "though it requires consistent and strong enforcement to make it work. I received apologies and pledges never to violate the regulation again from two organizations that I warned -- Kosovarja and Rilindja. I therefore took no further action against them. As you say, the good don't need it, but it does change the behavior of some others."
According to the commissioner: "There are some — particularly radio stations — who welcome such rules, for it affords them some protection from those in their local communities who would force them to misuse the airwaves." New election rules issued by the elections commission at the beginning of August will almost certainly provoke further tensions, however. Media outlets are asked to give the various parties — currently more than two dozen of them — "fair and equitable news coverage as well as fair exposure through interviews, articles, debates and coverage of campaign activities." U.N. officials interviewed for this article would not identify whom they had consulted in the local or even the international press in drawing up the rules, and no Albanian editor I've spoken to admitted to having been consulted. On the face of it, a better move would have been to issue them as a draft, and invite comments and suggestions.
— Ian Williams is the UN correspondent for The Nation and a contributor to ForeignTV.com.
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