Charging that reporters were responsible for provoking the bombing of Yugoslavia, the Serbian government Thursday expelled hundreds of foreign journalists.
By late Thursday, journalists from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and other nations involved in NATO airstrikes had either left Kosovo on their own or had been escorted by Serbian officials to the border. Some had been interrogated, threatened and harassed by Serbian officials before being removed.
“These journalists had spurred aggressive action by NATO forces against our country and were misinforming the world public on the current situation in Yugoslavia,” according to a statement from the Yugoslav Information Ministry.
The government, citing a Serbian law as the basis for the expulsions, said reporting “strengthened the aggressive acts of NATO forces aimed at the violent destruction of . . . the territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia.”
In an effort to shut off the flow of information–especially video broadcasts–from Yugoslavia, the Serbian government had shut down much of the broadcast reporting long before the resumption of Thursday’s bombing missions. Scores of journalists from some of the biggest newspapers and news organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and the major television networks, moved to neighboring countries to file their reports.
There were many reports of threats and verbal abuse.
A Dutch television reporter, Catharina Cornely La Porte, remained missing after she was arrested or abducted near Novi Sad by what her station, Net 5, described as “an unknown person or group of Serbian descent.” An unidentified caller claiming to hold La Porte later told the station her safety could not be guaranteed, a statement issued by the station said.
Though the relationship between journalists and governments during times of war has never been an easy one, the tensions have been magnified in the past 15 years because of instant satellite television and data transmission, as well as the inability of governments to see reports–written or broadcast–before they are transmitted.
The U.S. prevented journalists from covering early stages of the brief invasion of Grenada in 1983 and sought to control coverage during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
The conflicts in Iraq seemed to underscore the power of television and the vulnerabilities of governments that want to stop or manage the flow of news.
Word of the Serbian government’s expulsion order was faxed to The Associated Press and Reuters on Thursday, but for many reporters in Belgrade or Pristina, the first they heard of it was when gun-carrying soldiers pounded on their hotel doors.
CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips was rousted out of his bedroom at 3:30 a.m. Thursday and interrogated and threatened by Serbian soldiers for 12 hours before being escorted to the border with Croatia with a reporter from The Washington Post.
Sandy Genelius, a spokeswoman for CBS News, said Phillips described the difference between Iraqi government treatment of journalists during the war there and the current conflict in Kosovo as “night and day.” Ten journalists and staff from CBS were expelled.
Reporters in Pristina, the Kosovo capital, also were arrested, interrogated and verbally harassed, according to several news organizations. “Authorities cracked down and shut down our operations,” said CNN reporter Brent Sadler, later reporting from Skopje, in neighboring Macedonia.
“It became clear to us, because of uncontrolled armed elements wandering around Pristina, that they felt we could be harassed and victimized,” Sadler said.
Sadler and two CNN colleagues were held at gunpoint in a hotel before being allowed to leave, said CNN official Eason Jordan. A gunshot was fired into the ceiling as they were rounded up.
The federal government of Yugoslavia–made up of the dominant republic of Serbia and smaller Montenegro–said journalists were welcome to stay, as long as they were objective. However, journalists were leaving in response to the statement by Serb authorities, because the federal capital, Belgrade, and the province of Kosovo are in Serbia.
The contradictory messages may reflect a power struggle among relative moderates and radicals in top government ranks.
