• by Alecia D. McKenzie (paris)
• Wednesday, June 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Press freedom groups are calling on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to drop its case against a French journalist accused of contempt over a book about the workings of the court.

Florence Hartman, 46, went on trial Monday at The Hague-based ICTY, 'standing in the very place where war criminals have been tried,' as one of her supporters said. The trial follows her indictment last August on two counts of contempt, with prosecutors arguing that she 'knowingly and wilfully' published classified information.

'We want the tribunal to drop the charges because we think it's not normal, not a good thing, that an international court like this one tries a journalist,' Jean-François Julliard, secretary-general of Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) told IPS.

Hartman covered the civil war in the former Yugoslavia for French newspaper Le Monde during the 1990s, and later worked as a spokesperson for ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte from 2000 to 2006.

In 2007, she published a book called 'Peace and Punishment' that contained information linked to the case against Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian leader who died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before a verdict was reached in his trial for war crimes and genocide.

The book describes documents that the tribunal received from the Serbian authorities, who released the information to the ICTY to help prosecute Milosevic, but only on condition that the documents were kept private. The court subsequently issued an order forbidding publication.

Just prior to the beginning of the case, Reporters Without Borders published three pages from Hartmann's book on its website.

'International criminal tribunals should be trying war criminals, not journalists,' the group said in a statement. 'What Hartmann wrote did not constitute contempt of court. It simply explained the workings of the tribunal, and the content and desired effect of these decisions.'

The group said that the three-page extract 'shows how the court's judges decided to withhold key evidence, including documents from the archives of the Supreme Council for the Defence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (then Serbia-Montenegro), that implicated the Serbian government in a war crime.'

According to Julliard, Hartmann had a right to disclose the information because of public interest. In addition, the material had already been published on different websites before Hartmann's book appeared, he said.

Hartmann's lawyer, Karim Khan, has pointed this out to the tribunal, saying that no action was taken when similar information was printed six months before the publication of 'Peace and Punishment'.

Several thousand people have signed petitions urging the court to drop the case. A group called Meres pour la paix (Mothers for Peace) is running an online network to support Hartmann, as well as organising demonstrations at the tribunal.

'The mission of the ICTY is not to sue a journalist who is only doing her job, it is to sue and judge the alleged authors of serious violations to international law,' the group says.

Members have been demonstrating in The Hague with banners that read: 'Sentence the criminals of war, not the journalists'.

Hartmann could face seven years in jail and a maximum fine of 100,000 euros, but Reporters Without Borders believes she will receive only a symbolic penalty.

'I think the tribunal won't drop the charges but maybe they will sentence her to a very light fine and not a prison sentence because it would be such a scandal,' said Julliard.

A verdict is expected by the end of the week.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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