KOHA's BLASPHEMY

AIM Prishtina, April 13, 1996

After a few days of uneasiness and dilemmas if in the next few weeks it will be possible to buy the latest issue of independent political magazine in Albanian language - Koha, they have finally been resolved, at least for some time. Readers of this respectable magazine, although after a delay of two days, got hold of the issue which was the subject of so many speculations - whether it will be printed or not, and the latest information say that the editorial staff is preparing the next issue.

Real agitation began in the beginning of this week, when, quite in accordance with the already seen scenario, six policemen arrived in the premises of the privately-owned printing works called "Feniks" in Prishtina, and without any documents or official explanation, ordered that printing of the magazine Koha, privately owned by its Editor-in-Chief, Veton Suroi, had to be interrupted.

The police took the owner of the printing-press to the police station, where he was held in custody for several hours. He claims that he was strictly forbidden to print Koha without previously "submitting the prepared manuscripts to the police, and being told what can and what cannot be printed". Immediately after that, the Editor-in-Chief of Koha, Veton Suroi, informed about this the Prishtina Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, and declared that the editorial staff would not carry out this decision, that is, that they would not obey the order of the police, even if it meant that Koha would not reach its readers in time, or that it would not be printed at all until a legal solution is found. In any case, according to Mr. Suroi's words, the editorial staff never received any explanation from the police, either verbal or in writing, nor whether it would allow printing of Koha or not.

The next day, through the state news agency Tanjug, the editorial staff of Koha learnt that "the District Public Attorney's Office in Prishtina issued an order to the Secretariat of Internal Affairs to investigate all the facts about publishing of a few photographs in the latest issue of the magazine in Albanian language Koha." According to the assessment of the Public Attorney's Office, the magazine published photographers - photomontage, "which flagrantly offend the good name of President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic". The Distric Attorney's Office, on the other hand, denied claims of some media in Albanian that the Serb police confiscated unsold issues of the magazine". It also became known that this District Attorney's Office ordered the police to examine facts (i.e. texts, visual messages, etc.) which were already prepared and which are being prepared for printing.

According to the opinion of the Serb authorities, the controversial issue was a photomontage of Slobodan Milosevic sitting next to a young fascist, and another picture, in which an army in nazi uniforms was marching in front of the building of the suspended Assembly of Kosovo.

"That's what Tanjug says", declared Veton Suroi later, adding that no letter arrived from the District Attorney's Office. "As concerning the assessments made by Tanjug, we had no intention to offend President of the Republic, Mr. Milosevic. In a satyrical way we presented the feeling of 1989 'Anschluss' and ideology which stands behind it. I quite agree with the satyrical photomontage we have published, and we consider any proceedings which might be instigated by the District Attorney's Office a specific acceptance of reality of the 1989 'Anschluss' of 1989 and as an attempt to hush up the reality", Suroi concluded.

All international organizations which deal with protection of freedom of the press have been informed about this act of local police.

"Pressures concerning ban of printing of the independent weekly Koha and the beginning of the investigation led by the police is another aspect of repression of the freedom of speech", it is stressed in the statement of the Alliance of Journalists of Kosovo which gathers all the journalists of Albanian nationality who were discharged from work in local Radio and Television and other media by the decision of the Assembly of Serbia in 1990. "Policemen in Kosovo", it is stressed further on, "take over the role of censors in the media. Therefore, we wish to draw attention of the international democratic public opinion to permanent pressure exerted against journalists and Albanian press by the Belgrade regime".

Despite sharp reactions both of the domestic and the international public to pressures exerted on editorial staff of Koha, its Marketing Director, Ahmet Kurtolli, was also summoned to the police station, and held there for three hours. The interest of the police was focused on a cartoon from the previous issue (Koha No. 102/April 3), and the process of printing of the new issue which is already sold.

The editorial staff of Koha does not think that this is the end of summons to the so-called informative talks by the police, especially since a number of journalists from the staff have, in the course of this year, with various pretexts, already fulfilled this "obligation", about which the press in Albanian language wrote in detail, and all international associations were informed. After all, the Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms possesses long lists of journalists who have passed through police torture, either physical or psychological.

It should also be added that the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Koha, Veton Suroi, is known to the domestic and the international public as one of the main initiators of manifestations held in 1991, the so-called Funeral of the Violent Present, in which more than 100 thousand Albanians protested in a symbolic way against repression of the local police. Therefoire, he is known primarily as a fighter for human rights and freedom of thought...

Besim ABAZI AIM Prishtina