Journalistic Pains

On April 27, a threeman crew of the Austrian state television ORF left Pale and headed for Gorazde. They had obtained a permission from Miroslav Toholj, the Information Minister of the Serb Republic in Bosnia, to visit the territory of Kopaci, the village east of Gorazde, talk with the soldiers and see a damaged church in Sopotnica (between Kopaci and Gorazde) from noon to 9 p.m. on April 27. And that is exactly what they did. The crew passed two Bosnian Serb checkpoints in their van. Upon reaching Kopaci, they were joined by a Bosnian Serb army officer who took them around and escorted them to the first UNPROFOR checkpoint. There the Austrian TV crew, the Belgian TV crew, and the photoreporters of the Belgrade daily ``Borba'' and the ``Gamma'' agency agreed a transport to Gorazde with the Ukrainian soldiers of UNPROFOR. This was not a problem. Everobody had the U.N. accreditations and the Ukrainians transported them to Gorazde in armoured vehicles. Before their departure from Pale, the journalists asked Toholj whether they would be allowed to enter Gorazde if this is agreed with UNPROFOR. He replied, ``You have to ask on the spot.'' The officer who escorted them did not make fuss about the fact that the Austrians and other journalists were about to enter Gorazde.

When they finished their work in Gorazde, the group returned to Pale. Veronica Seyer and her crew went to Hotel ``Bistrica'' where a bulk of their equipment had stayed. They edited a short piece in the building of the Serb Television in Pale. But, there was a problem when they began feeding the package at 9.50. p.m. as was previously agreed with Vienna.

Two policemen (who hadn't introduced themselves properly, although one claimed to be `the chief') entered TV Pale together with a man from the Information Ministry whose name is Sinisa and who works with journalists. They ordered the Austrians to stop the feed and demanded to see the report. They were joined by a group of man, some of whom were `under the influence', and the fun began. One of them launched a verbal attack on Austria and Alois Mock (the country's Foreign Minister) and physically molested Seyer's cameraman calling him `an Ustashi.' The cameraman found this particularly insulting since he is antifascist and a son of a partisan from Koruska (a region in Slovenia) who began fighting a guerrilla war against Nazism as early as in 1938 after Austria joined the Reich, but did not react. On the other hand, the employees of the Serb TV in Pale remained kind and tried to calm the situation down (the fees they charge foreign TV crews for various services represent an important source of their income; the fees have been doubled because of the ``war circumstances''). Their attempt was futile.

The police accompanied the crew to another room for questioning: how much they had paid UNPROFOR to take them to Gorazde, and the like. They were also told that Toholj's permission is not valid beyond the limit of the 3 km exclusion zone around Gorazde, that they failed to behave as good guests, that they `abused hospitality', helped the Muslims, etc. Veronica Seyer proposed to translate the report but neither the Information Ministry nor the police seemed interested to hear it. The `chief' accused the journalists of referring to the Serbs around Gorazde as `Chetniks'. Veronica Seyer suggested that they listen to her report since she does not use the word, but they refused. Then the policemen, Sinisa from the Information Ministry, Ilija Guzina (the head of TV Pale), and the person who maltreated the cameraman viewed the rushes from Gorazde and again found nothing.

Then the police searched the hotel room, emptied the van and confiscated all the equipment of the ORF crew, including the things they had not taken to Gorazde. The Austrians received two pieces of paper verifying a ``temporary confiscation'' of items. They were drawn up according to the customs papers of which Sinisa knew: 15 items whose total value amounts to 270,000 DM were confiscated (two cameras, a sat-phone, etc.). The crew was told the reasons: abuse of Serb hospitality, animosity and violation of the permission in the field.

What's interesting is the fact that no legal proceedings were initiated against Veronica Seyer and her colleagues. Even according to the laws of the Serb Republic in Bosnia the police can temporarily confiscate items under certain conditions (if it is prohibited to possess them, if they are of disputable origin, if they are used for committing a criminal act, if they provide evidence in criminal proceedings). Veronica Seyer and her crew were granted a permission to go from Pale to Belgrade, but without the equipment worth 270,000 DM. They did not face charges and were told not to feel bad since their van could have been taken away as well (``It wouldn't be the first time that the Austria-Hungarians walked to Belgrade,'' one policeman said.)

The next day, on April 28, no official was to be found in Pale, including Sinisa, Toholj and the `chief'. Veronica Seyer managed to find Jovan Zametica, the spokesman of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic) and complained. Zametica was uncomfortable and advised Seyer to lodge an official complaint when she arrives in Belgrade, which she did. ORF complained and the Austrian Foreign Ministry protested with the Yugoslav charge d' affairs, all in vain.

What was Veronica's disputable report from Gorazde about? The pictures of a destroyed orthodox church near Kopaci, the pictures of Gorazde which show that the damage is not as extensive as it had been thought, the people fixing their houses and working in their gardens, the hospital with a significantly smaller number of the wounded and less damage than expected, people saying that they don't hate anybody and that all they care about is peace. Veronica Seyer cannot understand why she was prevented from doing her job: she only filmed what was there and what people said. This could hardly be described as detrimental to the interest s of the Bosnian Serb Republic.

So why did the authorities in Pale confiscate her equipment? Both she and her colleagues have an impression that it was done on the spur of the moment: let's give a hard time to the Austria-Hungarians, confiscate their equipment and have fun while doing something useful. Any other reason cannot be found, either in the story she filmed or in her previous reporting (her accreditation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has not been revoked), including criminal and legal aspects. In January this year she was banned from the Bosnian Serb Republic for equally unclear reasons. Miroslav Toholj apologised and she never had a problem afterwards. But, such treatment in nothing new: Michael Montgomery, the correspondent of ``The Daily Telegraph'' was held under arrest in Zvornik for the whole day in April although he had all necessary papers and started his trip on time to meet the deadline for leaving the territory after all American citizens were denied hospitality in the Bosnian Serb Republic. He was afterwards made to pay the bill for the hotel room in which he was held.

The line of Veronica's sat-phone was subsequently cancelled, so that the device although itself expensive is now worth nothing.