[Nettime-bold] Media Law Passed in Kosovo / Dita..

Media Law Passed by Kosovo Administration (Lazar Semini)

On 16 June, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)

signed into law an act that will regulate the province's media.

The OSCE prepared the law following the murder of Petar Topoljski,

a UN worker of Serb ethnicity. Two weeks prior to his murder, the Albanian

daily Dita published an article alleging Topoljski was a member of a Serb

paramilitary unit.

Two regulations which fundamentally affect Kosovo's media have been

signed by the Special Representative of the Secretary General,

Dr Bernard Kouchner. One provision deals with licensing the broadcast

media, while the second regulates the conduct of the print media.

"This, and the temporary code of conduct developed for print media,

will do much to shape the development of Kosovo's media,"said Douglas

Davidson, Director of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo's media affairs department.

Under the provisions, a Temporary Media Commissioner (TMC) will

establish the criteria and the procedures for issuing broadcast licenses.

The TM will be in the post until an Interim Media Commission, consisting

of a majority of Kosovar members, is established.

In applying for and receiving a license, broadcasters agree to abide by a

Broadcast Code of Conduct which will set standards for Kosovo's television and radio.

Provisions for the conduct of the print media are specific measures aimed to deal

with the unique situation in Kosovo, and will serve as temporary measures until

effective self-regulation takes root in the print sector.

The TMC will issue a temporary code of conduct demanding that Kosovo's

journalists behave responsibly and act in a way consistent with the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.

In both sets of regulations, media are barred from publishing identifying details

that would pose a threat to a person's life.

Violators who breach the terms and conditions of the codes of conduct could

face sanctions which range in severity from the forced retraction of the

offending material, to fines of up to DEM 100,000 [USD 48,000] and, ultimately,

to the closing down of the violator's operation. (This article originally appeared

in Central Europe Review (http://www.ce-review.org. )

*re Implementation....see 28 June article on Dita