Reporters sans frontières
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75009 Paris - France

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E-mail : rsf@rsf.org
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The Clerk of the Court
International Criminal Court
Churchillplein 1
2517 JW
The Hague
Netherlands

Dear Sir,

Reporters Without Borders, an international organisation that defends press freedom, would like to voice its concern as to the consequences for press freedom of the trial of three Croatian journalists, Ivica Marijacic, Stjepan Seselj and Domagoj Margetic, who are accused of contempt of the International Criminal Court in the Hague for failing to respect certain protection orders and who face a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros.

We think a symbolic sentence would be the most appropriate decision as regards these journalists in order to avoid setting a dangerous precedent and because of the priorities of the International Criminal Court, of which the chief task is to try the most serious international crimes.

Furthermore, these three Croatian journalists were not the first to reveal – in November 2004 in Hrvatski List, Hrvatsko Slovo and Novo Hrvatsko Slovo – the identity of a protected witness, namely the current Croatian president, Stipe Mesic, and the secret transcripts of the 1997 trial of the Bosnian Croat general, Tihomir Blaskic. This confidential information had already been published on the Veritas Centre for Collecting Documents and Information website (www.veritas.org.yu) in 1999, and by the Bosnian daily Bih Dani on 1 June 2001.

Finally, the fact that the protected witness is Croatia’s president means that the publication of his name, although a breach of the law, does not endanger his safety.

We trust you will give this matter your careful consideration and will appreciate the points we have made.

Respectfully,

Robert Ménard
Secretary-General