Newspaper appeals war crimes subpoena

[David_Weman_cdw]

This is interesting.
http://www.iht.com/articles/57463.htm

Journalists cannot be given a blanket exemption from testifying in court, said the prosecutor, Joanna Korner, who argued that the overriding public interest was the fair prosecution of war crimes suspects.

Geoffrey Robertson, a defense attorney, sought a ruling from the court granting journalists a “public interest privilege” to refuse to testify other than in exceptional cases, but which would not stand in the way of any journalist who volunteered his testimony. Those exceptions would fall into “a narrow area” in which the evidence is crucial to proving guilt or innocence, he said.

Randal was summoned in the case of Radoslav Brdjanin and Momir Talic, who are accused of the persecution and expulsion of more than 100,000 non-Serbs during the conflict. The two have pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of war crimes, including genocide.

On the other hand…

In a statement to the court read by Robertson, The Washington Post said that it recognized the need to gather evidence against accused war criminals, but that forcing reporters to testify was against the long-term public interest.

“Coerced testimony of reporters impairs the news-gathering function which is so important to democracy,” Robertson said, citing The Post’s argument. “These concerns are particularly appropriate in the context of war zone reporting. War correspondents who take the witness stand risk being perceived by potential sources an investigative arm of a judicial system, government or private parties.”

I guess I’m buying the posts arguments. What do you think?

[David_Weman_cdw]

Apparently, it wasn’t interesting.

[David_Weman_cdw]

Anyway, the court’s given their verdict now.

WASHINGTON A UN war crimes tribunal has ruled that a former Washington Post reporter must testify in a case involving allegations of genocide during the 1992 to 1995 war in Bosnia.

Rejecting arguments that such testimony would put future war correspondents in jeopardy, the tribunal in The Hague decided Friday that Jonathan Randal, now retired from The Post, must submit to questioning about an article on “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia, formerly part of Yugoslavia.

At issue is Randal’s 1993 interview with Radoslav Brdjanin, which quoted the Serbian nationalist as saying that there should be an “exodus” of non-Serbs from parts of Bosnia held by the country’s Serbs to “create an ethnically clean space.”

[David_Weman_cdw]

And here’s ther link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/61077.htm