And, of course, once again in Sarajevo, Serbian aggression against Bosnia-Hercegovina is epitomized by the 1992 destruction of the Oslobodjenje tower, a modern building housing the city's main daily newspaper (to which the author of this column is proud to have contributed). Five staff members at Oslobodjenje were killed during the Serbian assault on Bosnia.
The war in former Yugoslavia exposed fascinating aspects of the local culture(s). While Bosnian loyalist and Kosovar Albanian journalists were treated justifiably as national heroes pursuing the enlightenment of the citizenry, Croatian journalists were victimized by the "soft authoritarian" president Franjo Tudjman, Macedonian journalists have come to represent an unparalleled example of willing self-sale to Russian intrigues.
In addition, the "murderous angels" of the so-called international humanitarian community (the phrase originates in the critique of the United Nations by the Irish diplomat and author Conor Cruise O'Brien) treated the defenders of media integrity in the Balkans with gross contempt. I watched as media commissars assigned to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) censored, defamed, and otherwise interfered with postwar media workers in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo.
Typically, Bosnian loyalist and Kosovar Albanian reporters were equated falsely with Serbian propagandists, and accused of complicity with Milosevic in the rise of Serbian fascism. Disregard for the sacrifices made by Bosnian loyalist and Kosovar Albanian media employees is a constant of life under international domination in the region.
The Balkans are known for convoluted intrigues. RTS was bombed by NATO for its services to a criminal dictatorship, but the killings that occurred were made possible by the agents of the dictator, bent on fabricating genuinely "fake" news.
Who, then, kills journalists?
First, government authorities that fail to protect.
Second, media bosses who sell out the talent of their employees to power.
Third, consumers of media (the "public") that turn away from dedicated newsgathering to luxuriate in a sensory bath of updated bread and circuses.
From the antics of Donald J. Trump as master of "reality TV" to the efforts by the White House occupant to wipe out independent journalism is a short, if not imperceptible, path. Internet promoters have furthered devalued media by forcing the "monetization" of all information.
Media workers, welcome to the new world. Like the 16 RTS workers in Belgrade in 1999, and like Jamal Khashoggi, you are dead people on parole.
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(From 1995 to 1999 Stephen Schwartz was Secretary of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, AFL-CIO).
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