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UNHCR Races Against Winter To House Refugees

World Press Freedom Committee Aids Media in Kosovo

UNHCR Races Against Winter To House Refugees

The United Nations "is unlikely to meet its goal" of providing a warm room for every Albanian family in Kosovo prior to the arrival of winter.
"I don't think the penny has dropped with the international decision-makers about what we will face in the winter," said Dan Philpott, field manager in Pec for the Irish aid agency Goal. "American officials are still signing letters of intent with their aid agency, and Europeans haven't done anything at all," said another official. Macedonian customs duties have also prevented the delivery of certain aid items.
The 740,000 Albanian refugees that poured into Kosovo in July returned more quickly than expected, while damage from NATO bombings and Serbian attacks was onsiderably greater than originally anticipated. A recent damage survey revealed that more than 67,000 buildings had been severely damaged, compared to a prior estimate of approximately 28,000. "We have a massive challenge ahead of us, and we're talking about two months, just 60 days," said Bernard Kouchner, head of the UN Mission in Kosovo.

IFEX- News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE - FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
9 August 1999

World Press Freedom Committee aids media in Kosovo

SOURCE: World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), Reston
(WPFC/IFEX) - The following is a WPFC press release:

9 August 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE USE

World Press Freedom Committee Aids Media in Kosovo

RESTON, Va. -- The World Press Freedom Committee today announced the award of a three-part assistance grant to support revival of  Kosovo's war-devastated independent print and broadcast media.

"Reestablishment of a free and independent press is indispensable to the restoration of peace and democracy in Kosovo," said WPFC Chairman James H. Ottaway, Jr., senior vice president of Dow Jones & Co. and chairman of Ottaway Newspapers. "Much more is needed in Kosovo," he said, "but free speech and a free press are basic building blocks of a civil society."

Today's Kosovo assistance grant includes funding for:

- Training in news and documentary production for RadioTV 21, the first independent broadcaster to return to the air in Kosovo. The training is to be conducted by French and American journalists experienced in TV production in conflict situations in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. With broad international support, RadioTV 21 has resumed its radio service and plans soon to start the first independent television station in Kosovo.

- Reconstruction of an office switchboard for Koha Ditore, the leading Albanian-language newspaper in Kosovo, with telephone extensions for newspaper staff. All of the newspaper's office and printing equipment was destroyed in the recent ethnic fighting.

- Publication of WPFC's Handbook for Journalists in the Albanian language. The new edition of 3,000 copies is co-sponsored by Koha Ditore newspaper; the Albanian Media Center in Tirana, Albania; and the Center for Multicultural Cooperation and Understanding in Skopje, Macedonia. More than 100,000 copies of the handbook have been distributed free of charge to journalists and journalism students in the major languages of Eastern Europe.

The World Press Freedom Committee, which includes 44 journalistic organizations on six continents, is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of press freedom around the world. Prime functions include monitoring and advocacy at the United Nations, the Council of Europe and other international organizations where media issues are aired, providing legal assistance to journalists facing penal action, training and education. The WPFC is supported by private and media contributions and accepts no government funds.

In addition to its support for Kosovo media, the World Press Freedom Committee has contributed to reinforcing independent journalism in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia, and plans to publish a Serbo-Croatian edition of the Handbook. Other efforts in the region include:

- Grants to "The Right to Pictures and Words," a monthly magazine devoted to chronicling and analyzing press censorship in Serbia;

- Funding for a small-equipment grants program for independent Serbian journals. This is administered by the Civic Initiatives organization, Belgrade;

- Support of a legal aid program for independent Serbian broadcasters to help cut governmental red tape seen by the broadcasters as an instrument to hinder the operation of local stations not under governmental control.

The World Press Freedom Committee also monitors threats to press freedom in the former Yugoslavia, registering with the appropriate official bodies its objections to harassment and restrictive measures imposed on news media by Serbian and Croatian authorities as well as by the Western allies' Independent Media Commission.

For further information, contact Marilyn J. Greene at the WPFC, 11690-C Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia 20191 U.S.A. tel: +1 703 715 9811, fax: +1 703 620 6790, e-mail: freepress@wpfc.org, Internet: http://www.wpfc.org.

The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility of WPFC. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit WPFC.
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