Adjudication of the Press Council of Kosovo on the Complaint of Mr. Paul Acda versus “Express” newspaper
10 November 2008In its regular meeting held on 30 October 2008, the Press Council of Kosovo reviewed the complaint of Mr. Paul Acda Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary General of UN, against “Express” newspaper in relation to the publishing of to articles entitled ”Unimprovable”
date 12 August 2008 and “Monsters” published on 08 September 2008,
and rendered the following:
A D J U D I C A T I O N
- the complaint is upheld
R E A S O N I N G
The Article “Unimprovable” published on 12 August 2008, which according to the complaint of Paul Acda, the latter is accused of “preventing the staff of KTA, now Agency for Privatisation in Kosovo from entering in the premises to work for three days in a raw”. The council received information that Kosovo Trust Agency ended its mandate and competencies on 30 June 2008, in line with the decision taken by the European Commission and that competencies should have been transferred to APK as soon as possible.
Press Council of Kosovo assessed that “Express” should have made attempts to require “respect for the factual truth” and “hear all parties involved in the dispute” as outlined in Article II, paragraph 1 and Article IV paragraph 3, of the Press Code, namely the newspaper should have taken the opinion of the accused party as to why the doors of KTA remained locked, up to 8 August 2008. A standpoint should have been requested at least from UNMIK.
In relation to the other Article published in “Express” entitled “Monsters” dated 8 September 2008, which according to the complaint of Paul Acda “renders as untrue the parts of the article which allege that Paul Acda gave an instruction for destroying the privatisation process documents, including archived documentation” and the “intentional violation of rights of employees of privatised socially owned enterprises, by destroying their lists of employees” assessed the following:
“Express” newspaper has reacted swiftly after the news that several papers and documents were found in the front yard of KTA which contain KTA logo, but after the failure to obtain information from the “other party” it came out that the assessment of the newspaper that “six years of privatisation were turned to ashes” and “everything that was important was burned” was not true. Thus, Press Council of Kosovo assessed that Article II, paragraph 1 of the Press Code which reads “during their work journalists and editors shall ensure respect for the factual truth and the right of public to know the truth” has been violated. The Press Council also assessed that not all necessary sources were exhausted in finding out whether the lists of employees from privatised SOE-s have really been destroyed.
Press Council of Kosovo also assessed that, had the information service of Pillar Four, issued the information that KTA Archives of Pillar IV were transferred into another safe location and that only unnecessary documents were burnt, on time, as it was stated on 16 of September by UNMIK, none of these problems would occur.
It is also undisputable that the doors of the KTA building were closed until 24 August 2008, until PAK had them opened by force.
Press Council also assessed that these two cases also constitute violation of Article II, paragraph 2, which reads “Journalists and editors shall rely, as a general rule on, identified sources of information” Which in concrete case is Paul Acda or another authorised person. In the concrete case the main issue, namely the “burning of KTA archives” which is the focus of the newspaper remained enigmatic and unclear for almost 10 days.
Thus, the Press Council decided to uphold the complaint of Mr. Paul Acda as mentioned in the above.
The Press Council requests from “Express” to publish this adjudication in the second or third page of the newspaper. Also the newspaper “Express” should apologize to Mr. Paul Acda as these accusations harm his name.
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