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, 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 article entitled ”Who started the fire” dated 09 September 2008, and rendered the following:
A D J U D I C A T I O N
- the complaint is not upheld
R E A S O N I N G
In his complaint the complainant declines to have given the “Instruction for destruction of privatisation documents. He also objects to the assessment of the newspaper that he intentionally violated the rights of privatised socially owned enterprise’s employees, by destroying their lists of employees”.
While reviewing the article “Who started the fire” dated 09 September, the Press Council assessed that “Express” newspaper has published the standpoints of all relevant parties in order to clarify the event such as: UNMIK spokesperson Alexander Ivanko, spokesperson of Pillar IV Mechthild Henneke and Kosovo Police Spokesperson, Veton Elshani.
By doing so the newspaper has acted in compliance with Article II, paragraph 2 of the Press Code which reads “Journalists and editors shall rely, as a general rule on, identified sources of information”.
Alexander Ivanko stated that no official KTA document was thrown away. However, the questions of the newspaper addressed to UNMIK as to why was there a delay on the transfer of competencies from KTA to PAK still remains unanswered.
Although the title of the article contains suggestive and insulting terms (“arsonists”), which is unprofessional,
Express acted in compliance with the Press Code, when on 17 October 2008 published an article entitled “the arsonists are softening” where the newspaper readers were informed that “on 15 October, several trucks transported privatisation documents from UNMIK to Privatisation Agency of Kosovo” which article closed a chapter of some previous unclear issues related to the fate of privatisation archives. Express was in compliance with Article II paragraph 5, of the Code which reads “Journalists and their publications have a professional obligation to promptly correct any published information that is found to be inaccurate”.
Upon reviewing this article entirely Press Council assessed that “Express” did not violate Press Code and that express acted in compliance with Article I point 1 of the Code which reads “It is the duty of journalists and publishers to respect the needs of citizens for timely and relevant information. Journalists and publishers shall defend the principles of freedom of information, the right of fair comment and critical journalism”.
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