Adjudication of the Press Council of Kosovo on the Complaint of Mr. Paul Acda versus “Kosova Sot” 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 “Kosova Sot” newspaper, in relation to article entitled ”Yes the documents were found in ashes” 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
The complainant says that “Kosova Sot” wrote the article without fully investigating the facts.
The article quotes the UNMIK spokesperson Alexander Ivanko, where he corrects the newspaper allegations, however the “newspaper repeats its standpoints with the same emphasis like the day before”.
The following text in the complaint states that “the composition of KTA was controlled in 21 August by Pillar IV and that all files and data were in their original place”.
The complainant in his complaint amongst other things says “what I can confirm is that under the composition of administration of Pillar IV between 1 July up to 21 August neither the Kosovo Trust Agency or Pillar IV ordered any destruction or annihilation of documents”.
Press Council assessed that in this article the newspaper “Kosova Sot” made attempts to obtain statements from all parties in relation to the information that documents have been burnt in the premises of KTA, but in comparison to the Article of the previous day namely the 8 September when no statement was obtained by the relevant sources on what was happening in the front yard of KTA, now on 9 September the newspaper published the statement of UNMIK spokesperson Alexander Ivanko, who strongly denies that archives have been burned but, alleges that trash may have been burnt.
Another representative of KTA Ekrem Tahiri is also quoted, who declares that he is not aware of “what documents have been burned”
Based on everything as stated above, which amount to facts, the newspaper has formed its own conviction on the factual situation.
By acting in this manner the newspaper has acted in compliance with Article II, point 1 and Article II point 1 of the Press Code
The newspaper also published the statements of representatives of Independent trade unions who are not sure as to what indeed has been burned.
The representative of the Police declares the following “we have received the information from the media, but we could not verify anything regarding the possible burning of relevant documents”.
Based hereon, the Press Council assessed that the complaint of Paul Acda is not upheld due to the fact that the newspaper has consulted relevant parties for clarifying the issue.
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