Albanian daily criticizes Hague tribunal for indicting Kosovo reporter
BBC Monitoring European - May 26, 2008

Text of report by Albanian privately-owned right-wing pro-PD party newspaper Tema, on 22 May

[Commentary by Andi Bushati: "Guilty Like Baton" pp1-10]

In a few days, our colleague Baton Haxhiu will be a free man again. Some of us will applaud him, others will still criticize him, but all of us will have the same opinion of him that we had before he went to the Hague of his own free will. And all of us must be in solidarity with him. All of us should commit the same "offence" as he did and make public again the witness's name - Nazif Ramabaja - which he revealed, for the good reason that this has to do with the essence of our profession: to uncover, not to cover up, secrets. What Baton did has to do with the truth, no matter how offensive it may be, not with its concealment. In this sense, Baton has had the sense of duty of his profession. In this sense, he has had the privilege of becoming an Albanian precedent for us to learn how we journalists must fight to defend the truth in our profession.

But what sort of offence has Baton Haxhiu committed? On 24 December of last year, he published on the Express daily, of which he was then editor-in-chief, a report that the Hague Tribunal had indicted Kosova's [Kosovo] former Culture Minister Astrit Haracia. Along with another journalist, Bajrush Morina, Haracia was accused of having pressured a witness at Ramush Haradinaj's trial at the Hague Tribunal. The witness had long been living in Oslo, Norway. One day, while Haradinaj was being tried at the Hague, Bajrush Morina paid a visit to this witness, that is, Nazif Ramabaja, a former FARK [Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosova] member. Nafiz Ramabaja had already informed the Hague Tribunal authorities about this visit, so his home was stuffed with listening devices. From these the Hague investigators learned that the visitor had been sent there by Culture Minister Haracia to get Ramabaja to retract his evidence against Haradinaj. As the charges against Haracia and Morina had become public, Baton Haxhiu decided to have them published in his paper. He was the first to mention the name of the witness, whom the Hague Tribunal kept secret. And he did well. He told a truth which did not belong to him alone. Indeed, according to a world democratic tradition, other persons are charged with the task of guarding it. This is not a journalist's business. But even if this universally recognized tradition is not taken into consideration, Baton Haxhiu has committed no offence. Keeping a witness's name secret is necessary as long as the indicted person, or the person who may be condemned as a result of this witness's evidence, or the person who directly or indirectly may threaten the witness know nothing about it, but not when the indicted person (Ramush Haradinaj in this case) was informed about it.

According to the Hague prosecutors, Haradinaj has also dispatched other people to have the evidence against him retracted. But on this point too, there can be no secret. It all boils down to a mere relationship between the journalist and the public at large. Baton Haxhiu has observed this relationship while at the same time respecting every one of us who seeks to honestly exercise his profession.

These are the more serious points of this case, as for the rest, it turns into a ridiculous farce - a tribunal that has been set up to try the criminals of the former Yugoslavia ends up incriminating a journalist.

It is pointless to enumerate the failures of this tribunal. This would be out of place and beside the point of this article. There is no one, however, who does not see it, or who does not find it ludicrous that this same tribunal which has released many a criminal or those who have given refuge to criminals is now trying to deal with those who have simply published the name of certain witnesses. If someone at the Hague Tribunal wanted Ramush Haradinaj to sit in prison and missed the mark, neither Baton Haxhiu nor the paper that published a witness's name can be held accountable for it.

This is merely a bad joke. It is a farce that in the days ahead will be recounted as one of the episodes in a long string of shameful failures of this tribunal.

Hence, we, the Albanian journalists, must deal with this episode for what it is worth, that is, mentioning it day after day, holding it up to ridicule, this witness's name, which has become public by now, in order to show the lack of seriousness of an affair that will peter out before long and also to demonstrate that we journalists are in solidarity when it comes to defending one of the sacred principles of our profession.

Credit: Tema, Tirana, in Albanian 22 May 08
Posted for Fair Use only.