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Helsinki Edition
October 1998
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The Military says: "No comment"
A Ministry of Defence is still probably the hardest one to get information from. Military keeps on placing themselves on a pedestal and refuse to follow proper media policy.
When the Moslem-enclave Srebrenica fell in 1995, witnessed by Dutch soldiers who were in former Yugoslavia as a peacekeeping force it became very difficult for journalists back in the Netherlands to get any information from the soldiers anymore. By releasing the official report on the events in Srebrenica and the actions of the peacekeeping force namedDutchbat, the military revealed a little of the facts, but still we're in the dark about many things.
During the first months Dutchbat was in former Yugoslavia, the Dutch soldiers were eager to talk to journalists. "But suddenly we noticed that the longer the soldiers were active in Bosnia, the harder it got to get information from them", says Laurent Heere, reporter at the Dutch regional paper BN/de Stem. "It was starting to look like the ministry of Defence prohibited them from speaking to the media at all. From Defence itself, we only got the information little by little."
Although it seemed that during the last few years the Dutch ministry of Defence was keeping its mouth shut and holding back evidence, elder statesman Van Kemenade concluded in his report that was released at the end of August, that there was no criminal intent. Nevertheless he blames the ministry of inaccurate procedures and accuses the Department of Justice of not being vigorous about investigating possible misbehaviour of Dutchbatters in Srebrenica. The Dutch people were watching a kind of soap-opera; Former minister Voorhoeve of Defence and the military staff blaming each other over and over again of suppressing facts and not telling the whole truth.
Chasing the facts
Chief of the PR department of the Dutch Ministry of Defence ,H. van den Heuvel, said in the conversation he had with Van Kemenade on August 24 this year that the main reason for the problems with the giving of information about Srebrenica was that staff of UN, staff of Dutchbat and individual soldiers were telling their stories without informing the department. "Me and my staff were mostly chasing the facts", he said.
According to reporter Laurent Heere it's typical for military to be very reserved towards the media. "Not only because of the often precarious facts but also because of the image they have built around themselves over the decades. They are still the untouchable guys with moustaches and an attitude of omniscience. But I think the events in Srebrenica and the aftermath can cause a big step forward for more openness of military towards media."
Van den Heuvel claims that the whole system is better arranged now. "Right now we give our staff clear assignments before they go to former Yugoslavia." He doesn't say why that wasn't the case before.
He didn't know
In Slovakia journalists are dealing with similar problems, but for a far different reason. There are huge problems in acces to informations in Slovakia. Four persons are officially allowed to talk to the media about army affairs; the Minister, the speaker of Ministry, the Deputy of Minister and the Chief of General Staff. The following example shows that this can lead to precarious situations.
During parliamentary elections in Slovakia (25. - 26. September) almost 3000 soldiers were supposed to help the police in case of crisis. When journalists asked the Minister of Defense Jan Sitek questions about this it appeared that he didn't know about it. It was a decision of the General Staff. If there weren't four persons competent to make public statements on defence matters, officials would have been able to hide the fact that the minister didn't know what the soldiers were going to do.
Despite changes after revolution in 1989, there are still officials, who try to treat people just because they show their own opinion. It makes people scared. Journalists in Slovakia can often see, that officers are afraid to speak to them. The most common answer is "I can't tell you anything, ask the speaker of ministry." It is really typical for Slovakia, that officials just don't feel responsibility to the media. We wanted to bring also the opinion of the speaker of the Slovak Ministry of Defense, Mr. Frantisek Kasicky. He didn't answer our fax, which we urged also by phone, so now we probably have to ask someone else...
Marjolein Eijkman |
