A newspaper and magazine editor who had been critical of Milosevic, Slavko Curuvija, was gunned down in Belgrade on April 11. No one has been arrested or taken responsibility for the killing. Citing numerous cases of journalists threatened, brutalized and censored, Reporters Without Borders asked in its report that Yugoslavia respect its press freedom obligations under international law. The press group also urged the international community to support the free press in the Yugoslav republic Montenegro, to ease visa laws for opposition Serb journalists and to pressure Belgrade authorities to free a Croatian and a Serbian journalist. Since the NATO attacks began, two Western journalists have been arrested by Serb military authorities before being released under international pressure, the report said.
Censorship is nothing new to Serbian journalists.
The government closed 55 radio and television stations in 1997, leaving only three independent media outlets operating by May of 1998. In Kosovo province, the situation is even more dire. ''Since the start of the NATO airstrikes, Albanian-language media and journalists in Kosovo have become primary targets for Serb reprisals,'' the report said. Copyright 1999 Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.