| Líkir
ritskoðun RÚV við það sem gerðist í Júgóslavíu á tímum Slobodan
Milosevic Fram er komið
alvarlegt dæmi um ritskoðun RÚV og mismunum fjölmiðla í tengslum við
forsetakosningar sem af erlendum fræðimönnum er líkt er við það sem gerðist í
Júgóslavíu á tímum Slobodan Milosevic. Kastljós RÚV
klippti í burtu meirihluta viðtals við Dr. Dietrich Fischer og allar tilvitnanir
þessa merka fræðimanns um að Ástþór Magnússon gæti sem forseti Íslands valdið
straumhvörfum í friðarmálum heims. Hér fyrir neðan getur þú lesið hneykslunarbréf Dr. Fischer þar sem
hann líkir meðhöndlun RÚV á viðtalinu sínu við það sem gerðist
undir einræðisherranum Slobodan Milosevic. Ritskoðun RÚV Til þeirra er málið varðar: 10. júní 2004 Dagana 11 – 13 maí var ég staddur á Íslandi. Ríkissjónvarpið tók 45 mínútna
viðtal við mig í tengslum við komandi forsetakosningar hér á landi. Þar sem
viðtal þetta fór fram á ensku átti það að vera birt með íslenskum texta. Því var
útsendingunni frestað. Ég heyrði rétt í þessu frá Ástþóri Magnússyni (ég styð málstað hans í friðarmálum) og hann tjáði mér
að einungis tíu mínútna brot úr viðtalinu hefði verið birt í sjónvarpinu í kvöld
og var þar ekki minnst einu orði á áhersluþætti mína um það hvernig
forsetaembætti Íslands gæti beitt sér í friðarmálum á alþjóðavettvangi né heldur
var minnst á hvað Ástþór Magnússon hyggst gera nái hann kjöri. Ég nefndi og studdi eftirtalin þrjú markmið hans en heyrði að þau hefðu öll
verið tekin út úr viðtalinu: (1) að koma á fót stofnun í lýðræðisfræðum sem muni stuðla að virkara
lýðræði, sem fyrirmynd fyrir alla heimsbyggðina; (2)að breyta bandarísku herstöðinni á Íslandi í höfuðstöðvar friðargæslulið
Sameinuðu þjóðanna; (3) koma á friðarstofnun þar sem leitað verður úrlausna á málum deiluaðila
víða að úr heiminum þar sem þeir geta hist ásamt reyndum sáttasemjurum. Einnig benti ég á að þrátt fyrir að Ísland sé lítið land gæti það samt sem
áður haft mikið forskot í að stuðla að friði. Ég minntist á tvo forseta í þessu
sambandi: Árið 1973 bauð forseti Finnlands, Urho Kekkonen, öllum ríkisstjórnum í Evrópu
til ráðstefnu í Helsinki um öryggi og samvinnu í Evrópu, sem stóð til 1975, og
undirbjó jarðveginn fyrir endalok kalda stríðsins. Árið 1986 fundaði forseti Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez, með öðrum forsetum
Mið-Ameríku og gerði samkomulag sem undirritað var af öllum forsetunum, sem
endaði Contra stríðið í Nicaragua, og varð að grundvelli annarra svipaðra
friðarsáttmála í El Salvador og Guatemala. Ég skýrði frá því að Ástþór Magnússon myndi, ef hann yrði kosinn forseti
Íslands, nota þau tækifæri sem gæfust sökum stöðu hans, til að koma Íslandi á
kortið sem uppsprettu friðar í heiminum. Mér var tjáð að öllum þessum þáttum, sem voru kjarni umræðu minnar, hefði
verið sleppt þegar hluti viðtalsins var sýndur í sjónvarpinu í kvöld. Ég verð að
játa að ég er hneykslaður. Þessi leið til að hindra frjálsa og opna umræðu
minnir einna helst á herferðina í Júgoslavíu árið 1992 þar sem talsmanni friðar,
Milan Panic, var aftrað frá að kynna friðarstefnu sína fyrir kjósendum vegna
þess að fjölmiðlum þar í landi var alfarið stjórnað af stuðningsmönnum þáverandi
forseta landsins, Slobodan Milosevic. Ég vonast til að útgáfa viðtalsins við mig verði birt í fullri lengd og
óritskoðuð fyrir kosningarnar þann 26 júní, til þess að gefa íslenskum kjósendum
kost á að ákveða sjálfir hvort þeir séu sammála eða ósammála þeim skoðunum sem
ég lét í ljós, í stað þess að einhver komi fram við kjósendur eins og börn sem
ákveðið er fyrir hvað þau mega sjá og hvað ekki. Ég er þakklátur fyrir það tækifæri sem ég fékk til að tjá mínar skoðanir, en
ég varð samt sem áður fyrir vonbrigðum þegar þær voru afskræmdar með því að
klippa burtu kjarnann í máli mínu. Með bestu kveðjum, Prof. Dr. Dietrich Fischer Academic Director, European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU) Bréf til Öryggis- og samvinnustofnunar
Evrópu: Gerald Mitchell, Head of Election Section,
OSCE Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights
Aleje Ujazdowskie 19, 00-557 Warsaw,
Poland.
FAX: 00 48 22 520 06 05 11. June 2004. REF: Icelandic presidential elections
Censorship by Icelandic
state owned television network Dear Mr. Mitchell, Please find enclosed a letter from Dr. Dietrich Fischer describing
the
censorship of his interview on the RUV state owned television network.
The
interview was recorded on the 12th of May 2004 for the news debate
program
Kastljos. When the interview with Dr. Fischer had not been broadcast
for
several weeks I started making complaints to the RUV management and
the
broadcasting regulators. At first I was given various excuses by the programming team about lack
of
broadcasting slots to send out the interview. I made complaints to
the
broadcasting regulating committee and visited the general director of
the
RUV network two times and had a conversation with him by
telephone
yesterday after it had become very apparent that the reasons for it
not
being broadcast were other than lack of broadcasting slots. This could
be
seen by the broadcast in several of these slots of other interviews
that
were of non urgent nature. I can here mention as an example an
interview
with an American human rights activist about USA politics and human
rights
in the United States. Obviously issues concerning our own
presidential
elections that are taking place in only two weeks time should
have a higher
urgency than this. In addition the state owned radio and
television
network has a clear legal obligation to carry my views as
described in the
letter of the Icelandic ministry of foreign affairs to you
the 24 May 2004
where they said: ‘The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service
shall respect
fundamental democratic rules, human rights and freedom of
expression and
opinion. It shall preserve full netutrality in
broadcasting,
interpretation and programme production. In every national and
local
election campaign this is interpreted as allowing for each candidacy
to
present their views and programs through this Broadcasting Service.’ When presented with these facts the general director of RUV
finally
promised to broadcast the interview with Dr. Fischer. But what was
finally
broadcasted last night was a highly censored version of this
interview as
can be seen by the enclosed letter from Dr. Fischer. You should also be aware that reasons given for the ‘delay’ of
broadcasting
Dr. Fischer´s interview was said to be mostly due to debates
about a newly
passed legislation on independent media that parliament has
passed in an
effort to break up the current pattern of a single company
ownership, and
the decision of Olafur Ragnar Grimsson the current president
of Iceland to
veto the bill. The president´s main sponsor in the 1996
elections was that
very same independent media company, Nordurljos who own
almost every
independent radio and television network here and two daily
newspapers.
The chief executive of Nordurljos Mr. Sigurdur G Gudjonsson was
the
presidents campaign manager in 1996 and 2000 and Gunnar Jonsson the
legal
councilor of the company is the president´s current campaign
manager.
Administration of collecting signatures for the president´s 1996,
2000 and
2004 candidacy was carried out by a lady that worked for the company
group
until very recently. For obvious reasons I wished to express views on
this
highly controversial action by the president and ask him in an
open
broadcast if he is doing this to pay back the support of his
powerful
friends. However I was not allowed to pass any single comment until
I made
official complaints to the general director of the RUV network and
the
broadcasting regulating committee. Even after these complaints I have
not
been given sufficient opportunity to present my views on this and in
a
newspaper article yesterday a RUV Kastljos journalist reveals that
the
network does not plan to allow me a TV debate about the issue with
the
president. Connections of president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson with Nordurljos are
also
clearly indicated through our conversations with his office earlier
this
week and with the Nordurljos news agency for their radio and
television
networks. Last Tuesday when I contacted the office of the president to follow up
on
previous correspondence asking for the president´s reply to meet me in
a
television debate, the president´s office manager advised me to
contact
Gunnar Jonsson who is the lawyer of Nordurljos. Last Wednesday my campaign manager contacted a journalist at the
Nordurljos
news agency asking if they would like to interview professor Johan
Galtung
who was in Iceland to talk about and support my ideas on how the
president
of Iceland could work for international peace and disarmament.
Professor
Galtung is often referred to as the founder of modern peace studies
and he
is the author of the United Nations manual on conflict
transformation. For
the reasons that professor Galtung supports my
presidential candidacy, the
Nordurljos news agency would not interview him.
When asked who was the
supervisor of the journalist we were given a name of
that days news desk
editor, and when asked who that person reports to we were
given a long
period of the runaround and we first got the answer after a
several minute
argument on the phone. The name given was Sigurdur G
Gudjonsson i.e. the
person directly responsible for the Norduljos networks
news agency is the
very same as the main sponsor of president´s Olafur Ragnar
Grimsson
campaign! As can be seen by the recent actions of the association of
Icelandic
journalists who have opposed the urgently needed media
legislation,
Icelandic journalists are generally worried it could harm their
employment
opportunities in future if they are seen in any way to go
against
Nordurljos the company that owns most of the independent media and
that
employs the largest number of people in the industry. My views
are
oppressed and the Icelandic nation blinded with almost endless
propaganda
for the Nordurljos media conglomerate. We are reporting this to the International Federation of Journalists.
In
addition we are making official complaints to the relevant regulators
in
Iceland and launching legal action against the RUV network who are in
an
extreme way in a clear breach of their obligations of
fundamental
democratic rules, human rights and freedom of expression and
opinion and
allowing for each candidacy to present their views and programs
through
this Broadcasting Service as described in the above mentioned letter
from
the Icelandic foreign ministry to you 24 May 2004. Yours Sincerely, Thor Magnusson (Ástþór Magnússon)
Presidential Candidate in Iceland –
Website in English: www.althing.us Á ensku: Bréf frá
prófessor Dietrich Fischer: To Whom It May Concern: 10. June 2004 On May 11-13, I visited Iceland and was interviewed for 45 minutes
on
national television concerning the upcoming presidential elections. Since the interview was held in English, and was to be fitted
with
Icelandic subtitles, the broadcast was delayed. I just heard from
Astthor
Magnusson, whose peace platform I supported, that a 10-minute excerpt
was
broadcast tonight, but did not mention one single of the points I made
of
how Iceland's Presidency could be used to promote world peace, and
what
Astthor Magnusson proposes to do if elected President. I mentioned
and
supported the following three of his proposals, which I heard were
all
censored out: (1) setting up an institute for democratic studies that will help
develop
true democracy, as a model for the entire world; (2) converting the US military base in Iceland into the headquarters of
a
United Nations peacekeeping force; (3) creating an institute for conflict resolution where conflict
parties
from around the world can meet with experienced mediators. I also pointed out that even though Iceland is a small country, it
could
have a major impact in promoting peace. I mentioned two precedents: In 1973, Finnish President Urho Kekkonen invited all European
governments
to the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
which
lasted until 1975, and prepared the way for the end of the Cold
War. In 1986, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez consulted with all
the
other Central American Presidents and was able to draft a peace accord
that
all were willing to sign, which ended the Contra war in Nicaragua,
and
formed the basis for similar peace agreements in El Salvador and
Guatemala. I stated that Thor Magnusson, if elected President of Iceland, would
make
use of the opportunities offered by this position to put Iceland on the
map
as a source of peace in the world. I was told that all of these arguments, which were the essence of
my
remarks, were cut out of the portion of the interview that was
boradcast
tonight. I must say that I am shocked. This form of suppressing a
free and
open dialogue is reminiscent of the campaign in Yugoslavia in 1992,
in
which the peace candidate Milan Panic was prevented from presenting
his
peace platform to the voters, because the media were completely
controlled
by supporters of sitting President Slobodan Milosevic. I hope that the full, uncensored version of my interview will be
broadcast
before the June 26 elections, to let the Icelandic voters decide
for
themselves if they agree or disagree with the views I expressed, instead
of
someone treating the voters like children, deciding what they are
allowed
to see and what they may not. I do appreciate the opportunity extended to me to express my views, but
am
disappointed that they were distorted by cutting out the essence of what
I
said. With best regards, Prof. Dr. Dietrich Fischer Academic Director, European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU)
Tel
+43-3355-20726, Fax +43-3355-2666,fischer@epu.ac.at, www.transcend.org |