Toronto, June 5, 2000

http://www.globeandmail.ca/gam/Letters/20000605/MOLETSY-5.html

Journalistic targets

Toronto -- So, chief U.N. war-crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte has cleared Nato of all war-crimes charges in the Kosovo conflict.

This includes deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure as well as an attack on a Serb TV station in Belgrade that killed 16 journalists, makeup ladies and janitors. NATO justified this by claiming Serb media was broadcasting "lying propaganda," which apparently makes them fair game. On June 2, the war-crimes tribunal backed them up. As a journalism student, I find this disturbing.

Thanks to NATO and Carla del Ponte, we journalists are, for the first time, legitimate targets. Since the biased, lying coverage of Western media was so vital in keeping us all on-side with Nato's war, who could now blame the Serbs or Iraqis for blowing away CBC or CNN journalists in the field? How could we charge them with war crimes in light of Nato's actions?

Jan Burton