More contempt charges for journalists at ICTY

Baton Haxhiu is the latest journalist to be charged for contempt of court by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is alleged to have revealed the identity of a protected witness in a piece he wrote in 2007.

Haxhiu has joined a growing group of journalists, all from the Balkans, who have faced contempt proceedings for revealing the identity of protected witnesses. Others include Ivica Marijacic and Josip Jovic (Jonathan Randal is perhaps the best-known contempt defendant before the tribunal, but his case concerned the journalistic privilege not to testify in court unless as a last resort).

The cases are all on the murky side but do raise important questions of freedom of expression and the administration of justice. The Representative on Freedom of the Media of the OSCE even intervened in the Josip Jovic case, when the 'protected witness' was a very prominent Croatian politician. Jovic was eventually convicted and ordered to pay 20,000 Euros, and his conviction was upheld on appeal (the tribunal published a useful summary of the proceedings against him).