23 International NGOs Express Solidarity With Independent Media 29 April 1999

Twenty-three IFEX members express solidarity with independent media workers in FRY

SOURCE: The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)

**Updates and corrects the 28 April 1999 IFEX joint action on FRY**

(AMARC/IFEX) - Twenty-three IFEX members pledge support to solidarity appeal for independent media workers in FRY:

At the IFEX 1999 meeting in Cape Town, 23 IFEX members signed up to the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters - AMARC - World Press Freedom Day action for independent media workers in distress in and from FRY. This AMARC-led action is an international campaign of solidarity with Radio B92 and fifty other independent broadcasters from the Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM.

The AMARC action is being launched in protest at the blanket repression of broadcast and other media in and from FRY. AMARC calls on supporters of freedom of expression to join this campaign to assure the safety and continuing work of these independent media activists during this time of extreme crisis and war. The long-term campaign goal of this AMARC-led international solidarity action is to get Radio B92 and all other ANEM stations back on the air and broadcasting free information as soon as possible. To enable them to realise this goal, the AMARC-led action aims to twin fellow broadcasters, radio and television stations, freedom of expression organisations and activists from around the world with journalists and other staff from these independent media in the region.

Radio B92 and ANEM have won world-wide acclaim for their commitment during the past ten years to countering nationalist rhetoric, hatred and war in the Balkans.

Among those IFEX members supporting the campaign are:

• World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
• Committee to Protect Journalists
• Index on Censorship
• Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka
• Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, Peru
• Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay
• Reporters` Association of Thailand
• Network for the Defence of Independent Media in Africa
• Media Watch, Bangladesh
• Media Institute of Southern Africa
• Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
• Article 19
• Pacific Islands News Association
• Hong Kong Journalists Association
• Freedom House
• Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
• Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information, Indonesia
• Periodistas, Argentina
• Glasnost Defence Foundation, Russia
• Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression
• International Press Institute
• West African Journalists Association
• Greek Helsinki Monitor

To subscribe to the campaign, or to receive further information, please contact
Brian Carty at AMARC European Secretariat, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX, United Kingdom,
tel: +44 114 221 0592, fax: +44 114 279 8976,
europe@amarc.org, www.amarc.org.

The information contained in this alert update and correction is the sole responsibility of AMARC. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit AMARC.