A well-worth-reading e-mail:

Dear Ms Lopez
having worked in Kosovo (99 – 2001) in the Media Affairs Dept of the
OSCE, we faced similar issues while trying to help establish an
“independent” media that would help defend and support the
establishment of democratic institutions in the region. To put it
bluntly, it was not an easy task. When various newspapers and radio
stations attempted to exact justice through their “news” reporting, the
UN’s
SRSG (B. Kouchner) and the OSCE agreed that a regulating agency had to
be established to control this dangerous behavior. Thus the Temporary
Media Commissioner’s office was established. Below is a paragraph from
an OSCE report explaining why this was needed.
“On 27 April 2000, Dita published an article along with a photograph of
Topoljski, a Serb employee of UNMIK, accusing him of criminal
activities against Albanians during the NATO action. On 15 May,
Topoljski was found dead. The Special Representative of the Secretary
General (SRSG) Bernard Kouchner passed an executive order on 3 June
2000, closing the newspaper’s offices, and effectively shutting it down
for 8 days. Immediately afterwards UNMIK established the TMC and
promulgated the Media Regulations.”
Of course our department thought this office was in conflict with our
mandate as I stated above. But we also realized that it was a necessary
evil that had to deal with a concrete danger. If we had left the
Kosovar media free to broadcast or print what they wished, we would
have had daily attacks on people identified as criminals and
terrorists. One reason we could defend the TMC was that we did not have
a functioning judiciary. There were no effective libel or slander laws
in place, but, again, even if there had been the court system was not
able to prosecute such cases. So the TMC was an expedient to deal with
a real danger emerging in Kosovo.
I reiterate, our department was not happy with the institution of the
TMC, but we needed a means to maintain discipline within the media
until they understood what the principles and role of an independent
media were in a civil society and what responsibilities were involved
with the power that these media outlets possessed. We had a conflict in
the application of human rights – defending the rights of individuals
from unsubstantiated attacks in the media that could lead to physical
attacks, while at the same time we tried to encourage the development
of an independent media that would help defend the principles of human
rights in Kosovo.
Not easy.
I sympathize with the people in Iraq trying to maintain the same
balance.
I hope that helps explains the problems they face.
Sincerely,
Arvo Marits