Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent-Thursday 16 April 2015
A Lebanese reporter and her TV station have denied identifying witnesses or jeopardising the case against the alleged killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The opening defence by journalist Karma Khayat and the Lebanon-based al-Jadeed TV station was made on the first day of a contempt hearing at the special tribunal for lebanon (STL) in The Hague on Thursday. They are accused of potentially compromising court proceedings by publishing a list of prosecution witnesses in the Hariri case in stories in 2012.
Prosecutor Kenneth Scott had told the UN-backed court: “If witnesses are too frightened to come to this tribunal, then this tribunal is finished.” He alleged that the broadcasts were part of a campaign to undermine the tribunal.
Dozens of witnesses were easily identifiable from their voices, home and work addresses, and car licence plates, he added. “What this case is really about is a media company and its management that wanted a big scoop, a high-profile, sensational, so-called exclusive, and they were willing to do whatever it took to get it.”
But Khayat and al-Jadeed deny wrongdoing, saying the accusations are an attempt to silence the media. Addressing the court, Khayat said her reports in 2012 had been aimed at exposing leaks emanating from the STL – an international body that has consumed hundreds of millions of pounds in public money.
“$500m has been paid by us for this seven-star courtroom in The Hague. It is our right to make sure these finances are being spent properly,” Khayat said. Nobody was identifiable in her broadcasts.
Her lawyer, Karim Khan QC, said it was not the fault of the media if it exposed flaws that affected public confidence in the tribunal. “That’s the job of the free press,” he added. “Sometimes the emperor has no clothes.”
The prosecution has raised awkward questions about media freedom and the priorities of international courts in pursuit of justice. The investigation into the murder of Hariri and 21 other people in a massive bomb blast on 14 February 2005 is said to have already cost $325m.
More than 220 people were injured in the attack. The five accused – Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi, Assad Sabra and Hassan Merhi – are being tried in absentia. All are members of the Hezbollah militia, a close ally of Syria and Iran.
Hezbollah, which refuses to detain the men, has denied carrying out the attack. The tribunal was set up after Lebanese politicians said their judicial system could not cope with the investigation.
Al-Jadeed describes itself as a secular, pro-democracy pan-Arab station with a mission to fight corruption. It gained international recognition last month when
a female presenter cut off the microphone of an Islamist sheikh during a live interview after he ordered her to “be silent”. The presenter was praised for standing up for women’s rights in the Arab world.
Khayat has told the Guardian that the aim in broadcasting the STL story was to highlight that confidential information about the tribunal’s witnesses had been leaked, not to identify potential witnesses. “This is the first time a corporate organisation has been put on trial,” she said. “Ever since the investigation into Hariri’s death 10 years ago there have been so many leaks related to the tribunal.
“Al-Jadeed, as it has done with other stories, has followed leads. This was in the hope we could get a proper investigation. The Lebanese people want to know what has happened to Hariri.
“We had received a list of witness names,” she added. “We were not sure of the source so I didn’t know if they were correct. Once we were sure they were correct ... we covered the names and covered the faces. We said something should be done to stop the leaks.
“They are not saying we harmed the witnesses, but that we made them afraid … Someone else gave out all the names and faces afterwards; we didn’t give them the documents.”
Khayat claimed that foreign news organisations that carried similar reports were not being prosecuted. “The only reason they are going after us,” she added, “is to intimidate the Lebanese media and stop us criticising the tribunal.”
If convicted, Khayat faces up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to €100,000. The trial is being held before a single Italian judge, Nicola Lettieri.
There is an unhappy precedent for UN tribunals prosecuting journalists. In 2011, the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, also based in The Hague, convicted Le Monde’s Balkans correspondent, Florence Hartmann, of contempt of court. She was fined €7,000, which she refused to pay. France declined to extradite her.
A spokesperson for the STL said: “Karma Khayat and al-Jadeed are innocent until proven guilty. They will be tried in public in an international court, before an extremely experienced judge of high moral character, impartiality and integrity, who was appointed by the United Nations secretary general.
“The two accused have been charged with knowingly and wilfully interfering with the administration of justice by broadcasting or publishing information on purported confidential witnesses. They have also been charged with violating a judicial order to remove the identities of these purported witnesses from their website and YouTube channel.”
The spokesperson added: “Publication of purported witness identities interferes with the proceedings since the public, including real witnesses, may lose faith in the tribunal’s ability to protect them.”
The pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper and its editor-in-chief, Mohamed al-Amin, have been charged with a similar offence. That trial is scheduled to open at a date still to be set.
New York, April 9, 2015--A freelance journalist for a Tamil-language daily in Sri Lanka has been charged in connection with a story he wrote that criticized the police, according to news reports and the paper's editor, who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
