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Vienna (dpa) - The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) said Monday it was outraged by a prison sentence handed to a journalist in Kumanovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Zoran Bozinovski, co-owner and deputy editor-in-chief of the daily Trojka and a journalist for Forum Plus weekly, was recently given a three-month prison sentence for "criminal defamation and insult."
The sentence was handed down after charges were brought against Bozinovski for an article published in the local weekly Bulevar on 25 December 2003. At the time he was the newspaper's owner and editor- in-chief.
In an open letter to President Branko Crvenkovski and other officials, SEEMO said it regarded prison terms for defamation as a gross violation of internationally accepted standards.
It added that defamation should be treated under civil law, not as a criminal offence subject to punishment of the state.
SEEMO said it had been told that Bozinovski had been ordered to report to police Monday afternoon to start serving his sentence.
In the past, as a result of his investigative reporting, Bozinovski had already been physically attacked and seriously injured.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
