CROAT JOURNALISTS IN BOSNIA SEND OPEN LETTER TO INTERNATIONAL REPS ( Editorial: --> 8197 )

( Editorial: --> 8197 ) MOSTAR, 4 Nov (Hina) - Croat journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday sent an open letter to the High Representative in Bosnia- Herzegovina, Carlos Westendorp, the head of the Mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Robert Frowick, and the head of the OSCE expert media commission, Maurice Linwood Todd, expressing their support for the Croatian television (HTV) in Mostar and its editor-in-chief Milan Sutalo, who has refused to read a statement by the OSCE subcommission for the media. The letter was signed by 113 Croat journalists in Bosnia- Herzegovina, who estimated that Sutalo's refusal to read the OSCE statement was 'completely justified'. The OSCE ordered Mostar HTV and its editor-in-chief Sutalo to admit that they had instigated violence against the Bosniak people, caused division among the peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and prevented the international community in implementing the Dayton agreement. According to the letter of the Croat journalists, the OSCE had accused HTV Mostar only because it had broadcast an open letter by Mostar mayor Ivan Prskalo to Haris Silajdzic, co-chairman of the Bosnian Council of Ministers and Mostar deputy mayor Safet Orucevic, a statement by the Mostar office of the association of the Croatian Disabled War Veterans (HVIDRA), a statement by the Academic Society of Bosnia-Herzegovina and a statement by the Office for Public Relations of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Interior Ministry, referring to the Mostar car-bomb explosion of 18 September. The Croat journalists who signed the letter said they believed that HTV Mostar, by broadcasting the four statements of legal organisations and institutions of authority, had only fulfilled its professional obligation of informing the public. "That is why we think that neither HTV Mostar nor any other medium in democratic societies can be punished or held responsible in any way, regardless of the content of those statements," the letter said. The announced closing down of HTV Mostar, (besides being a classic example of media freedom violation) was a step further in depriving the Croat people of the right to have radio, television and papers in their own language, although those things were envisaged by the Dayton agreement and all conventions on human rights, the letter said. (hina) rm 042251 MET nov 97