SIX JOURNALISTS RECEIVE INTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM AWARDS

( Vidi vijest: 5421 ) NEW YORK, 24 Oct (Hina) - Six journalists from Croatia, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Russia and Taiwan received this year's International Press Freedom Awards granted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in New York last night. Among the award recipients was the editor-in-chief of the Split- based weekly 'Feral Tribune', Viktor Ivancic. CPJ chairwoman Kati Marton told the award-giving ceremony in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel that the situation in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina was a key issue for the CPJ. The war with bullets has been replaced with a media war, Marton said. That war will determine whether an open, civilized society will be established or a closed, racist and permanently dangerous hot spot in the heart of Europe, she added. Ivancic said that in Croatia "the so-called interest of the state has become a pretext for everything, especially for limiting freedom of individuals." There is only one kind of journalism - the one seeking truth. Anything else is propaganda, said Ying Chan, one of the award- winners. Everything we did was simply our job, Taiwanese journalist Shieh Chung-Liang concluded on behalf of the award-winners. (hina) jn rm 241248 MET oct 97