"Higher State Interests" and Tienanmen

Press release

Belgrade, November 30, 2006

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia strongly protests against the pressure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and city authorities exerted on the organizers of the Festival of Authorial Film "in the name of higher state interests" and thus prevented screening of "The Summer Palace," a documentary dealing with one of the most brutal violations of human rights by a state in late 20th century.

As it welcomes the decision of the president of the Organizing Committee of the Festival, Mr. Dinko Tucakovic, to resign because of such impermissible interference of state bodies into the right to free expression, the Helsinki Committee wonders how the relevant authorities see the fact that the audience in Belgrade - unlike those in Slovenia or Cannes - was deprived of the opportunity to see an artistic interpretation of the Tienanmen massacre would help them before the UN Security Council when the time comes to resolve the status of Kosovo.