The flawed role of the media in international justice and reconciliation in former Yugoslavia
In 1993 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY’) was established to deal with the war crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In over two decades, the ICTY has convicted and sentenced 83 individuals. This is an unprecedented feat for an international court which also prides itself for having paved the way for reconciliation. Despite the positive institutional view of the tribunal’s impact in terms of promoting reconciliation, the tribunal has been beset by negative perceptions by local peoples across the States of the former Yugoslavia. Numerous factors have led to these negative perceptions, but it would be impossible to understand public perceptions of the ICTY without taking account of the role played by the media.
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