prijava
SARAJEVO, June 3 (FENA) - The Governing Board of the BH Journalists Association issued a public protest to the Cantonal Board of the SDA Sarajevo for interfering in the work and functioning of the Cantonal Public Television TVSA and manipulative attempts to dismiss its General Manager, Duška Jurišić.
According to the statement, the president of the SDA Cantonal Board, Fikret Prevljak, announced in a press release the dismissal of Duška Jurišić and the appointment of a member of this party and former Minister of Education Safet Kešo to the position of TVSA general manager, giving his explanation that “there were criminal charges and fines paid".
Jurišić later denied the allegations, explaining that the criminal charges were related to the operations of previous TVSA leadership, who were also appointed by the SDA, a party which for a decade now has ruled in the Sarajevo Canton.
The BH Journalists Association considers it inadmissible to deceive the public about the reasons for Duška Jurišić's dismissal and the SDA's political interference in the work of TVSA as a public media outlet, which has been facing political dismissals and appointments of executives, supervisory board members and the boards for almost two decades.
In the last year and by the will of the ruling political structures of the Sarajevo Canton (current and previous), TVSA has changed two supervisory boards and three general managers, as if it were a media owned by political parties and not public media outlet paid by the citizens of this canton and whose legal obligation is to work in the public interest.
“Following its political interests, the SDA has re-initiated procedures for the removal of the existing Supervisory Board of TVSA, which further speaks of the party's intentions to destabilize this media outlet and deny the Sarajevo Canton citizens the right to free, objective and fair public informing,” said the BH Journalists Association’s Governing Board.
The Board calls on the Assembly and the Government of the SC to prevent the unlawful dismissal of the Supervisory Board and General Manager of TVSA, and to ensure stable operation of this media without commissioned dismissals, political pressure and direct interference of any political party.
At the same time, the BH Journalists Board calls on the Institution of the BiH Ombudsman, domestic and international organizations for the protection of media freedoms to prevent political and legal destabilization of TVSA as a public media outlet of all citizens of the Sarajevo Canton.
(FENA) S. R.
