prijava
SARAJEVO, September 28 (FENA) - Bosnia and Herzegovina has perhaps the best legislation when it comes to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, access to information, but unfortunately, this is not implemented properly and then we have a completely different situation on the ground, told FENA the President of Association of BH Journalists Faruk Zupčević, on the occasion of September 28 - International Day of Freedom of Access to Information.
Zupčević emphasized that the number of attacks on journalists is increasing, and there is more and more hate speech.
"We in the Journalists Association record between 40 and 50 attacks on journalists a year. In the last 10 years, there have been about 500 attacks on journalists, of which very few have been prosecuted. Death threats have not been properly investigated and prosecuted, which is why the situation in BiH is extremely difficult," said Zupčević, adding that although there are regulations and courts can prosecute all of it, "we do not get the answers."
When it comes to access to information, Zupčević pointed out that there is regulation there as well.
"But those who need to give answers and information, they ask for a written request. When you submit a written request, they wait for the deadline to expire, and then they give you some stupid answer and it already becomes clear to the journalists that it is difficult to get the right and complete information," Zupčević explained.
He added that journalists had a hard time getting information related to the coronavirus pandemic.
"When it comes to coronavirus, journalists followed online press conferences, but when they researched for themselves on what principle these data were given, then they saw that they do not actually get complete and accurate information about everything that is happening in our country," said Zupčević.
The Secretary-General of the Association of BH Journalists, Borka Rudić, is of the opinion that "the key problem of access to public information in BiH, which has not changed since the laws were passed, is that information, especially that owned by public bodies, is not considered a public good."
"Access to information is difficult because politicians, institutions, those who possess information of public importance hide that information, consider it their property, not a public good, what they must share with the public and all citizens, and therefore with the media," Rudić told FENA.
According to her, the media representatives occasionally turn to the Helpline for journalists in cases of denial of access to information.
"We have four or five such cases a year, and they are mostly information requested by journalists in connection with cases within the investigative journalism procedure on topics such as corruption, indications that crime was committed, an attempt to obtain information in order to clarify some stories about the fact that there is unlawful behavior in certain institutions," said Rudić.
She emphasized that the problem is in the application of the law in BiH, i.e., that "we do not have harmonized laws on freedom of access to information on the territory of the state of BiH".
"Some laws have penal provisions while others do not and what is really a problem in the appeal procedure of journalists in cases when they do not receive information, is lack of a clear procedure on how the appeal procedure can be conducted.
I also believe that the Ombudsman Institution needs to deal much more with this issue of access to public information and to react more often when that information is denied. Not to spend too much time on procedures, but to react promptly, even with a public statement of the Ombudsman Institution that information must be given to the media and journalists that are important for the entire public," stressed Rudić.
She added that, first of all, in his period of the coronavirus pandemic, the media were denied answers to questions regarding public procurement of equipment, medicines, disinfectants, masks and everything that the competent governments did during the pandemic period.
(FENA) S. R.
