prijava
SARAJEVO, December 8 (FENA) – Inadequate or too slow prosecution and the lack of impunity against attacks on media representatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina creates fertile ground for new attacks, which are becoming more frequent and brutal from year to year, including the attempted murder of Vladimir Kovačević in Banja Luka, said today the Secretary-General of the Association of Journalists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fedžad Forto.
In his address to the members of the Temporary Investigation Commission of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH for determining the situation in the judicial institutions of BiH, he reminded that the Association of Journalists is the oldest media professional association.
He assessed that the parliament, as a representation of citizens, is the right place for dialogue with representatives of the media community as a kind of public voice and the foundation of freedom of expression, since only mutual cooperation and respect can improve the state of media freedoms in the country.
Bosnia and Herzegovina rank 58th in the Reporters Without Borders Media Freedom Index, but for consolation, Forto says, is ranked best by neighboring countries, including European Union members such as Croatia, Hungary or Bulgaria.
The growing number of attacks on journalists, says Forto, could have unforeseeable consequences for the state of freedom of expression as one of the basic pillars of a democratic society. Even in 2020, when the world faced the problem of the coronavirus pandemic, attacks on media representatives in BiH did not stop, nor did bad examples of court practice.
The Secretary-General cited several examples of attacks, including a hacker attack on the Patria news agency, a threat by Nermin Džafić, a police officer from the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to journalist Avdo Avdić, and a threat to the head of Republika Srpska in Russia, Duško Perović.
Also, two people connected with the criminal milieu broke into the editorial office of the Faktor portal on April 14 because of an article about a car being set on fire, and Forto paid special attention to the "Ventilators" affair and attacks on journalists who reported on the affair.
Threats of criminal charges against journalists were also used by the president of the Cantonal Committee of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), Fikret Prevljak, says Forto, citing the alleged existence of criminal charges as the reason for removing TVSA director Duška Jurišić, which turned out to be fake.
“An incredible two years after the demonstrations of some war veterans in Sarajevo and the attack on the cameramen of Klix and Al Jazeera, the Municipal Court in Sarajevo handed down verdicts to the attackers for the crime of violent behavior - six months probation,” reminds Forto.
The editor of the E-trafika portal, Vanja Stokić, after reporting on migrants, received death threats via Facebook from a well-known criminal from Bratunac, Goran Živanović. The threats were immediately reported to the police and Živanović was quickly found and taken into custody.
“However, the shock came when after some time the Banja Luka prosecutor's office dropped the case against Živanović, explaining that his death threats were an expression of opinion, and Reporters Without Borders informed the world public about this great failure of the judiciary,” underlined Forto.
Forto ended his presentation on the actions of judicial institutions with the decision of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton, i.e. Prosecutor Sanita Imamović, from November 20 that no investigation will be conducted against Huso Ćesir and Muamer Ćesir for the crime of light bodily injury.
“The infamous attack of the President of the Municipal Board of SDA Novi Grad Huse Ćesir took place in March 2019 after Žurnal wrote about the business of his company Bosnaplast, which means that the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office took an incredible year and a half to make a decision and we are talking here about a case that was filmed in detail by a camera,” he said.
He also mentioned several positive cases of the work of judicial institutions, which were recorded mainly in the Zenica-Doboj Canton, which thus turned out to be a leader in the defense of journalistic freedoms.
As the Secretary-General of the Association of Journalists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fedžad Forto, concluded, there is a great need to establish a permanent dialogue between professional journalists' associations, legislative bodies, and the academic community in order to find adequate legal and other solutions to protect journalists from increasing attacks and defend freedom of expression as the foundation of a democratic society.
Commission Chairman Damir Arnaut (Our Party) was interested in the openness of judicial institutions to the media, and Forto pointed out the closeness of judicial institutions to the media, which was pointed out in the OSCE Report called "Impunity Syndrome", and the problem of lack of adequate spokesperson. The deputies agreed that the impunity of attacks on journalists was worrying, and it was proposed that legal changes be made that would protect journalists on the ground.
(FENA) L. N.
