PODGORICA, 22.05.2020. – The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica (ODT), ordered detention for up to 72 hours to the Radoslav Gile Stanisic, suspected of being the ordering party of the “Vijesti” vehicle ignition series, “Vijesti” reports.

He was arrested in Serbia yesterday, and the local police handed him over to his Montenegrin colleagues at the Dobrakovo border crossing.

“R.S. was taken into custody due to the burning of the ‘Vijesti’ vehicle on the order of the state prosecutor in the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica. The state prosecutor questioned the person as a suspect. After the hearing, the state prosecutor ordered up to 72 hours of detention for the suspect of the act of causing general danger through incitement”, ODT spokeswoman, prosecutor Milica Mandić, told to “Vijesti “.

“Vijesti” recently announced that Stanišić had to organize the juvenile D.M. and S.P. – to set fire to several editorial cars of the independent daily “Vijesti” from the jail in Spuž, because he spent the whole of 2011 behind bars.

Montenegrin police announced in April that cases of ignition of the vehicle of the independent daily Vijesti from 2011 and 2014 have been illuminated and two people have been arrested.  It was reported that two arrested were directly involved in the vehicle’s ignition, and that they search for one person for suspect of incitement.

The Podgorica daily’s vehicles were targeted by vandals for a couple of times, so the firing was reported to police in July and August 2011 and February 2014. In total, five vehicles were damaged and destroyed, and no injuries were reported in these incidents.

PODGORICA, 22.05.2020. – The Police Administration of Montenegro has identified a person who recently sent an e-mail to the editorial office of Radio Dux, which was full of hate speech on national and religious grounds.

Radio “Dux” is the radio station of the Croatian people in Montenegro.

According to the police, the competent prosecutor believes that there are no elements of a criminal offense in the e-mail, so the defendant was taken to the Court for misdemeanors due to insults on national and religious grounds. He can be fined 250 to 1,500 euros or up to 60 days in prison for the offense.

The radio editorial office welcomed the police action.

“We really can’t understand why the person in question was provoked and sent an e-mail like this. Let’s remind that, especially nowadays, the most important thing is coexistence, tolerance and love that we share with each other, and we hope that there will be no more such incidents”, it is said from that radio.

SKOPJE, 21.05.2020 – The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM), the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) and the Council of Media Ethics in Macedonia (CEMM) believe the Government should refrain from hasty and insufficiently thought-out solutions in the media sphere, especially in the pre-election period.

The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus affects the financial power of the media in general and that is why the government needs to exhaust all other opportunities for support of the media before considering any direct financial assistance.

In this regard, we propose that the Government additionally exempt the televisions and radios from numerous obligations to the state, primarily to AAAMS and to the Agency for Electronic Communications in order to help their work in times of crisis. In addition, an analysis should be made on new linear tax relief for traditional and online media. This way the government will demonstrate that it tries to create favorable conditions for the media to function in times of crisis, and at the same time will not show selectivity in their support.

On the other hand, if the crisis in the media content, which exists even before the coronavirus still does not show signs of recovery, we believe that in the future, the government should consider creating temporary support for innovative and creative media projects, for all media, which would improve the quality of the program, as well as the economic situation of journalists.

In order to define criteria and inclusiveness in the process of considering the model that should meet the standards of the EU members, it will be necessary for this process to go through a wide public debate with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders. Immediately after the elections, the Parliament should adopt a legal solution with a broader consensus on this extremely important topic.

An important aspect of this type of financial support is that all interested media will be able to apply. We urge that these finances must not disrupt the media market or create conditions for new non-market impacts. Therefore, their scope should be adequate.

Furthermore, there should be guarantees that the funds would be used to improve the socio-economic position of journalists and media workers and to create quality media content which is of public interest.

AJM, SSNM and CMEM and other partner journalistic and media organizations in the coming period will ask assistance from some of our strategic partners such as the International Federation of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, the EU Delegation in Skopje, the US Embassy to North Macedonia and the OSCE Mission to Skopje to share the positive comparative experiences, in order to serve as a direction in the wider public debate, after the elections, for finding the best solutions.

SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, 20.05.2020. – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association sends a public protest to the Board of the House of Peoples of Federation BiH, the leadership of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and the House of Representatives of Parliamentary Assembly BiH for preventing media representatives from adequately covering today’s sessions of these bodies, and humiliating of journalists by MPs.

Although it was previously announced that the hearings of those involved in the affair “Respirators” would be open to the public, the Board of the House of Peoples of FBiH, formed to establish all the facts about the disputed procurement of 100 respirators through the company “Srebrena malina”, denied journalists such an opportunity, sharing information with them after the hearing. At the same time, in Banja Luka, media crews were forced to follow a special session of the RS National Assembly in the hallway of the Government building, without adequate conditions for monitoring MPs’ discussions or writing and sending their reports, as well as without respecting physical distance measures over coronavirus pandemic. In the state parliament, at the session of the House of Representatives, Sanja Vulić, a member of SNSD, addressed the journalists in a very rude and disparaging way, and instead of answering a legitimate journalistic question about the disproportionately high salaries of parliamentarians, she answered that “it is not her fault” that journalists are „maybe dissatisfied with their salary “.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists considers it inadmissible to violate the right to freedom of expression and deny the right to directly follow events that arouse great public interest, as is the case with hearings of those involved in the disputed procurement in Federation or a special session of the NARS, which considered and adopted the decision on lifting the state of emergency in that entity.

We remind that it is a legal obligation of all public officials and representatives of parliamentary bodies to ensure access to public information as much as possible and in accordance with the public interest. Also, the duty of parliamentarians is not to comment on the salaries of journalists, but to answer journalists’ questions concretely, with arguments, with mutual respect and appreciation.

Poor and inadequate working conditions for journalists, with the frequent denigration of the profession by government officials, create an environment in which media professionals work under constant pressure, which is certainly not good for the journalistic community or for those whose work, political moves and media decisions journalists report about.

SARAJEVO, 20.05.2020. – The European Journalism Centre (EJC), in partnership with the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP), published a list of the first 57 media organizations to receive grants from the COVID-19 support fund.

As published on the EJC website, funds from this fund were allocated to three media organizations that applied from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Doo Vidik – RTV Slon (EUR 25,000), Independent Radio Feral (EUR 10,000) and Nezavisna televizija NTV-IC Kakanj (EUR 25,000).

Grants in the amount of 10,000 to 25,000 euros for emergency assistance to media outlets whose survival is endangered due to the crisis situation caused by the pandemic were also given to media organizations from Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine and United Kingdom.

The funds are helping organisations cover the salaries of staff members; bring on board freelancers; replace revenue from the making and distribution of printed publications or from donations / subscriptions / membership; supplement or replace lost advertising revenue or revenue from complementary business activities, such as events; and pay for rent, equipment and other technology essential to executing their work.

The EJC received an unprecedented response to their call for the Fund – 1,857 applications in total. Of these, 988 were for the Emergency Fund.

In the coming weeks, EJC will announce the news organisations and freelance journalists receiving funding through the Engagement Fund and the Innovation Fund.

SARAJEVO/BANJA LUKA, 19.05.2020. – The BH Journalists Association in cooperation with the associations of psychologists of Sarajevo Canton and Republika Srpska, and with three clinical psychologists – therapists from Banja Luka, Mostar and Sarajevo, began providing free psychological support to journalists, bloggers, freelancers and other media workers throughout BiH.

The program of psychological support to media professionals includes online psychological counseling, individual support of therapists via Skype and group work with members of newsrooms. In the next three months, all those interested will be able to get free advice with a program that will include expert psychological support in overcoming professional stress and fatigue and developing techniques to combat fear, uncertainty and other forms of pressure media workers, bloggers and activits are exposed to at professional or private level.

You can apply for psychological help via link https://bhnovinari.ba/bs/psiholoska-pomoc/.

You can also contact by e-mail the associations of psychologists of Sarajevo Canton [email protected] and Republika Srpska [email protected].

For providing direct contact with a psychologist-therapist, all interested parties can contact BH Journalists Association via e-mail [email protected], or by phone numbers 033 223 818 and 033 255 600.

We emphasize that privacy is guaranteed to everyone who applies and that only psychologists will have their personal data at their disposal.

The BH Journalists developed the psychological support program with the help of Free Press Unlimited organization from Netherlands.