SARAJEVO, 12.02.2019.-Steering committee of BHJA expresses concern over the death  threat to Marko Radoja, the editor-in-chief of the BHT Informativ Program, and requests a urgent investigation and sanctioning this criminal offense. A letter with brutal threats was sent to Marko Radoja from Chicago (USA),  from the person who appoints himself/herself „Duke Trivo“ with a request to reappoint  Svjetlana Topalić, former Desk editor, on this editorial position.

We consider threats to be unacceptable and a direct safety endangerment the editor Editors Radoja.  Therefore, Federal Police Directorate must investigate who are threats coming from and who is behind them. We ultimately request more efficient action of the police and, later on, judicial institutions, since they are publicly responsible and legally obligated to protect the safety of all citizens, including journalists and editors.

Unfortunately, the impunity of threats to journalists has become a practice in BiH! The authorized police structures and prosecutor’s offices conduct investigations slowly, insufficiently thoroughly and inefficiently, and herewith indirectly reinforcing the public perception of the of violence against media professionals, in real life but as well as the Internet. Steering committee of BHJA recalls that the death threat Marko Radoja recieved in July 2018 have not been processed yet. After the registration and investigation at the East Sarajevo Police Station, on 7 August last year, the case was handed over to the District Public Prosecutor’s Office for further action, but there are still no results or progress in the legal conclusion of this case.

Steering committee of BHJA once again points to the need for stronger criminal protection of journalists in cases of physical attacks, threats or other criminal offenses related to the performance of journalistic tasks, and invites competent ministries of justice at the state and entity levels to urgently propose, and parliaments adopt amendments to criminal law for the legal more effective protection of the freedom of expression and safety of journalists.

BELGRADE, 12.02.2019. – In order to strengthen their fight to protect the rights of journalists and media workers in the region of the Western Balkans and Turkey, representatives of 14 organizations, dealing with the rights of media employees, and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) signed today the Charter on Working Conditions for Journalists.

On behalf of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (SMCG), the Charter was signed by President Marijana Camovic.

The charter, which is the first document of its kind in Europe, was presented in Belgrade at a press conference.

“This is a non-binding guideline on working conditions signed by representatives of 14 journalist organizations affiliated with the European Federation of Journalists and leading trade unions of journalist from the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey,” said the president of SMCG, Marijana Camovic.

Charter has 10 articles condensing the main principles affecting the working relationship between journalists, their employers and the public opinion. The Charter is dealing with freedom of association, right to a written contract, right to collective bargaining, non discrimination, right to disconnect, ethical standards. Also, it includes safety and protection, right to refuse to sign a content, right to protect journalistic sources, decent working conditions.

EFJ addresses that it is open for signature to all journalists organisations, private and public media companies which would like to endorse the principles.

SARAJEVO, 12.02.2019.-The choice of public broadcasting service editor of information, news and documentary program, has not only confirmed direct political influence on the program product of the public broadcasters, but it has, once again, jeopardized the survival and persistence of the public broadcasting system in Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the fundamentals aspects of democracy – based political principles that the European Union expects from us.

Wrapped model of ethnic and national key, which deviates from fundamental civil values of modern democratic societies, constant implementation of (para) political model of governing and managing of public communication system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, does not only questions free information flow, but also deprive the entire national communication system, making it subordinate and subject to (mainly) political disorientation of general public, as the only potent political category in transitional process.

In this context of considering challenges that modern public radio and television system in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been facing, it is important to define the necessity of the following syntagma, namely “(para) political model”, in terms of identifying a specific form of managing the public broadcasting system, being implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is clear that the limiting factor for the entire reform of public works and organization of political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, represents constitutional determination of political processes subjects through the categories of constitutive (constitutionally equal) ethnic groups and other citizens, which is primarily implemented during the appointing of responsible persons to highly – ranked public functions and duties.

However, if we analyze current cases of appointing certain individuals to editing functions at the state broadcasting level, we shall soon realize that the ethnic key, that is, referring to constitutional organization of public system, actually displays the cover (“smoked screen”) for positioning of political figures who cannot be considered and additionally treated as competent job performers, in order to perform particular and demanding functions.

This specific politics of governing, managing and handling public functions, resulted in the situation where the public interest has been brought to a complete absence of comprehension and understanding of public interest or political influences on the quality of lives and the existence of citizens, which at the same time, shall open utter freedom for the privatization of democratic processes within political parties.

Public financing of private interests

Having in mind a common definition of public services as the pre-established system by the public, including citizens’ financing and supervising, which additionally represents primary regulators of business operation transparencies of public radio and television systems, we shall accordingly acknowledge that that the process of governing and managing the public communication in Bosnia and Herzegovina will move in the opposite direction, comparing to theoretical presumptions.

Regardless to how unacceptable the model of constitutional principles of ethnic groups living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which denies and negates a citizen as a universal democratic category, this model does not necessarily exclude competencies of particular ethnic group members and at the same time, it cannot serve as the polygon and field for political party interventions, as part of the process which directly reflects to democratization of the entire political situation and state during the transitional period of state and public institutions.

The reasons for accepting the privatization of public works can be seen in common and silent acceptance of present situation which can be considered as inevitable relationship of powerful positions, in which common citizen does not identify her/ himself as active subject of political processes, but rather as the victim of actual cultural and historical context, again where political party represents the only legitimate subject for the accomplishment of political rights.

On the other hand, if we take the example of public radio and television system and constant decline of public trust into disturbed media contents and programs, we shall clearly discover that the core of this problem is seen in producers (journalists), who deliberately abandoned public communications leaving it in mercy and disgrace of outer factors (mostly factors of political nature), while they, at the same time, failed to recognize the public interest, as key financiers, as a crucial factor of the sustainability of the public broadcasting independence.

Reaction to political interference during the process of managing the public broadcasters emerges at the end of the process of appointing key figures to responsible functions or during the time where personal existence of journalists as media house employees becomes jeopardized or endangered. In this kind of determined relationships, in relation with public responsibility, citizens do not want to be financiers of public works which, instead of serving common public interests, become an open room for the privatization of public institutions and instrument-based democratic processes, with the purpose of prevailing over powerful positions.

Abstraction of responsibility

One of the crucial problems during the process of identification of responsibility aimed to manipulate over public works is the abstraction of subjects referred to as the bearers of responsibilities for actions that, looking from long – term perspective, have the non-affirmative and negative impact on general public interests. Hence, for instance, the “political parties”, “official and authorized institutions”, “ruling governments”, “members of parliaments / assemblies” or other similar and associated syntagm, have been used to cover and hide the identity of individuals considered as hosts of public works, which, in specific period undermined and violated public interest, are used in rare critical attitudes and opinions in relation with the misuse of public works.

This is exactly how, during the process of appointing of editors of information, news and documentary programs in original information, the relationship between voices within managing boards which always conducts these appointing, without additional elaboration of every single candidate and member, towards this particular process; or even failed to present legal set of rules as part of the procedure upon which such appointing is conducted. On the other hand, critics directed to the selection of candidates also failed to offer an explanation of required corrections during the appointing process, or complaints regarding the competences of the members of the managing board, which had launched the above mentioned appointing procedure.

Even in criticizing such procedures there is a clear indication regarding how behind this process there is most probably a “political party”, and that “official and authorized institutions” being subject to instrumentalization by the “ethnic parties”, have no capacities to respond during the process of the privatization of public works. It is because of these abstract identifications of public responsibilities that citizens lose interest for the responsibility of public functions hosts (including their legal duties), and public discussions, covering the current issues, most likely terminates within a few days, which was the case with the disputable appointing process of certain people in public and state service institutions. Having in mind this kind of political immaturity in leading and managing public works, but also in the discussion regarding the responsibility of public function hosts, we can understand that business implementation, which implies the reform of the total political system, has been stagnating ever since the end of military conflict and war.

For example, the laws regulating the field of public broadcasting has never even been clearly defined and despite many suggestions and recommendations by certain European institutions for reform monitoring, responsible people which at a certain point did perform functions in this particular area terminated their mandates without any progress in this specific process. Opposite to frequent suggestions for the establishment of central – based bodies in order to attain work supervision in most appropriate way, as, for instance, would best be demonstrated through the establishment of the Corporation of public services, as the system manages to remain sustainable based upon the fundamentals of divided responsibilities and unstable supervision over human resources and economic operations, which furthermore allows constant privatization of public services and the entire system of public communication.

In these relationships of political managing, citizen (who shall remain a permanent marginalized category and political rights, including the opportunity for performing managing positions), can be attained mainly through the membership in the political party, which again, in modern Bosnian and Herzegovinian political context is represented through corporations for common goods.

This text is a part of E-Bulletin– eighth edition of special serial of BHN online bulletin implemented through the “Media and Public Reputation” (origin. “Mediji i javni ugled”) project, also representing a contribution to public debate regarding the transparency of media ownership and upholding and encouraging the passing of set of laws aimed to advance media field and information market in BiH.

PODGORICA, 09.02.2019. -Glavni odbor Sindikata medija Crne Gore (GO SMCG) na jučerašnjoj sjednici  je konstatovao da su sindikalne organizacije lokalnih javnih emitera RTV Ulcinj i RTV Cetinje nove članice SMCG. Prihvatanjem u članstvo koleginica i kolega iz Ulcinja i sa Cetinja Glavni odbor je uvećan na 14 članova.

Nove članice Glavnog odbora su predsjednice sindikalnih organizacija i to Marija Todorović iz RTV Cetinje i Suzana Mujić iz RTV Ulcinj.

One su upoznale Glavni odbor sa stanjem u medijima u kojima rade. Konstatovano je da je najlošija situacija u Ulcinju jer im se duguje 15 zarada, a GO je već imao aktivnosti koje bi trebalo da vode ka stabilizaciji situacije u tom mediju.

Na sjednici je, između ostalog, razgovarano i o stanju u drugim sindikalnim organizacijama koje čine SMCG, a dogovorene su i naredne aktivnosti granskog sindikata.

SMCG sada okuplja  sedam sindikalnih organizacija iz lokalnih javnih emitera, pet iz privatnih, iz Javnog servisa RTCG kao i jedan dio individualnih članova.

SARAJEVO, 8.2.2019.-Local media role is indeed significant for any community or society, but its sustainability and prevalence shall remain uncertain because local communities (municipalities) in BiH keep reducing financial budget means and funds that should be allocated to media houses from year to year.

Constant income decline, deriving from commercial advertising, due to poor economic state and situation in BiH and also, due to vast commercial advertising opportunities available on the internet, also represents an additional problem, as far as this particular issue is concerned. The state of local media houses also varies from one local community (municipality) to another, since they are the financiers of these media houses.

Considering that there is no law provision, clearly defining and regulating the issue of local media financing, local authorities make their own decisions regarding the amount of money they plan to allocate to public local media houses. There are very few local communities (municipalities) that are capable of financing more than one media house, mostly radio stations and periodic printed media (on one hand), while on the other hand; local TV stations almost completely vanished from the market. With the expansion of the internet, we noticed an increasing number of local internet and websites and their functional work and operations do not require significant financing grants, including equipment and transparency as well.

As far as the number of media houses in Foca municipality is concerned (and the population of Foca is around 20 000), the situation is quite poor, because there is only one local radio station and the number of local websites (and they operate on copy-paste news principle) is increasing. A two – month local community (Foca municipality) bulletin was the only printed media for years, but its last edition was published a few years ago, while local TV station was shut down in 1998. During the period of the last couple of years, an increasing number of local websites has been noticed, so along with the official Foca municipality web site, there are also many local websites, including Radio Foca, Foca24.info, Focak.org, Foca.live, Foca.Informer, Foca.Zurnal, as well as Foca News web site.

The number of these media houses does not necessarily mean that there is a pluralism of information present, including opinions, views, and contents in general. With the review of contents and programs, that the above-mentioned media plan to launch, it is clear that only Foca Radio announces and releases news, while other web site media simply take them and often do not even mentioned their original sources. Radio Foca web site broadcasts current news from the local community and these mainly include service and utility information, reports on cultural events and venues, including sports activities.

Foca24.info commenced with their work as a first independent information web site and as a result, they have more viewers than any other local web site, including Facebook followers. However, the fact that contents and posts on this web site are identical to those posted on Radio Foca official municipal web site, is indeed slashing. The basic difference is that the number of commercial advertisers on this particular web site is significantly larger and accordingly, so is the number of viewers watching posted texts or articles. On the other hand, there is no Impressum on this local web site, although almost everyone in Foca knows that Mr. Srebrenko Kunovac is the owner and entrepreneur of this local web site. He is also the member of the local assembly in Foca Municipality, which clearly indicates that his web site can be used for political purposes and goals, especially during the pre-election period. Non – transparency also represents a great problem for local media houses and ponderousness of broadcasted and posted information. With an exception of Radio Foca, as a public local media house, almost all other media houses operate quite anonymously.

Illegal websites with no Impressum posted where they should be, emerge on daily basis and their financing sources and potential political influence is almost impossible to detect. In such non – transparent and in terms of legality, unsettled and messy space, a room for manipulation is wide open, including the accomplishments of economic and political interests, but it is also open for sharing untrue, incorrect and unchecked information. Even if only true and correct information is posted, it does not guarantee the pluralism of views and opinions and reviewing of the truth from different perspectives. That is how we get one-sided and uniform – based reporting and self and auto-censorship additionally diminishes the integrity of journalism as a professional occupation.

Discussions regarding the absence of ownership transparency in the media field in BiH have become frequent, however, as far as the legal legislative is concerned, there have been no concrete steps forward regarding this issue. Apart from the transparency issue, regarding media ownership, it is crucial to provide the general public with the information, in relation to financing and spending of public money allocated to local media houses.

Radio Foca officials reckon that “taking the issue of financial reports during the local municipality sessions into serious consideration, outlines and highlights multi-purpose transparency as far as the spending of public budget money is concerned”. However, this can be considered as partial transparency, because Entity based laws on public enterprises define that all public enterprises and institutions, which includes public media houses, are requested and obliged to provide information regarding their financial business and they should make the information available to general public. Although public media receive and spend public money, the reality proved that these media houses usually provide financial reports only to governing structures that directly fund them.

There is no business report available at Radio Foca web site, but the official Budget Report for 2017 is available at official Foca Municipality web site. This report includes information regarding the expenditure of allocated amounts to the Culture and Information Center in Foca with Foca Radio as a constituent part of this center. According to relevant information, the most significant amount of money has been allocated for monthly employees’ wages/salaries, including superannuation costs, while the least money amount has been allocated for purchasing of material and equipment.

The information regarding the inner organizational chart, human resources, state of equipment and implemented programs are unavailable for the general public. It would necessary to raise public awareness regarding this particular problem, but due to lack of media literacy, including the importance of professional and transparent reporting, as well as business operations by media houses, this specific problem has never been taken into serious consideration.

This text is a part of E-Bulletin– eighth edition of special serial of BHN online bulletin implemented through the “Media and Public Reputation” (origin. “Mediji i javni ugled”) project, also representing a contribution to public debate regarding the transparency of media ownership and upholding and encouraging the passing of set of laws aimed to advance media field and information market in BiH.

PODGORICA, 07.02.2019. – The changes that took place on the media scene in Montenegro and in the media per se during the last year were not significant and did not increase the freedom of the media or the safety of journalists – it was emphasized on the presentation of the third report “Indicators of the level of media freedom and security of journalists – Montenegro 2018” prepared by the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro.

The report was produced in the framework of the EU project Western Balkans Regional Platform for advocating the media freedoms and the safety of journalists, and the authors are Marijana Camović and Bojana Laković Konatar. The period from September 2017 to September 2018 was monitored through three parts: legislative framework, working conditions in the media and the safety of journalists.

Laws have not been changed but changes of all media laws are in progress. According to Camovic, the Law on Media is planned to be changed in detail, and it is planned to make changes in terms of media registration, transparency of ownership, records of money received by the media on the basis of marketing, and the establishment of a media pluralism fund in which it would be highlighted 0.03% of the state budget and from which the money would be received by all commercial media.

“The proposals of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro which were related to the introduction of the obligation of the media to have a statute specifying the manner in which the editor-in-chief will be appointed, as well as the introduction of guarantees that the text in the public interest will be published regardless of the attitude of the owner have not been adopted. It was an attempt to reduce the auto-censure, censorship and influence of the owners on editorial policy, as pointed out by the experts of the Council of Europe, pointing out that this phenomenon is a Montenegrin specificity, but there was no understanding at the level of the Working Group for these ideas”, Camovic said.

The report included a survey of 136 journalists and editors, accounting for 17 percent of employees in media sector.

“More than a third of the interviewed journalists (35%) receive a salary of 400-500 euros, and every third journalist receives less than 400 euros. Every fifth journalist is lucky enough to have a salary of 500-600 euros, and only 12.5% of journalists receive a salary that is more than 600 euros. Wages in private media are higher than those in state ownership. The research also showed that editors were not willing to talk about their wages, that journalists mostly receive less than 500 euros, but also that there is a big difference between earnings of editors and journalists, which affects the average salary in the media”, said Lakovic Konatar, recalling that the average salary at the state level was 510 euros.

As many as 63% of respondents said that the journalists’ working hours had somewhat increased in the previous period, and as she said, the survey once again confirmed that journalists are experiencing their economic position all the worse year after year.

“According to the answers, as many as 60% of the respondents said, the economic position of journalists was very or very weak, and only a little less than 9% of the respondents believe that it strengthened partially or very. The opinion that the economic position of journalists has been weakened by the highest number of journalists in private media, and such an opinion is not affected by the function they perform in the media – both journalists and editors share that view”, explained Lakovic Konatar, adding that almost 15% of the respondents were forced to have some other paid job.

“Every fifth journalist is not free to join the union,” said this year’s research. Even 8% of the respondents answered the question “Are you free to join one of the unions?” responded “I do not know”, which may indicate the fact that they are afraid of the consequences that a “more open answer” would bring. When it comes to the union’s engagement of respondents, 38% said that they were part of one of the trade unions, while 60% said they were not a member of any union”, Lakovic Konatar said.

The research, she said, again showed that there is a hierarchy of influence, that is, that there are people who influence the work of journalists and that their influence is greater if they are closer to journalists in their everyday work. Thus, according to the answers of the interviewed journalists, it can be concluded that the editors have the greatest influence on their work. Almost 80% of the interviewed journalists said that editors have an exceptional, large or partial impact on their work, while only 17% of respondents said that editors influence poorly or not at all affect their work. Among those who are greatly influenced by the editors are mostly employed in private media, so every fifth respondent employed in private media said that editors influence him very.

In the second place, for the second year in a row, there are media managers, who according to opinion 53% of interviewed journalists influence them to some extent (partially, very or very). On the other hand, 42% of the respondents pointed out that they had little influence or did not affect their work at all.  The influence of managers is most obvious in private media, as evidenced by the research that showed that every fourth respondent faces such a problem, and pressure from managers is mostly felt by journalists (35%).

From the beginning of July 2017 until the end of June 2018, the Police Directorate (UP) of Montenegro recorded 9 events related to attacks on journalists, media employees and media assets. Two cases registered in the second half of 2017 relate to threats sent to a former journalist who is currently in the leading position of one political party.That is a reason why SMCG registered seven cases on web platform safejournalists.net.

The SMCG monitored everything that was happening in the prosecution, the police, and the courts in cases of attacks on journalists and those in which journalists were prosecutors or defendants.

The case of Jovo Martinovic, who was first sentenced to 18 months in prison for being a member of a criminal organization dealing with drug trafficking, was also observed. SMCG disagreed on this verdict because we believe that Martinovic was wronged.

The latest event is the first instance verdict of a person who jeopardized the safety of journalist Vijesti Jelena Jovanović, threatening her at her workplace.

BEOGRAD, 05.02.2019. – Regionalna platforma za zagovaranje medijskih sloboda i şigurnosti novinara koja zastupa više od 8.000 članova, najoštrije osuđuje prijetnje smrću koje su upućene novinarima N1 nakon što je Milenko Jovanov, potpredsjednik vladajuće Srpske napredne stranke, sugerisao da ta televizija nije objektivna i da je priznala nezavisno Kosovo.

Redakcija TV N1 u Beogradu primila je 4. februara seriju verbalnih napada na društvenim mrežama u kojima su novinari te televizije označeni kao „izdajice“ i „anti Srbi“. Redakcija je primila i pismo sa ozbiljnim prijetnjama da će nastradati novinari, njihove porodice, a zgrada televizije N1 biti dignuta u vazduh. “Da li vi imate vaše porodice, ubijate našu decu i unuke, a niste svesni ako dođe do rušenja, vaša zgrada će među prvima otići u vazduh, a može se desiti da ostanete bez svojih najmilijih. i zato vas mi veterani upozoravamo da se ne igrate sa ničijom sudbinom jer je vaša sudbina u našim rukama”, navodi se u pismu. Pošiljalac se potpisao kao Beogradski veterani ratova 1999., ali je predsjednik tog udruženja porekao bilo kakvu povezanost sa tom porukom i pozvao policiju da ispita cijeli slučaj.

Incident je prijavljen policiji.

“Predstavnici vlasti aludiranjem da je N1 priznala nezavisnost Kosova direktno podstiču i ohrabruju komentare na društvenim mrežama u kojima se ta televizija i njeni novinari proglašavaju za izdajnike“, rekao je Željko Bodrožić, potpredsjednik NUNS-a. On je dodao da „takvi nastupi nosilaca državnih funkcija ohrabruju pretnje i napade na novinare. Na tu opasnu pojavu NUNS već duže vreme ukazuje i poziva nosioce državnih funkcija da svojim primerom pokažu ostalima da treba da se uzdrže od takvih izjava.“

U poslednje tri godine NUNS je zabilježio više od 80 takvih pritisaka koji uključuju i javno etiketiranje novinara kao „izdajnika“, „stranih plaćenika“ i sličnih kvalifikacija izrečenih od strane državnih i lokalnih funkcionera.

Regionalna platforma podržava napore NUNS–a da zaštiti novinare i slobodu govora i poziva nadležne institucije da hitno istraže cijeli slučaj, privedu izvršioce, te im odrede adekvatnu kaznu.

Dodatno, apelujemo na najviše zvaničnike u Srbiji, predsjednika Aleksandra Vučića i premijerku Anu Brnabić, da osude ove jezive pretnje i utiču na svoje kolege da se suzdrže od javnog etiketiranja novinara.

Svaki napad na novinara je napad na javni interes, demokratiju i ljudska prava.

Skoplje – Beograd – Podgorica – Priština – Sarajevo – Zagreb

Udruženje/udruga BiH novinari

Sindikat medija Crne Gore

Hrvatsko novinarsko društvo

Udruženje novinara Kosova

Udruženje novinara Makedonije

Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije