ZAGREB, 13.03.2018. – Na godinu dana zatvora i uvjetnu kaznu od tri godine, osuđen je Ivan Goluban iz Zaboka koji je krajem 2016. godine tri puta SMS porukama prijetio smrću predsjedniku HND-a Saši Lekoviću.

Presudu je donio Opštinski sud u Zlataru, a kako su se i tuženi i tužitelj, Opštinsko državno odvjetništvou Zlataru, odrekli prava na žalbu, ova prvostepenska odluka ujedno je postala i pravomoćna.

Prema obrazloženju presude Ivan Goluban osuđen je jer je Sud nedvojbeno utvrdio kako je upravo on u tri navrata poslao Saši Lekoviću na njegov privatni broj mobitela prijetnje smrću. Dva puta je to učinio 6. novembra te ponovo 20. novembra 2016. godine.

Izrečena kazna od jedne godine zatvora neće biti izvršena ako Ivan Goluban u roku od tri godine ne počini novo kazneno djelo.

Još uvijek nema informacija o tome što je učinjeno u vezi s prijavama Saše Lekovića policiji još nekoliko slučajeva prijetnji smrću na društvenim mrežama te pismom koje je poslano na adresu Hrvatskog novinarskog društva još u maju 2015. godine.

Leković je prijavio i pokušaj ubistva nakon što je 28. okrtobra 2016. godine doživio prometnu nesreću zbog toga što je točak njegovog automobila bio onesposobljen.

Podsjećamo da su neriješeni slučajevi prijetnji smrću te pokušaja ubistva i drugih hrvatskih novinara. Status svih slučaja napada i prijetnji od 2014. možete pronaći na safejournalists.net.

STRASBOURG, 07.03.2018. – The Council of Europe has issued guidelines to its 47 member states in order to promote media pluralism, transparency of media ownership and media literacy.

In a Recommendation adopted today, the Committee of Ministers endorses a comprehensive framework of guidelines for creating a pluralist, transparent and participatory media environment, both offline and online.

States are encouraged to develop strategies for increasing the sustainability of a variety of media ranging from public service media, local, minority, community and cross-border media.

States are also encouraged to support quality independent and investigative journalism, whilst fully respecting the editorial and operational autonomy of the media. The recommendation also provides guidelines which are to assure visibility of diverse content across a number of platforms and help expose it to the widest possible audience through media literacy programmes.

In its preamble, the Recommendation points out the role of internet platforms:  “Internet intermediaries have acquired increasing control over the flow, availability, findability and accessibility of information and other content online. (…) The wide scope of information they distribute, their wide audience reach and their potential for highly targeted advertising have contributed to a shift of advertising and marketing revenues towards the internet. These trends challenge the traditional media business models and contribute to an increase in media consolidation and convergence. One or a small number of media owners or groups can acquire positions of considerable power where they can separately or jointly set the agenda of public debate and significantly influence or shape public opinion, reproducing the same content across all platforms on which they are present. These trends can also lead to cost-cutting, job losses in traditional journalism and established media sectors, and the risk of financial dependence for journalists and the media, which may ultimately cause a reduction in diversity, reliability and quality of news and content, and impoverish public debate.”

“It is imperative that these changes are appropriately reflected in media regulation in order to maintain or restore the integrity of the democratic process and to prevent bias, misleading information or suppression of information. New policy responses and strategic solutions are needed to sustain independent, quality journalism and to enhance citizens’ access to diverse content across all media types and formats. It is also necessary to address the growing concerns arising from pressure exerted on the media by political and economic interests, acting alone or in concert, in order to influence public opinion or otherwise impinge on the independence of the media. The ultimate and overarching objective of State policies in support of media pluralism should be the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of expression.”

The adopted guidelines call on states to support concrete measures for the media and media pluralism:

• “States should develop, in consultation with representatives of the media and civil society organisations, strategies and mechanisms to support professional news media and quality independent and investigative journalism”;
• “States are encouraged to provide various forms of financial support such as advertising and subsidies. States are also encouraged to support projects relating to journalism education, media research, investigative journalism and innovative approaches to strengthen media pluralism and freedom of expression”;
• “Support measures should have clearly defined purposes and should be based on predetermined, clear, precise, equitable, objective and transparent criteria. They should be implemented in full respect of the editorial and operational autonomy of the media”;
• “Support measures should be administered in a non-discriminatory and transparent manner by a body enjoying functional and operational autonomy, such as an independent media regulatory authority”.

Furthermore, the recommendation encourages states to develop regulatory frameworks to promote transparency of media ownership.

BEOGRAD, 13.03.2018. – Zbog čitanja dokumentacije s poverljivom sadržinom javnost i mediji bili isključeni sa današnjeg suđenja za ubistvo novinara Slavka Ćuruvije. Odbrana očekuje da se sud izjasni o predlogu da se kao svedoci pozovu Aleksandar Vučić, Tomislav Nikolić i ostali koji su činili državni vrh u vreme Ćuruvijinog ubistva.

U Specijalnom sudu danas je nastavljeno suđenje za ubistvo novinara Slavka Ćuruvije, ali predstavnici medija nisu mogli da ga prate jer je bilo zatvoreno za javnost. Kako je rečeno na samom početku, s obzirom na planirano vršenje uvida u pisanu dokumentaciju sa poverljivim podacima, zbog interesa nacionalne bezbednosti odlučeno je da javnost bude isključena.

Advokat odbrane Vladimir Marinkov rekao je da se nada da će sudsko veće na sledećem pretresu odlučivati o svim dokaznim predlozima odbrane, što je, prema njegovim rečima, sudija danas i najavila.

On je rekao da je odbrana predložila da se sasluša i bivši načelnik Generalštaba Dragoljub Ojdanić, koji bi trebalo da pobije deo činjenica, opisa i vremenskog toka kako je dat u optužnici a tiče se Radomira Markovića, odnosno onoga što je u tom kontekstu govorio Milorad Luković Legija.

S druge strane, advokatica Zora Dobričanin Nikodinović kaže da nije sigurna da li se suđenje privodi kraju jer svedoka koje je ona predložila, kako je rekla, „ima jedno petnaest“, ali se sud o tome još nije izjasnio. Prema njenim rečima, radi se o svedocima iz državnog vrha iz 1999. godine, osim dvojice, među kojima je i novinar Predrag Popovićza koga je sud nakon pripremnog ročišta odlučio da će biti ispitan.

„S obzirom na to da se u optužnici kaže da je krivično delo izvršeno radi očuvanja vlasti, ja sam pozvala ljude koji su u tom trenutku bili vlast, da vidim šta znaju o tome“, kaže Zora Dobričanin Nikodinović.

Neki od ljudi sa tog spiska iz državnog vrha su, kako je navela, i aktuelni predsednik Srbije Aleksandar Vučić, Tomislav Nikolić, Zoran Lilić i Milovan Bojić.

Suđenje će biti nastavljeno 19. marta za kada je planirano izvođenje pisane dokumentacije.

SARAJEVO, 12.03.2018.-A decade ago and as a result of internet developing era in BiH, it was almost impossible to imagine that every major place or city (town) in BiH would have tens of online media houses operating and almost every village would have its “official” web page or local website. Printed media houses, due to expensive and costly production have, on one hand, been lacking behind and losing the persistence race in the media field, including radio stations, while on the other hand, almost everyone has had a “smartphone”.

Consequently, almost every single person, out of 3.8 billion internet users on our planet has access to all kinds of different information, including, for instance, local affairs in Sipovaca, Veljaci or Vitina small villages in Herzegovina. The importance of local media houses has often been neglected because many people would believe that they (local media houses) have released “less important” news, events, affairs from a local community since they were mainly focused on news and affairs deriving from “high-level politics” or globally available news as well.

This approach is however completely wrong and incorrect. We have often been in a position to find out and discover what the new American president has stated and what the reaction to this statement, by his Russian colleague, would be. On one hand, we have also been able to find out what happened in France or Germany, and on the other hand, we were unaware of what happened in our local community. These local affairs may include a variety of events including the organization of mutual and community – based cleaning of local river banks from garbage or if the local farmers had been satisfied with harvesting and crops and also, what did people in our local community tend to instigate or encourage etc.

Local media houses have often reflected authentic media picture of a local community where one of the last surviving symbol of so-called affirmative (positive) and good news in the pandemic world of the tabloid – based news (trash news) remained. They would often report, in a rather brave manner, about negative social affairs, including criminal affairs, corruption and bribery from their local communities and many journalists, even from bigger news agencies can envy these local community journalists and their work. Journalists working for local media houses are often journalists – volunteers and working in such media houses has sometimes been indeed dangerous and risky, especially in communities where common public thinking that anyone can assault, attack and even beat the journalists because he/she dared to do something, as this is still considered as commonly accepted opinion.

A conclusion that pluralism does exist amongst local media house and that each and every local media house has its own readers or viewers (even thousands of them) follows the prior. The significance of local media operating houses is also often identified and recognized by the local community that may provide financial support and fund them as well. This kind of support is crucial for their persistence, survival, and existence, as long as this support does not cause obstruction and limitation to their work and media freedom and liberty in the first place. However, taking into consideration that this is about small local media houses, the possibility of political and other associated pressures is greater as well. This influence would additionally impact the readers and viewers thus accomplishing certain political goals. This represents rather a significant issue not concerning local media houses only, but also concerning big ones as well (private media houses and often public media houses too).

However, despite all of the above mentioned, pluralism which exists in local media houses in BiH may often be compared to media houses in more developed countries and is necessary for local communities. At the same time, the local community should indeed support their work and should accept undesired critics as personal correction tool in terms of having the responsibility with the purpose of creating a common improvement of public existence in their scope of work. But, isn’t this the sign that I abhorred into the area of utopia here?

This text is a part of E-Bulletin– fourth 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.