The branch of the Croatian Journalists’ Association at Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) and the Branch of the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists at HRT warn of the non-transparent and unprofessional implementation of the selection procedure for the editor of the Informative Media Service (IMS) of HRT (according to the public tender from July 7, 2023) and express their dissatisfaction with the selection of Katarina Periša Čakarun for that function.

We can conclude from the process of implementing the tender for one of the key positions at Croatian Radiotelevision that it was made for one particular candidate. Namely, neither the public nor the employees know who is in the commission that conducted the competition, according to which methodology it was determined that the candidate meets certain conditions of the competition, it isn’t known why the conditions of the competition were changed compared to the previous one (from 2018), it isn’t known how many candidates applied for the competition, how many of them met the conditions of the competition, and finally, it isn’t clear from the Decision and explanation on the selection of Katarina Periša Čakarun why she is the only candidate who meets the required conditions of the competition.

It is important to warn the public that the elections for key positions at HRT are full of flaws and far from the level required by responsible behavior towards subscribers and the public. Candidates for the most important positions are asked for personal information and a brief explanation of the reasons for the application, without the obligation to present a plan and program of work that would show what the candidates are planning if they are elected.

The farce in the selection of program editors continues with the declaration of the creative staff, but only in an advisory capacity, so recently a person who received 67 votes out of 1377 employees who had the right to vote was elected to the position of editor-in-chief of Croatian Radio. For the appointment of the editor of IMS, a program that is responsible for professional and objective information of citizens, according to HRT’s rules, such a selection or statement by the employee is not necessary either.

We are talking about a candidate who until now worked as the editor of HRT’s IMS, and whose mandate began in 2016 with a “weekend” of unsuitable dismissals and was marked by scandals, omissions, the exodus of respected journalists and editors, public accusations of mobbing and cover-up of sexual harassment of female employees, the ultimate decline of professional standards, and finally final rulings on censorship, self-censorship and restriction of freedom of expression.

As the crown of such a mandate comes the Business and Development Strategy from 2022, one of the key documents of HRT, in which the Department of IMS, after analysis by expert bodies of HRT, received a rating of sufficient (2). In the assessment of the situation, it is stated that HTV’s information program does not enjoy sufficient trust among the public, and the citizens of the Republic of Croatia do not believe in its independence and impartiality, which was finally confirmed, as stated in the Strategy, by research conducted by HRT itself. The mentioned Strategy, in which special emphasis is placed on the return of relevance, was presented at the meeting of employees by the Director General of HRT, Robert Šveb.

Due to all of the above, we consider the re-election of Katarina Periša Čakarun to the position of a key person of IMS, in anticipation of the super-election year 2024, a continuation of the business and program policy that calls into question the respect for basic professional standards, journalistic freedoms, but also the right of the entire public to objective and credible information. Because of all of the above, we believe that this election, as well as the way it was conducted, is another nail in the coffin of professionalism, objectivity and media freedom in the public media broadcaster.

For the CJA Branch at HRT,

Gordana Škaljac Narančić, President of the Branch

For the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists Branch at HRT,

Maja Sever, president of the Commission

An N1 crew was not allowed into a Serbian government news conference because of “overcrowding” even though it received an invitation a day earlier, continuing the practice that the authorities have been following.

N1 crews have been refused permission to report from public areas in airports, open air markets, city pools, river beaches and other places.

Video of the news conference N1 was not allowed to attend showed that only a select few media crews were allowed to hear and question Science Minister Jelena Begovic in a virtually empty news conference hall.

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) chief Maja Sever said that the excuse given was unacceptable and recalled that the authorities have a duty to make sure journalists can attend news conferences.

N1 has been denied access and permission to report from a number of places. They were denied permission to report from open air markets which are managed by local administrations because reporters asked questions about prices and inflation.

Belgrade Zoo did not reply to questions by e-mail about plans for the zoo and an N1 crew was refused entry.

Permission to report from Belgrade city pools was never given nor was permission given to an N1 crew in Novi Sad to report from the city beach on the Danube.

Requests for interviews or comments were sent to doctors and health care staff, kindergartens, the Vojvodina government for comments on an oil spill in the Danube, organized crime prosecutors, the Mining and Energy Ministry about Rio Tinto, the Internal Affairs Ministry (MUP), Business Registers Agency and others.

The city administrations in Kragujevac and Nis have not responded to requests for comments from N1 for years.

Public officials have been refusing to appear on N1 TV for years and now public institutions have been refusing to answer questions.

Every journalist knows at least three cases that have remained “under the radar”. Colleagues have not even reported them to an editor or a professional association because they think that assaults are an integral part of journalism, they don’t believe that institutions will do anything about it, they don’t want to be perceived as victims or they don’t want to be hindered by reporting assaults and everything that follows in a regular job. These reasons are indeed (and unfortunately) very legitimate and reasonable. For journalists, name-calling, threats, intimidation and even physical attacks have become part of their everyday life and the reality they live. Cases that even reach court, let alone result in a satisfactory verdict, are rare. When you report an assault, you are exposed in public and persistently portrayed as a helpless victim. Suddenly, the texts and contributions you published, the awards you received, the changes you caused in your community, the innovations you created are no longer important. All that is put aside and you are perceived exclusively as a victim, you are given a label that is difficult to get rid of. And all this, the procedures of going to the police, communication with lawyers and international organizations, meetings with representatives of various professional associations, answering numerous journalist’s questions, daily appearances in the media… simply disrupt your life and distract you from your basic work – reporting. This ultimately puts you in a worse financial situation because less work means less money, especially if you are a freelance journalist/videographer/photographer.

In such circumstances, you are usually led by the thought that reporting an attack is the only correct decision, responsible behavior towards yourself and other colleagues, paving the way for those who will come after you, in order to get at least a partially functional system. However, there are also frequent moments when you cannot explain to yourself why you are doing it and for whose benefit. When you are so crushed, you see no end to the agony and no visible results of your struggle. Because reporting assaults in this country really is a struggle, on all possible fronts.

According to data from BH journalists and the Helpline for Journalists, which operates as part of the association, in as many as 70 percent of cases behind attacks and threats are politicians, persons in public positions in legislative and executive authorities, as well as managers in public companies.

“People close to political parties and leaders of political parties are at the forefront of online violence, who increasingly use their profiles on social networks as a means of brutally threatening journalists, repeating attacks and targeting only certain journalists. We should also add the targeting of BH journalists and leading people in the association as targets of political pressure and death threats, which occur mainly after public reactions to specific attacks on journalists and the media,” Borka Rudić from BH Journalists points out.

Therefore, they should not be surprised by the very rare, almost non-existent reactions of politicians to attacks on journalists. Thus, after the brutal hate attack in March of this year on a group of fifteen LGBTIQ activists, in which two journalists were physically injured, less than ten politicians spoke out. Some of them are Saša Magazinović, Ćamil Duraković and Vojin Mijatović. During that time, the opposition in Republika Srpska pretended that nothing was happening, probably because their comrade Draško Stanivuković heated up the atmosphere with his homophobic statements days before the attack. Support and condemnation were not even expected from the ruling coalition, especially since Milorad Dodik personally participated in the incitement of violence against the LGBTIQ community, with the assistance of the public service.

Laptop theft and car damage

And this is not an isolated example of non-reaction. A few days ago, in Sarajevo, someone broke into the apartment of the editors and journalists of the online magazine Žurnal, Eldin Karić and Žana Karić Gauk. On the day when their media was celebrating 14 years of work and when they were awarding a journalism award to colleagues from other newsrooms, someone entered their home and stole their computers. He did not touch other valuables. They see it as a message from the system, which is trying to intimidate them. Support came from the journalistic community, both in BiH and the region. They received physical protection from Internews and USAID, not institutions.

“The leaders of the city and municipality where we live ignored the case, as did other politicians at other levels of government. The only ones who spoke on this occasion were the Minister of Transport and Communications Edin Forto and the Deputy Minister of Human Rights Duška Jurišić”, says Žana Karić Gauk.

She points out that this attack did not scare them, because they have been working under pressure for years. The entire editorial office of the Žurnal is constantly threatened.

“This is a step further in intimidation and sending a message to all journalists that they are not safe anywhere, if they do their job as the profession dictates. However, the Žurnal’s mission will remain the same – an uncompromising fight against crime and corruption in a country captured by armchair robbers,” she emphasizes.

Sometimes the attack itself isn’t the worst part, it’s what follows – trying to get back to your normal lifestyle, regardless of what happened. At the beginning of March of this year, in Banja Luka, a man scratched the cars of the Buka portal, the editor of the Buka portal, Aleksandar Trifunović, and the EuroBlic journalist, Nikola Morača. The damage to three cars is measured in thousands of convertible marks. The perpetrator is a neighbor of Trifunović and Morača, whom they meet almost every day.

During his 25-year career, Aleksandar Trifunović was the target of a large number of attacks, threats, demands, pressures. After the attack on his property, he publicly stated several times that it was the most serious attack so far, because it also included his family. After that, the issue of security became his daily routine.

“The state of permanent threat, no matter how hard you try to prevent it from happening, leads you into anxious and paranoid states. Assumptions about what can happen to you are reinforced by name-calling by the highest authorities, who call you names, as in my case Milorad Dodik, and target you in a way that offers anyone who wants to harm you that possibility on a platter, without payment. Therefore, the system does not hide that it is not interested in protecting you,” Trifunović points out.

After the system fails to prevent attacks, but also to adequately punish the perpetrators and protect the victim, a very logical question arises whether one should wait for such a system or protect oneself in whatever way possible

“And then you come to that tragic feeling of loneliness and vulnerability where every option of self-defense, which would otherwise be threatened, is allowed. An unhealthy and violent environment simply does not contribute to Gandhi’s views on exercising one’s rights and freedoms, and on the other hand, I have the feeling that this society would applaud if something happened to me, just as individuals on the networks publicly rejoice whenever there was an attack on me,” Aleksandar Trifunović says.

Increase in violence against journalists

For almost two decades, there has been a helpline for journalists in BiH, which maintains a database on attacks and threats to journalists, violations of their rights and media freedoms. In the first 15 years, between 45 and 65 cases per year were recorded, with an additional 200-250 different requests and calls from the media and journalists for legal advice, consultation and/or other types of professional support. Over the past five years, the number of reported attacks, open death threats, hate speech, and gender-based violence against female journalists has increased, especially in the online sphere. From 2019 to today, the helpline recorded 340 attacks on journalists.

“The largest number of violations of journalists’ rights refers to threats, political pressure, death threats, online violence against female journalists, hate speech, defamation lawsuits, mobbing within media newsrooms, etc. Fifty-three percent of registered cases are against female journalists with strongly expressed elements of gender-based violence, misogyny, as well as discrimination and insults on a sexual basis. Since 2019, we have been running a special database of attacks on female journalists and we have recorded 110 cases of attacks, threats and insults related to female journalists”, says Borka Rudić from BH journalists.

An analysis conducted at the beginning of this year showed that political and institutional violence against journalists and the media increased by 40 percent, while the number of death threats, hate speech and incitement increased by as much as 137 percent.

“We are very concerned about the high level of impunity for attacks and threats, especially those that have an element of criminal acts. In 2021, only 11 cases were resolved in favor of journalists before judicial institutions and two ministries at the state level. In 2022, that number was even lower – nine cases in favor of journalists. This year, we have solved eight cases so far, of which three were before judicial institutions, and the rest were solved with the involvement of FMHL and its lawyers”, says Borka Rudić.

The helpline for journalists offers free legal aid, which means paying the costs of lawyers who represent attacked journalists. Journalists in some cases receive compensation at the end of the court process, which has happened so far in the processes of illegal appointments in the public media and several cases of defamation, then for threats on the YouTube channel and on Facebook. However, the amounts are not so large that they have an educational character for the perpetrator, so it is therefore difficult to talk about preventing future cases.

“That is why BH journalists insist that the criminal legislation be changed and that journalists be introduced into the laws as persons who do work of public interest and whose safety should be protected by official duty. The initiative was adopted in the BiH Parliament in 2022, I hope that the Ministry of Justice will get involved in a more efficient way and make proposals. BH journalists have written amendments for all levels of legislative power – we can immediately hand them over to the competent authorities. Because, a few years ago, the efficiency of the judiciary was only 33 percent in terms of dealing with attacks and threats against journalists; last year, that percentage was even lower – 25.4 percent,” notes Borka Rudić.

The move is visible in the recommendation of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council from May this year, that all prosecution offices in the country appoint press-prosecutors, persons for contact with journalists and the media. So far, press prosecutors have been appointed by the prosecution offices in Herzegovina-Neretva, Una-Sana and Sarajevo Cantons, as well as the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to appointments, in some prosecutor’s offices the decisions also contain provisions on conducting investigations into attacks on journalists and the media ex officio and creating a database on attacks and security risks for media professionals.

BH journalists point out that they have been cooperating with the press prosecutor from Sarajevo for more than a year, and that they expect positive results in a large number of completed investigations related to threats and attacks on journalists, especially in the online sphere, which should result in indictments . At the moment, they have no information about the reaction of the prosecution offices in Republika Srpska, which should also comply with the recommendation of the HJPC and appoint press-prosecutors.

Source: analiziraj.ba

The Permanent Group for the Safety of Journalists (SRG) said in a statement on Wednesday that 42 cases of threats to journalists were recorded in the first half of 2023.

The SRG, which includes representatives of the Supreme Public Prosecution, Internal Affairs Ministry (MUP), OSCE and major Serbian journalists’ and media organizations, said four sentences were handed down and 4 indictments rejected, 3 cases thrown out and 6 others are under investigation, adding that in just 1 case the perpetrator was not identified.

The statement said that the number of reported cases is the same as a year earlier.

The SRG was informed about the missing case file at the Higher Court in Vranje which covered the sentence against one perpetrator who threateed staff at a local radio.

GENEVA (25 July 2023) – UN human rights experts* expressed alarm about the recent adoption of amendments to the criminal code in the Republika Srpska entity that re-criminalize defamation and risk to adversely impact freedom of expression in Bosnia and Herzegovina and contribute to a climate of shrinking civic space in the country.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina set a good example in the region by decriminalizing defamation 20 years ago, which can and should only be addressed through civil law. Recriminalization of defamation is a major setback to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression, not only in the Republika Srpska entity but throughout the country,” the experts said.

They warned that the criminalization of defamation has a negative impact on the human rights situation, particularly on free and inclusive political discourse; the right to seek, receive and impart information; and press freedom.

The adoption of the amendments goes against the global trend of decriminalising defamation, including in Europe, where several European Union Member States and candidates members have repealed criminal defamation or have taken steps towards abandoning it.

The Republika Srpska entity legislature adopted the amendments despite widespread and clear calls against this retrogressive move, including by journalists, civil society actors and international human rights organizations and mechanisms.

The experts previously engaged with Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2023, expressing their concerns about the implication of the proposed amendments and urging authorities to repeal them.

“While we note the withdrawal of the draft amendment aimed at criminalizing insult, we deeply regret that authorities in the Republika Srpska entity decided to criminalize defamatory speech by imposing fines of up to 6,000 BAM (almost 3,000 EUR),” the experts said. “We are particularly worried that the legal provisions can be used to silence critical voices, including journalists, human rights defenders, and the political opposition,” they said.

The experts called on the authorities in the Republika Srpska entity to repeal the amendments and ensure that the right to freedom of expression is upheld.