(Printscreen: Tweet published by Gorica Dodik)

Sarajevo/Banja Luka, 13/10/2022 – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association and the Free Media Help Line (FMHL) strongly condemn incitement and hate speech against Vladimir Trišić, the owner and director of BN Television, as well as all employees of this media outlet, and demand from the competent institutions in the Republic of Srpska to urgently investigate and prosecute persons who threaten and spread hate speech against journalists and owners of BN through social networks.

Employees and the director of BN Television are continuously exposed to inciting rhetoric, threats and insults on social networks, which mostly come from members and sympathizers of SNSD party in the Republic of Srpska. Gorica Dodik, daughter of SNSD president and Serbian member of the Presidency of BiH Milorad Dodik, on her profile on the social network Twitter on Wednesday published photos of the high representative of the international community in BiH Christian Schmidt and the general director of BN TV Vladimir Trišić, and in the description of the photos she wrote: “Hitler and his servant“.

In an earlier post from March of this year, Gorica Dodik published on Twitter a photo of Trišić with members of his family, including his minor child, with the claim that Trišić would “burn people alive” because he is a “monster”.

The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association emphasizes the fact that these and similar announcements provoke numerous comments from other Twitter users, in which Trišić and the journalists of BN Television are threatened, insulted, declared “national traitors” and the like, which has the effect of directly endangering the safety of the aforementioned persons. Although Gorica Dodik is neither a public figure nor a politician, the fact is that her posts from social networks are published by numerous media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which only further incites incitement, hatred and intolerance among the public towards those who are the subject of her tweets.

We remind that the creation of such an atmosphere a few years ago resulted in one of the heaviest attacks on journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina – the attempted murder of BN Television journalist Vladimir Kovačević, who was severely beaten in Banja Luka. Due to all of the above, the competent institutions, above all the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RS and the Banja Luka District Public Prosecutor’s Office, must urgently and seriously deal with the spread of hate speech on social networks and prevent another “Kovačević case” from happening!

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists and the Free Media Help Line appeal to MP’s in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to adopt, as soon as possible, the Proposal for Amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH, which would expand the framework for sanctioning hate speech, especially on the Internet and social networks. We emphasize that the effective protection of journalists, particularly by ensuring appropriate court proceedings in cases of threats and violence against journalists and media workers, is one of the fundamental conditions that our country must fulfill on its way to membership in the European Union, which was highlighted yesterday during the recommendation for candidate status of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In its Report on Serbia’s progress in the implementation of reforms and European integration, the European Commission noted what the Coalition for Media Freedom constantly points out – that no progress has been made in freedom of expression in the past year. The experts of the European Commission note that REM (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media) made the decision to grant licenses for national coverage to the same television channels that already have licenses even though they “received reprimands from REM for violating their legal obligations.”

Since the deadline for submitting applications for the granting of the fifth license for national coverage expired yesterday, the Coalition believes that this is an opportunity for the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media to show in action that it is an independent regulatory body, and that it will indeed award the fifth national frequency to the best license application.

Two months ago, the REM Council decided to re-grant licenses for electronic media with national coverage to Pink, Happy, B92 and Prva televisions, regardless of the fact that they have been violating the law and Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics for years, and have not respected the minimum conditions prescribed by by-laws.

In addition to the fact that no market analysis was carried out, even though it is recognized as an obligation by the law and all strategic documents, including the Media Strategy, which the Coalition pointed out from the very beginning of this process, in the previous round of license allocation there was the essential explanation as to why the existing media service providers got licenses again, and why the others did not. This absence of explanation is a significant violation of the procedure involving 14 applicants, which is evident by domestic judicial practice, as well as the practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

Not all relevant facts have been established, especially with regard to the existing media service providers when it comes to facts important for the assessment of the criteria for compliance with professional and legal obligations, where the REM Council selectively, incompletely, and even incorrectly determined the facts.

In addition, the criteria were evaluated selectively, incompletely and even incorrectly in some parts, which is evident especially in the evaluation of the criteria for compliance with ethical standards and obligations – whether a measure was pronounced to a media service provider and its conduct after the measure was pronounced, whether the application for license was respected, as well as the practice in fulfilling obligations from the law (where numerous segments were not taken into account at all).

Year after year, REM’s reports showed that none of these television stations fulfilled the obligation prescribed by the Rulebook on the minimum conditions for the provision of media services and the criteria for decision-making in the process of issuing a license for the provision of media services. On the basis of the conducted public competition, it was defined that a provider of general media service must have news, science and education, culture and arts, documentary and children’s programs, as well as program for minors. Also, none of these television stations respected the application on the basis of which they were previously licensed, and the members of the REM Council consciously ignored this fact.

Due to these and numerous other omissions in the first round of licensing, lawsuits have been filed by the Slavko Curuvija Foundation and the CRTA organization, as well as by some participants in the process of awarding licenses with national coverage.

We hope that the members of the REM Council will understand the seriousness of the moment and work towards unhindered fulfillment of freedom of expression. Their previous decisions have indirectly led to the disrespect of the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics and the creation of an atmosphere that fosters threats and violence against journalists.

The Coalition for Media Freedom consists of the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media (AOM), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Business Association of the Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press” and the Slavko Curuvija Foundation.

SARAJEVO, 10/10/2022 – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association strongly condemns political pressures of the Narod i pravda (NiP) party president Elmedin Konaković on journalists and editors of the portals Klix.ba and Istraga.ba, and demands that Konaković stop publicly “calling out” journalists whose reporting does not corresponds with his personal and political views and convictions.

In the last two days, the president of NiP, Elmedin Konaković, published several comments on social networks in which he calls journalists “people of the regime”, alleges that they “spit fire”, that they lie, they launched a “hunt” for him…, all on the occasion of articles published by Klix.ba and Istraga.ba on amendments to the Election Law of BiH, election results and plans of political parties for post-election coalitions.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists believes that such targeting of media outlets and journalists by the president of a political party is unacceptable, and represents open political pressure and an attempt to silence critical and analytical media reporting on decisions made by certain political parties. Konaković, as he himself points out, has been “living a public life” for more than 25 years. Someone with such long experience on the public and political scene should know that the task of journalists is to criticize, question and analyze the actions of public figures, especially politicians. This kind of engagement is an integral and very important part of the journalistic profession, and not just the mere transmission of information and politicians’ statements without any critical and analytical bias.

It is Konaković’s right that he doesn’t approve of certain media content about him or his party, or considers them untrue, unjustified… However, in such cases, Konaković and all other politicians should use denials and seek the correction of false allegations in the media, and in the last instance they have at their disposal the Law on protection against defamation, and not (mis)use their position of power to publicly label journalists and the media, declaring them as “regime” and the like.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists reminds that this is not the first time that the president of the NiP has labeled journalists in this way, which is why we had to react publicly on several occasions.

In the last three years, political pressures on journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina via social networks have become more frequent, open and aggressive. We call on all politicians not to use this kind of communication with the media, because in that way they only further encourage hate speech in the comments of their sympathizers on social networks.

The Minsk Regional Court sentenced journalists of the oldest independent news agency BelaPAN to long terms of imprisonment.

Andrei Aliaksandrau, former deputy director of the news agency, was sentenced to 14 years in prison (found guilty of organizing protests, tax evasion, creating “an extremist formation BelaPAN,” and high treason).

His wife Iryna Zlobina was sentenced to 9 years in jail (on charges of organizing protests and high treason).

Former BelaPAN director Dzitry Navazhylau received a sentence of six years in jail (for tax evasion and the creation of “an extremist formation BelaPAN”).

Editor-in-chief Iryna Leushyna was sentenced to four years of imprisonment (she was found guilty of creating an “extremist formation BelaPAN”).

The Belarusian Association of Journalists has considered the criminal case against BelaPAN as politically motivated since the first day of its staff prosecution. BelaPAN representatives performed their professional duties legally and remained a model of high-profile Belarusian journalism before the arrest. We are convinced that it is the persecution of BelaPAN journalists that caused the death of the founder and head of the news agency Ales Lipai in 2018.

The initiation of criminal proceedings and the enormous sentences in the “BelaPAN case” are nothing but revenge against media representatives for their honest work and position.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists strongly condemns the reprisals against our colleagues and demands the immediate release of the thirty media representatives currently behind bars.

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

The campaign for a new binding international instrument dedicated to the safety of journalists has been formally launched at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The call for a new UN Convention to enhance the safety, protection and independence of media workers has been backed by journalists and media unions, associations, media representative bodies and NGOs across the world.

Now a working group – the Friends of the Convention – has been set up to enable member states to work towards its adoption.

The group was launched at a side event in Geneva on 30 September addressed by the IFJ President Dominique Pradalié, Nasser Abu Bakker, President of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Zuliana Lainez Otero, vice-President of the journalists’ federation of Latin America and the Caribbean and international human rights expert Dr Carmen Draghici, the author of the draft Convention.

Representatives of members states, including Greece, Italy, Palestine, Austria, Yemen, France, the EU, Latvia, Lebanon, The Netherlands among others, attended the launch of the Convention, as well as international media and journalists’ associations. Messages of support have been received from a number of member states.

The International Convention on the Safety and Independence of Journalists and Other Media Professionals was developed in response to the failure of existing international responses to tackle impunity and growing threats to journalists and media around the world.

It highlights existing weaknesses and loopholes in international humanitarian and human rights law and the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms.

It builds on a recognition of the specific role and threats faced by journalists and the limitations of existing generally applicable rules. A new binding international instrument dedicated to the safety of journalists, including a specific enforcement mechanism would help improve the effectiveness of the international response.

IFJ President Dominique Pradalié said: “Hundreds of journalists have been killed in the past decade, thousands have been jailed. Every day journalists are threatened and attacked. Such crimes are carried out with near total impunity around the world. All those who believe in media freedom, in citizens’ rights to information must act now to stop impunity. On behalf of journalists’ unions and associations and media professionals and their organisations across the world we call on member states to join with us in support of a Convention that can give the international community the tools necessary to enhance the safety of journalists”.

Click here to download the draft Convention.

Source: IFJ