SARAJEVO, 28.08.2018. -Due to frequent and brutal attack on journalists and journalism all over BiH, journalists organized peaceful gathering in front of the National theater in Sarajevo.
Trigger for today’s gathering in Sarajevo was the attack on the journalist from BN TV, Vladimir Kovačević, who was brutally beaten up by two unknown persons in Banja Luka.
Previously, journalist Glorija Lujanović suffered threats, and the team of BHRT was attacked in Konjic.
A long-time journalist in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Arijana Saračević-Helać, who was also a war reporter and Senka Kurt, together with more than 200 journalists, came to a peaceful protest to support journalists and help fight increasingly frequent attacks and violence to this profession.
Journalists were unanimous today: We need to be braver and our voice needs to be heard more strongly.
Saračević-Helać thinks politicians and the governing structures are responsible for frequent attacks on journalists, and stressed that journalists in B&H should be more courageous.
“The voice of the journalist must be heard further. We need to be more courageous and should not be tempted to perform our daily journalistic tasks. Politicians are responsible for the bad position of journalists in BiH. Different journalists associations that exist in our country need to be with us and protect us. I think we can do much more to make our profession honorable and honest, “said Saračević-Helać.
Her college Senka Kurt considers journalists are brave enough.
“It is best to treat us as an official person. So any attack on journalists would be treated as an attack on an official. Politicians also need to put more efforts because they are responsible for. The Journalists rights have always been threatened”, said Kurt.
At today’s gathering, journalists have held banners: Journalism is not a crime and Stop violence againstt journalists in BiH. Colleges from Sarajevo also joint journalists from other BH cities.
“More frequent incidents of this kind indicate an alarming situation regarding the conditions for journalists, which seriously undermines media freedom and the right of citizens to be informed objectively . Journalists through their work contribute to a greater level of democracy in society, the realization rule of law and legal system, the protection and promotion of human rights. A society in which journalists are prevented from doing so is faced not only with the limitation of the level of freedom of expression, but by limiting all other human rights and freedoms”, stands in the PR of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsmen for Human Rights.