The Board of Directors of the BH Journalists Association (BHJA) draws attention to new, unacceptably aggressive political and security threats to N1 and BN television, as well as long-term attempts to destroy the professional integrity and dignity of their female journalists and editors.

President of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik on Semptember 12, insulted the journalist Tijana Milinović, the correspondent of BN TV from Banja Luka, as well as all long-time journalists and owners of this television, calling them “foreign mercenaries”, “traitors” and “protected as media”. , and at the same time asked how “the servile and treacherous policy of reporting will come to an end”. On the same day in Doboj, the victim of a verbal attack was another BN TV journalist – Vesna Vukmirović, she was insulted by Srećko Rekanović, the president of the Doboj Municipal Assembly, who refused to answer a legitimate journalistic question only because it was about BN TV.

A targeted, inappropriate and very dangerous manhunt has been conducted for months through the social networks Facebook and Twitter against Amir Zukić, the editor of N1 TV, where several people from the criminal milieu publish threatening video messages, curse and spread hateful comments and death threats, questioning the personal and family security of editor Zukić. In addition to the above, the political request of Sanja Vulić, representative of the SNSD in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to ban the emoticon of the N1 terrestrial signal in the territory of the Republic of Srpska, which will soon be declared by the BiH Parliament, is also scandalous.

The Management Board of BHJA expresses its concern over the fact that in both BiH entities – the Federation of BiH and the Republika Srpska, there is a multi-year brutal, primitive and security-threatening political and nationalist hunt against the journalists and editors of these two private televisions, pluralistically oriented and dedicated to the right of citizens to access to various information, opinions and contents of public importance. The attempt to silence N1 and BN television, as well as discouraging and preventing their employees from doing their jobs freely and with dignity, are contrary to the EU standards of freedom of media and expression. Such actions directly violate BiH’s conditions for accession to the European Union, including the list of priorities that the country must fulfill in order to even get the opportunity to start negotiations on joining the community of European states.

The Management Board of BHJA calls on the competent police and prosecutorial authorities to urgently investigate the threats to colleagues of N1 and BN Television, and to take legal measures to punish persons who threaten their safety and question their professional integrity. At the same time, BiH journalists call on the representatives and institutions of the international community in BiH to use their powers and respond adequately to public officials in BiH who do not respect media freedom or the rights and dignity of media workers.

Board of Directors of the Association/BH Journalists Association (BHJA)

FOTO: Facebook