Sarajevo, 20.10.2025. –The Sttering Committee of the BH Journalists Association and the Free Media Help Line (FMHL) demand from the Federal Police Administration and their Cybercrime Unit, and the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of the Sarajevo Canton, an urgent investigation and detention of Amir Pašić, known as Faćo, for brutal attacks and insults against the journalist of the magazine Stav Rabija Arifović.

Between October 13 and 17, several video clips with hateful and misogynistic messages about journalist Rabija Arifović were posted on Amir Pašić’s TikTok profile and the Facebook group Balkan Radar, in which Pašić, in a threatening and raised tone, utters a series of untruths and vulgar assessments about this journalist, accompanied by street language and insults on racial and religious grounds. Through the sharing of videos and comments by hundreds of followers of Amir Pašić and Balkan Radar, the violence multiplied at an incredible speed over several days, each new message more horrific than the previous one, in order to violate the journalist’s human and professional dignity.

The Sttering Committee of the BH Journalists Association and FMHL strongly condemn the verbal violence and hate speech against Rabija Arifović, as this is a typical example of the abuse of freedom of expression for the purpose of dehumanizing women in journalism, which we witness every day, and an attempt to create an image of female journalists as inferior beings who need to be professionally and psychologically destroyed through posts on social networks.

As a professional association of journalists, we are horrified and defeated by the fact that police and prosecutorial structures in Sarajevo have been tolerating the most primitive form of communication in public space for months, as well as the abuse of freedom of expression to commit crimes against security and the constitutionally protected religious, gender and other identities, not only of journalists, but also of numerous other citizens. It is simply incredible that the competent state authorities do not react promptly and ex officio to stop the violence whose main creator and actor is Amir Pašić, a person with a thick police and court record!?

Because of all the above, BH Journalists and FMHL once again condemn the threats against journalist Rabija Arifović, and expect this statement to be understood as a public criminal complaint against Amir Pašić filed with the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of the Sarajevo Canton and the Cybercrime Unit of the Federal Police Administration. The least we expect is an efficient investigation and the creation of legal prerequisites for the judicial punishment of online violence against the journalist.

The Sttering Committee of the BH Journalists Association