Jahorina, 21 July 2017-„Improvement of the protection and promotion of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina is only possible with a broad cooperation of civil society actors, media and government institutions“, was concluded yesterday 20 July at the Conference “Media for Human Rights“ in Jahorina.

The Conference was organised within the project „Mapping human rights in media observing position of citizens, vulnerable layers of society and media community in BiH“ funded by the EU in the amount around EUR 350,000,  and implemented by the Consortium consisting of BH Journalists Association, European Federation of Journalists and the ProEduca Education Center.

The conference gathered more than 60 representatives of civil society organizations, media, state and entity government institutions, the Human Rights Ombudsman, and representatives of academic and media community from across BiH.

The Project aims to bring media, citizens, civil society organizations and institutions to act together and form a key force able to move forward and make positive changes with regards to the status of human rights in media.

The conference was opened by the Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to BiH Melvin Asin, who underlined the importance of strengthening the cooperation between civil society, citizens, media and government institutions for promotion and protection of human rights in BiH.”The problem of different pressures faced by media outlets and journalists in BiH cannot be resolved at once, but with this project we will give our contribution towards improvement of media and journalists status in BiH”, Asin said.

Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of BiH Predrag Jovic welcomed the contribution of the European Union to civil society strengthening and improvement of the respect for human rights and the position of the media in BiH. “I am sure that this project will have the potential to set the key priorities in the upcoming period, and to establish a platform for monitoring and promotion of human rights in BiH. It is particularly important that the project will strengthen the cooperation between the civil society, media and institutions because the best results can be achieved only through the cooperation of the governmental and non-governmental sector, in the public interest “, Jovic said.

The key activities of the project were presented by the Main Project Researcher Srdjan Puhalo and BH Journalists Association Secretary General Borka Rudic. They announced the creation of a unique methodology for monitoring and research of human rights in the media, which will enable the creation of the White Book of Human Rights. Other online tools for systematic monitoring and public presentation of human rights violation cases against journalists and citizens, especially against vulnerable and marginalized groups were presented as well.