The BH Journalists Association in cooperation with the Youth Newspaper Association in B&H organized street actions in 10 bh cities with the aim of informing the public about the activities of the project “Free Media for a Free Society”, as well as gaining the support of citizens in the fight for strong and free media in local communities.

Citizens of Gradačac, Konjic, Stolac, Trebinje, Tuzla, Petrov, Banja Luka, Brcko, Doboj and Sarajevo had the opportunity to discuss with our volunteers the importance of local media, professional and objective reporting in the public interest, and media freedoms and protection of journalists in local communities.

Street action is just one of the activities organized within the project “Free Media for a Free Society”, which BH Journalists Association implement in cooperation with the Association of Electronic Media in BiH, with the support of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina to network media and civil society organizations into a strong professional group that will advocate for media freedom and the safety of journalists in local communities

Some of the achievements of the project, during the three-year implementation, are:

• Twelve workshops on investigative journalism were organized for local media journalists, led by Dragana Erjavec of Radio Free Europe, Zina Tandir of Zurnal Magazine and Dzana Brkanic of BIRN. The workshops were attended by 122 journalists.
• 12 trainings on media literacy were organized for representatives of local non-governmental organizations, led by Professor Vuk Vučetić from the Faculty of Philosophy in Pale, and a total of 137 employees underwent training.
• 7 events were organized at which the results of the research were presented, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work of the media were discussed, and the results of the project were presented at the final conference in Sarajevo, which gathered 62 participants.
• Conducted 5 serious surveys, ie two surveys on the quality of media content in local media on a sample of 80 media conducted by Professor Lejla Turčilo from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, two surveys on the level of media literacy in civil society organizations on a sample of 63 NGOs dealing with human rights and democracy conducted by Professor Borislav Vukojevic from the Faculty of Political Science in Banja Luka, and a survey on working conditions and rights of journalists on a sample of 157 media workers and a focus group survey with 10 editors and journalists from local media done by Professor Amer Dzihana.
• 6 small grants worth 33.000 euros were awarded for projects in the field of media literacy to the following organizations: Women’s Association “Seka” Goražde, Women’s Association “Nature” Bratunac, Association “CarpeDiem” Ilijaš, Association of Citizens eTrafika Banja Luka, Association of Roma Women „Better Future” Tuzla, and the Youth Journalists’ Association in BiH.
• A unique Interactive Media Center has been created as a tool for joint professional exchange, as well as for advocating the independence and integrity of journalists in BiH, but also as a tool for training and professional expertise for journalists and editors in local media. A Media Content Laboratory has been established within the Interactive Center with the aim of producing, archiving and exchanging research stories within the local media community.
• Produced 20 research stories on topics important to local communities.
• The project involved over 700 participants: journalists and editors of local media, representatives of government institutions, academia, international organizations and the civil sector, and published over 200 media reports on project activities.