Sarajevo, July 10, 2023 – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association and the Free Media Helpline send a public protest to Bojan Josipović, acting director of RTV Srebrenica, for changing the news of the author and journalist Kadira Šakić for the announcement of tomorrow’s commemoration in Srebrenica, and for censoring the publication of the news in the media and on social networks in which the genocide against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica was mentioned.

Journalist Kadira Šakić prepared and published a news item for RTV Srebrenica with the title “Final program to mark the 28th anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks in the UN protected zone of Srebrenica”. After publishing this news on social networks, acting director Bojan Josipović verbally suggested to the journalist that she “should not use the word genocide”, and asked the employees to delete that word in the post on social networks.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists considers that it is inadmissible to edit and censor the author’s content in any case, even when reporting on events related to the recent war history and crimes regarding which the Hague Tribunal and the domestic judiciary have already established relevant facts and passed final verdicts. In this particular case, the journalist Kadira Šakić published a news story in which she adhered to the facts and judgment of the Hague Tribunal established in the case of Srebrenica, as well as the principles of the Communications Regulatory Agency’s journalistic code. Due to all of the above, the procedure of acting director Josipović is unacceptable and represents a brutal violation of the right to free and dignified work of the journalist Šakić, which also includes the prohibition of censorship and political interference in the creation of media content.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists calls on all media in BiH, male and female journalists, as well as editors, to report on tomorrow’s commemoration of the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica accurately and objectively, with compassion, and respecting the dignity of the victims and their families.

Steering Committee of BH Journalists

Photo credit: Facebook/Canva