Banja Luka/Sarajevo, 29.07.2024. – The Board of Directors of the BH Journalists Association and the Helpline for Journalists provide full support to the employees of Una Television (Una TV) and invite them to resolve their labor and legal status and the announced termination of their employment contract within the framework of the Labor Law of the Republic of Srpska and all other legal provisions acts that define the employer’s obligations towards workers in situations when the media owner is unable to continue working.
The issue of the dismissal of about 80 journalists and other employees of Una TV, as well as the protection of their labor rights, material position and professional integrity, must be brought back within the framework of the law, since this case is politicized and explained (only) by US sanctions against companies and individuals in the Republic of Srpska. In this way, the Management Board of Una TV and the owner of Inifinity Media, as well as politicians clientelistically connected with this media and its owners, are trying to be released from legal responsibility.
The Board of Directors of BH Journalists reminds that the financial difficulties in the business of the owner of Una TV (formerly the German Foundcentar and now Infinity Media) have been publicly written and spoken about since 2021, when a number of journalists and editors left this media on their own initiative, others employed at the portal, were fired without a valid explanation. Also, we should not forget how, long before any sanctions and in complete silence, journalists from Press RS, Fokus, ATV, Reporter, Bel Kanala Banja Luka, etc. were thrown out onto the street.
Due to all of the above, the Management Board of BH Journalists once again expresses full solidarity with the employees of Una TV and invites them to use the free legal protection of the lawyer team of the Journalist Help Line (FMHL), so that the termination of the employment contract with the owners of this television is carried out in in accordance with the law and with the protection of basic labor rights. Also, we publicly call on the Republika Srpska Media and Graphic Artists Union, the only representative of workers’ rights in the media designated by law in this entity, to stand bravely with the workers of Una TV, despite the powerful people behind the ownership structure of this media.
Finally, BH journalists call on the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina to finally put the draft Law on the Publicity of Media Ownership and Information Pluralism, which has been in the Ministry’s drawers since December 2018, into the parliamentary procedure. The adoption of the European law on the transparency of media ownership and financing may not prevent some future cases like Una TV, but at least it will give journalists a choice: whether they will give their professional integrity and lives at the will of publicly appointed media owners and the political lobbies behind them or will choose to work in the interest of the public and informing citizens.
Board of Directors of BH Journalists
