Sarajevo, December 14, 2024 – The BH Journalists Steering Committee and Free Media Help Line (FMHL) demand a public apology from Our Party (NS) to all media outlets to which they sent a letter on Friday with the intention of exerting political pressure and censoring publications about the investigation and detention of Bojan Bošnjak, a minister in the Government of Sarajevo Canton, who is also a member of NS. The citizens of Sarajevo Canton also deserve an apology for this undemocratic procedure directed against the right of citizens to information from various media and plural sources on a topic of public importance, which are certainly criminal charges against Minister Bošnjak, whose work and decisions are paid for with public money.

The BH Journalists Steering Committee and Free Media Help Line assess that no political party, including Naša stranka, has the right to interfere in the work of editors and journalists, and it is especially unacceptable to suggest to them how they will report and which sources they will use for their own texts. Such actions in a democratic world are called rigid pressures on free journalism and the media, and as a restriction of the right to freedom of expression and information. It is especially unacceptable that the NS demands a certain type of “privileged” media writing about a public office holder, completely forgetting that every public official, including a Bosniak minister, by accepting a position paid for with public money, voluntarily agrees to criticism of the media about the ways in which they perform their public duties, even when that criticism is disturbing and brutal.

BH Journalists and FMHL remind the authors of the “internal memo” of Our Party that the only legal and EU standards for reacting to media content are denials of false allegations, complaints to the Communications Regulatory Agency or the Press and Online Media Council, or filing a defamation lawsuit. These are certainly not memos that demonstrate the power concentrated in the ruling position of Our Party or political influence through the selection of a certain number of media outlets for internal correspondence.

The BH Journalists Steering Committee and FMHL call on Our Party to URGENTLY withdraw this pamphlet from the public, and to publicly apologize to all media for the unacceptable interference in their work.

BH Journalists Steering Committee