The Steering Board of Bosnia and Herzegovina Journalists’ Association (BHJA) made an appeal to the competent state authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the worsening situation in the Gaza Strip for all civilians, including journalists reporting from that area. The BHJA has thus joined the call of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) regarding the starvation of civilians in Gaza and their demands for an urgent response from national authorities as well as world officials and organizations. Journalists’ associations and unions around the world have supported the call and appeal of the IFJ and EFJ.

To:

Mrs. Borjana Krišto, president of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mr. Elmedin Konaković, minister of foreign affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mr. Edin Forto, minister of transport and communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mr. Sevlid Hurtić, minister for human rights and refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina   

House of Representatives and House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina

We are addressing you as representatives of the BH Journalists Association at a time when the world is witnessing one of the most severe humanitarian disasters. We, the members of the BHJA Steering Board, on behalf of our members – journalists from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, express our deep solidarity with all the civilians in the Gaza Strip who are dying today because the world does not dare to act. We also express our solidarity with our colleagues – journalists, cameramen and photojournalists who, despite everything, continue to perform their journalistic duties, risking and losing their lives on daily basis on their work assignments.

We are witnessing the systematic, deliberate starvation of the people in Gaza – people who have no access to food, water, medical supplies or shelter for days. Children die of exhaustion in the arms of their parents who cannot feed them. In hospitals, babies suffer from severe malnutrition, while humanitarian aid convoys are blocked. This is not the result of a natural disaster – it is a political decision, a form of collective punishment behind the Israeli authorities.

What is happening in Gaza today is a war crime and a crime against humanity: hunger is being used as a weapon, and the deprivation of basic necessities, including medicine and clean water, is happening in front of the eyes of the world. And in front of our eyes! The only remaining witnesses to the crime and suffering are local journalists. Under a blockade and with foreign journalists explicitly banned from entering, they risk their lives every day to bring the truth to the world. And now they are also silenced with hunger.

The International and European Federation of Journalists (IFJ and EFJ) warn that journalists in Gaza have reached the point of physical collapse: they are starving, losing consciousness, losing strength – and with it they are losing the ability to do their work. According to IFJ data, at least 187 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. Their deaths send a dangerous message: that the truth must not be heard. By closing Gaza to foreign journalists, the Israeli army is suffocating freedom of expression and the public’s right to information. We are witnessing the literal silencing of the voices of truth – the journalists and their starvation to death.

Unfortunately, the state authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina are restrained in a time when every honest country should show courage and raise its voice against the killing and starvation of civilians, including 187 journalists and media workers. Bosnia and Herzegovina has neither a moral nor a human right to be restrained, since it went through the war experience itself more than thirty years ago, when civilians were killed and starved in similar ways that are happening today in Gaza.

We demand from the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to clearly define its position on genocide/or war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, to stop hiding behind neutral formulations and to no longer avoid taking concrete actions.

We demand that Bosnia and Herzegovina, although only a candidate for membership in the European Union, publicly and at the diplomatic level supports the suspension of the agreement between the EU and Israel, as well as the urgent evacuation of civilians in immediate danger.

We demand that Bosnia and Herzegovina supports international calls to allow to foreign journalists access to Gaza, ensure the protection of local journalists and launch an international investigation of the systematic starvation of journalists and all other civilians as a war crime.

Bosnia and Herzegovina should and must stand on the side of truth, humanity and international law!

We expect that the Council of Ministers and representatives of both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina will strongly support international law and protection of human rights.

When the truth is being silenced by starvation – it is our duty to speak even louder. It is a moral and political shame that the state authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina stay silent at this moment.

Members of the Steering Committee of the BH Journalists’ Association – BHJA

Foto: A medic cleans the body of Palestinian youth Abdul Jawad al-Ghalban, 14, who died of starvation at the Nasser hospital morgue in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025. Picture credit: AFP.

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