Sarajevo, May 8, 2026 – The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the BH Journalists Association have sent a request to the World Press Photo Foundation to revoke the 1993 Spot News award granted to photographer Bojan Stojanović due to serious ethical concerns arising from newly published findings regarding the circumstances surrounding the photographs of the execution of civilians Husein Kršo and Hajrudin Muzurović in Brčko in 1992. In a letter sent to the Foundation’s leadership on April 27, 2026, NUNS and BH Journalists also requested a formal apology to the family of Husein Kršo, the publication of a correction, and a public statement outlining the steps that will be taken to ensure full respect for the organization’s ethical guidelines.
The reason for addressing the World Press Photo Foundation is the award-winning investigative article “Killing for a Photograph” by journalist Barbara Matejčić, published in May 2025 on the BIRN website and the Novosti portal. In the article, Matejčić argues that the photographs of Husein Kršo’s execution cannot be viewed merely as documentation of a spontaneous crime, but that there is credible evidence suggesting the photographer knew in advance that the killing would take place. In her article, Matejčić cites war photographers and war crimes investigators and, through analysis of the photographer’s proximity to the scene, the choice of lens, the sequence of captured frames, as well as Bojan Stojanović’s changing accounts of the event over the years, presents an entirely different perspective on the creation of the award-winning photograph.
NUNS and BH Journalists further note that these claims are also based on transcripts from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia obtained by Barbara Matejčić, including testimony by Goran Jelisić, convicted of war crimes in Brčko, whose actions are depicted in the award-winning photograph. According to those accounts, two photographers had been brought in to document the killings of two Muslim prisoners for propaganda purposes in Serbia. The letter also points out that Stojanović and his colleague Srđan Petrović had access to locations and cooperation with local military structures that independent journalists would not have been able to obtain in Brčko in May 1992.
After Matejčić warned that the description accompanying the award-winning photograph on the website was inaccurate, World Press Photo changed the award text in 2022, emphasizing that the victim was not a Muslim sniper shooting at Serbs, but a civilian. NUNS and BH Journalists believe that this is insufficient and that the key ethical issues arising from these findings have never been addressed. Therefore, the journalists’ associations from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are demanding the revocation of the award, public acknowledgment of the investigation’s findings, and clear contextualization of the disputed photograph in the archives and official channels of the World Press Photo Foundation.
Additional weight to this request is given by the position of Husein Kršo’s family. The letter states that his son Mustafa said that, as long as the photograph remains awarded and displayed on the World Press Photo website, his father is “being killed again.” The family is therefore not only demanding the removal of the photograph, but also the revocation of the award and a clear explanation of how such recognition was granted in the first place. The request was submitted ahead of this year’s award ceremony for the prestigious prize.
Barbara Matejčić, the author of the article who received the “Srđan Aleksić” award in 2025, wrote on her Facebook account that on this day, May 7, 1992, civilians Husein Kršo and Hajrudin Muzurović were killed in Brčko after being detained with other civilians at a police station controlled by the Army of Republika Srpska. They were taken out and killed in the passageway of the Crafts Center in downtown Brčko — a place that today is busy and part of everyday life, with almost no memorial marking what happened there.
Matejčić also shared that Mustafa Kršo, the son of the murdered Husein Kršo, contacted her. He was less than six years old when his father was killed. According to Mustafa, he, his brother, and their mother learned of their father’s death through the photographs broadcast on television. On the anniversary of the crime, family members and citizens gathered yesterday (Thursday) at the site of the killing for the installation of a memorial plaque, organized by the Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) and the Center for Nonviolent Action from Sarajevo, since local authorities have for years refused to mark the site of the killings.
NUNS and BH Journalists requested that World Press Photo respond by May 12, 2026, and confirm receipt of their request.
