INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE

EXCERPTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT ON PRESS FREEDOM

1999 World Press Freedom Review

BOSNIA

Journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina bear the full brunt of the violent backlashes caused partly by ethnic tensions, and partly by people attempting to keep sensitive pieces of information out of the public domain.

On October 22, prominent Bosnian editor Zeljko Kopanja was the victim of a car bomb. Kopanja lost both of his legs and was left in critical condition after the attack that UN envoy Richard Holbrooke called "one of the most cowardly acts since the end of the war four years ago." Kopanja who is the owner and editor of the Nezavisne Novine daily had recently published a series of articles on war crimes during the war, including cases of alleged Serb atrocities.

On November 3, journalist Mirko Srdic was attacked in a Doboj hotel by the city’s Mayor. Srdic, a correspondent for the Belgrade-based press agency Beta, was hit in the face by Mayor Mirko Stojcinovic who also threatened to have him killed. The incident happened after Srdic had published a report on local corruption. Numerous attacks like this prompted the OSCE to set up a hotline for journalists who have been threatened or attacked.

According to unofficial statistics some 40 journalists were attacked in 1999. The attacks intensified during the Nato-led bombing campaign on Serbia, and were particularly bad in the Bosnian-Serb controlled Republica Srpska. The OSCE hotline guarantees to protect the confidentiality of people calling in or e-mailing details of threats against journalists. The OSCE has also stated that it will register and monitor all cases of violations of journalists’ rights.

On November 15, the Independent Media Commission (IMC) ordered the Eurotel station, which western officials suspect is controlled from Croatia, to shut down after it refused to accept a ruling on the allocation of frequencies and number of transmitters it can use. The IMC asked the Peace Stabilisation Force (SFOR) for assistance in implementing its ruling. Mostar-based Eurotel is the largest Bosnian Croat media outlet in Bosnia. The shutdown sparked criticism from Bosnia’s Croat population and also from Croatia’s government who issued a statement saying that the decision by the IMC violated the Dayton peace agreement and that it deprived Bosnian Croats, as a constituent people in Bosnia, of broadcast programming in their language.

On July 31, the international body overseeing Bosnia’s peace process, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), imposed legislation that would create a public broadcasting service, which would provide news programmes to the whole country. The news service would eventually become Bosnia’s member in international organisations such as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The Bosnian Serb Prime Minister, Milorad Dodik criticized this effort, saying that the move would endanger Bosnian Serb television. However, the OHR has sweeping powers to implement the civilian aspects of the Dayton peace accords and it can also remove officials obstructing the peace process.

On October 14, the OHR urged the authorities to draft new laws on freedom of information and defamation. "The current legislation allows authorities to put any journalist, even for the smallest mistake, on trial and put them in prison," Alexandra Stiglmayer spokeswomen for the OHR told Reuters. The OHR called for such legislation to be in place by December 30 this year. Most parties agree that a regulatory framework is needed to protect the media’s role in the transition to a democratic society in Bosnia; the disagreement is on how to carve out the details.

On August 20, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Slobodna Bosna, Senad Avdic, was detained for several hours by police. Avdic was due to attend a trial in which a Bosnian Moslem party official accused the newspaper of libel after the paper had accused him of corruption. The police said that they brought Avdic in to make sure that he would attend the trial. The Slobodna Bosna is known for its investigative reporting into alleged corruption and fraud and faces legal action in ten different cases. The charges were dropped in court. Earlier in the year Avdic had already received a suspended three-month sentence in another libel case.

go to top

P.O. Box, CH-8031 Zürich, Switzerland
Phone +41-1-272 46 37,  Fax +41-1-272 46 82, email: info@MEDIENHILFE.ch