In the beginning of the year 2009, Bakir Hadziomerovic, editor-in-chief of the program broadcasted on Federal TV “60 Minutes”, and his investigative team, received the first death threats in relation to their work on organized crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hadziomerovic and his colleague Avdo Avdic were placed at that time under police supervision and were trying to carry on with their work as journalists.  

Even so, Hadziomerovic and his family have continued to receive death threats in connection with his work. Bosnian authorities have failed to take sufficiently strict measures to prevent the threats.

Slobodan Vaskovic case

In the other entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska (RS), the situation is much the same. In March this year, Slobodan Vaskovic, a journalist from Banja Luka (in RS / B&H) received a threatening letter, signed by a group calling itself the Serbian Avengers, referring to his reports about the Serbian Orthodox Church and its criminal affairs.  A week later he was again threatened while reporting from Trebinje for the Sarajevo-based television station FTV.

The following was an incident that happened when Vaskovic and his crew were in Trebinje filming for the program of “60 minuta” on same issue they were threatened month earlier. The TV crew was filming in front of the gate of an Orthodox church when were then attacked by a group of angry citizens. Reporters for TV BN, who happened to be on the spot, attempted to film the assault on their colleagues from FTV, but their camera was seized by the crowd. The camera was returned a half hour later following an intervention by TV BN headquarters in Bijeljina and by the chief of police.

The team managed somehow to reach the offices of a local non-governmental organization, where they had sought protection and were reporting to the police about the incident near the church. Police eventually escorted the FTV crew out of Trebinje. However, the crowd continued to chase them for some time. Republika Srpska police have initiated an investigation into the incident, but so far no concrete results have been published.

Reactions of media associations in B&H and SEEMO

BH Novinari (BH Journalists) and Linija za pomoc novinara (Free Media Help Line) reacted and condemned the most recent death threats on Hadziomerovic , demanding from the responsible authorities to undertake special measures of journalists’ protection in this country and prevent similar happenings in the future.

“We are alarmed that the number of threats against journalists has increased rapidly within the past few months, which is very alarming. Since safe working environment for journalists is a fundamental principle of every democratic society, it is in the interest of democratic development in Bosnia and Herzegovina that journalists are free to report and investigate stories without fear or pressure.”, said Slobodan Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General.

Freedom of expression in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Human Rights House of Sarajevo has pointed out, in its recent NGO report for UPR, that freedom of expression in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains exposed to constant pressure and threats and one of the fundamental problems lies in the fact that the transformation of public radio and television broadcasting system has not been completed. The prerequisite, those that could realistically protect the public service from political pressures and influences have not been founded. In addition, political pressures upon the Regulatory agency for communications – that should, among other duties, defend ethical and other professional standards as an independent body-have resulted in the dependence of a number of public broadcasters on the centre of the political power.

“An increase of physical violence against journalists has been noticed, and journalists and some editorial stuff have been subjected to a constant pressure through verbal threats, attempt to install fear and having charges threats against them by high ranking politicians that are enabled to reconcile themselves to the role of media in a democratic society. Those pressures cast a serious doubt over the freedom of expression and threaten to extinguish the few media organizations that take a critical discourse on some events in the society.”, it is stated in the Report of Informal NGO Coalition for UPR.

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