After obtaining candidate status, the number of attacks on journalists increased

"Only 25.4 percent of the cases that were registered with the Helpline for journalists received a positive court outcome".

From the beginning of this year until today, the Helpline for journalists has received as many as 62 reports of attacks on journalists. During the whole of last year, 79 reports were registered on the Society of BH Journalists platform.

"This means that we have an increased number of attacks on journalists. The number of direct threats is increasing, such as threats of liquidation or physical attacks, and damage to journalist property is also increasing... These are all criminal acts. And they have increased by as much as 137 percent.

And we also have a 40 percent increase in political pressure from officials that is exacted on journalists and media houses. The situation is not good at all and is progressively getting worse," Borka Rudić tells Politicki.ba.

The head of the Association of BH Journalists states that the attack on journalists and the threats directed at them coincide with the radicalization of the political scene.

This is a trend, she says, that has been recorded for the past 10 years, and has accelerated in the last three years.

She also points out that, parallel to the increase in the number of attacks on the media and journalists, there have also been attempts to "discipline" journalists by the authorities.

Rudić specifies that this can be seen through the criminalization of defamation in the Republika Srpska, the new law on non-governmental organizations that was passed in the preliminary reading in the entity parliament, but also the activities related to the passed Law on Freedom of Access to Information at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the activities of the government of Canton Sarajevo to try and pass a new law on public order and peace that also deals with the issue of fake news.

She adds that the EU Delegation and the Office of the Ombudsman gave a negative opinion on the Law on Freedom of Access to Information.

"Unlike in all other cases, the government of Canton Sarajevo has included the journalistic community in the issue of the law on public order and peace. We have had four meetings so far, and soon - after the summer break - new meetings and discussions will follow. We hope that we will reach a solution which will not encroach on the rights of the journalistic community," Rudić tells Politicki.ba.

She points out that she hoped that BiH, after receiving candidate status in December last year, would improve the current situation of journalists.

"The opposite happened. The situation with media freedom in BiH drastically worsened, which is paradoxical. We expected the opposite.

We thought that the candidate status and the 14 conditions placed before BiH, which include freedom of expression and media freedom, would lead politicians to finally start fulfilling the EU conditions if we want to be part of that community as soon as possible through the beginning of negotiations," Rudić continued.

She draws attention to the problem of a very high degree of impunity for attacks on journalists.

"Only 25.4 percent of the cases that were registered with the Helpline for journalists received a positive court outcome.

This means that only one-fourth of the cases receive a judicial epilogue and it is in the interest of the injured journalists, which tells a lot about the impunity and a high degree of inefficiency in the judiciary system.

However, I would like to point out two positive things: judicial institutions have started to work more seriously, and now they are increasingly acting in accordance with EU recommendations. In all prosecutor's offices, except one, that are at the higher levels of judicial power in Bosnia and Herzegovina, pre-prosecutors have been appointed who contact journalists and they can turn to them in the event of an attack.

In all prosecutor's offices - and there are 24 of them - these prosecutors were appointed by the decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council. It still doesn't exist only in Banja Luka," the leader of the Association of BH Journalists further told Politicki.ba.

She also reports that the HJPC brought two more important things - records of attacks on journalists will be kept and they will be prioritized, according to official duty, and cases of attacks on journalists will be dealt with more quickly and efficiently. We can count on, therefore, that they will fight against attacks on journalists faster and more efficiently than before.

Rudić also noted that last year the state parliament adopted the initiative of the Association of BH Journalists to amend the Criminal Code to include journalists in that law as a profession that should have special protection.

"We ask that the existing Criminal Code be changed at both the state and entity levels, because the existing law does not provide enough guarantees to protect a journalist who is the victim of an attack, especially in the online sphere," she says.

She called out the Ministry of Justice, but also the Ministry of Traffic and Transport.

"From August of last year until today, the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not taken any action, and I am very sorry for that. Now, as a journalist association, we will work more intensively on this.

When it comes to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the draft of the law on transparency of media ownership and media pluralism is currently sitting in the minister's drawer.

We have a large number of portals about which we practically know nothing. Therefore, we hope that this issue will be finally resolved, not only when it comes to the ownership structure," says Rudić.

She emphasizes that the big problem is the fact that politicians are behind attacks on journalists in 70 percent of cases.

"This is one of the indicators that shows the atmosphere of fear and abuse of public functions to commit acts of violence against journalists. Politicians and public officials have a certain influence on the judiciary system, and I am afraid that the high degree of impunity for attacks on journalists is precisely the result of that - behind the attacks are powerful political figures and people in the judiciary system do not dare to take any legal actions against them. That is why we have a high degree of impunity," says Rudić.

The secretary general of the Association of BH Journalists also states that there has been a growing number of "preventive" lawsuits, especially against investigative journalists and such media. They are raised to distract journalists from investigating possible criminal activities.

"Among the growing number of defamation lawsuits, we now also have 42 cases of these "flap" lawsuits.

This means that the journalistic community will have to take a more serious approach in order to form a kind of coalition of media and journalistic organizations that would be an "anti-flap" initiative. And then we could work on measures against these types of lawsuits.

Damir Arnaut once suggested that lawsuits filed by politicians should be handled differently and that they be checked more strictly in the preliminary procedure... That proposal stopped when the initiative was adopted in the state parliament, but it never reached the competent institutions," states Rudić.

In the end, she specifically warns that, after the adopted changes to the Republika Srpska Criminal Code and the new law on NGOs, the possibility of double prosecution of journalists - both misdemeanor and criminal - is there.

"It will be a big problem," she concludes.

The article was realized as part of the Transition program of the Government of the Czech Republic and with the financial assistance of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina @CzechiainBiH. The content reflects the views of the interlocutors who are the choice of the editorial staff of Politicki.ba and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Czech government.