ZAGREB, March 5 (Hina) - About one hundred reporters and other employees of the Sarajevo-based Avaz newspaper publisher gathered in front of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in the Bosnian capital to protest against alleged
censorship and unequal representation of Bosniaks in the country's judicial bodies.
ZAGREB, March 5 (Hina) - About one hundred reporters and other
employees of the Sarajevo-based Avaz newspaper publisher gathered in
front of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in the Bosnian
capital to protest against alleged censorship and unequal
representation of Bosniaks in the country's judicial bodies. #L#
The protesters stayed in front of the building for about half an hour,
after which Deputy High Representative Donald Hays met for talks the
editor-in-chief of Dnevni Avaz daily, Fahrudin Djapo, who requested
the removal of the alleged ethnic imbalance in the judiciary and the
investigation of the political past of prosecutors and judges (the
so-called lustration).
Bosnia's highest-circulation daily has been fiercely campaigning for
more than two weeks against the High Judicial and Prosecutorial
Council which is in charge of checking the background and appointing
judges and prosecutors. The most serious accusation levelled against
the body is that it mostly appoints Serbs and Croats to influential
judicial positions, while qualified Bosniaks are unjustifiably removed
from office.
The campaign escalated after a decision of the Sarajevo Canton Court
ordering the daily to pay the leader of the Social Democratic Party
(SDP), Zlatko Lagumdzija, damages for slander in the amount of
EUR5,000. The judge who passed the ruling was immediately accused of
trying to introduce censorship.
Avaz's requests were supported by the Party of Democratic Action
(SDA), but most politicians ignored the campaign.
High Representative Paddy Ashdown also dismissed the daily's claims,
stating that punishing the publication of untruths can in no way be
considered as censorship. Speaking about the situation in the country
before the UN Security Council earlier this week, Ashdown warned about
the danger of the ongoing campaign against judicial independence in
the country.
Despite Ashdown's statement, the daily's representatives said they
would continue staging protest rallies in front of the OHR until their
requests were met.
(Hina) rml sb