SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Bosnia-Herzegovina Helsinki Committee for Human Rights on Tuesday assessed that media in the country were still facing a difficult situation, adding that the discrimination of freedom of speech was still
an everyday problem. President of the Committee Srdjan Dizdarevic on Tuesday presented a Helsinki Committee report on the situation in media. According to him, it is justified to fear that in the upcoming pre-electoral period the situation could become even worse and media could be exposed to even greater pressures.
SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Hina) - The Bosnia-Herzegovina Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights on Tuesday assessed that media in the
country were still facing a difficult situation, adding that the
discrimination of freedom of speech was still an everyday problem.
President of the Committee Srdjan Dizdarevic on Tuesday presented a
Helsinki Committee report on the situation in media. According to
him, it is justified to fear that in the upcoming pre-electoral
period the situation could become even worse and media could be
exposed to even greater pressures.#L#
The systematic analysis by the Helsinki Committee, which includes
the past two-year period, contains dozen cases in which reporters
were threatened in different ways as well as situations in which
their lives were in immediate danger.
The last and most dramatic case was the planting of a bomb in a
vehicle of the editor-in-chief of the Banja Luka newspaper
"Nezavisna Novina", Zeljko Kopanja.
In this attack, which took place in November of 1999, Kopanja lost
both of his legs, and by combination of circumstances, his wife and
son avoided becoming victims themselves. The perpetrators of this
crime have not yet been discovered.
According to Dizdarevic, anonymous letters, phone and other
threats are everyday things in media life in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The committee's report also includes public appearances of eminent
official of the ruling Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Halid Genjc
directed against the editorial policy of the Sarajevo daily of
"Oslobodjenje", and the interference of reis of the Bosnia-
Herzegovina Islam Community Mustafa Ceric in the editorial policy
of Bosnia-Herzegovina Television.
The report also criticised the behaviour of the Federation of
Bosnia-Herzegovina's Interior Minister Mehmed Zilic for
withholding information regarding the murder of Deputy Interior
Minister Jozo Leutar and the threats by the Croatian Military
Disabled Persons from the Homeland War (HVIDRA) in Bosnia-
Herzegovina to some Croatian reporters because they cooperated
with representatives of the international community in Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
As a special form of pressure on media, many court proceeding are
being used against responsible editors.
Therefore the Committee called upon foreign donators to contribute
to the survival and the strengthening of independent and
professional media in order to maintain balance in those Bosnia-
Herzegovina media who are under the supervision of "national
oligarchies which are obstructing the peaceful process and
democratisation".
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