OHR FORWARDS WARNING TO BH FEDERAL GOVT DUE TO PRESSURES ON 'DNEVNI AVAZ' DAILY

SARAJEVO, June 23 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina (OHR), Wolfgang Petritsch, and ambassadors of member-countries of the managing board of the Council for the Dayton Agreement Implementation, on Friday insisted on the immediate cease of all procedures of the Bosnian Croat-Moslem federal authorities violating the media freedom and their activities against "Dnevni Avaz" daily. According to a statement forwarded to the media from Petritsch's office, the Federal Government was directly notified that the international community believed that there were acts of abuse of the state authorities with the aim to repress the freedom of media. The statement described a two-week long check of the daily's financial transactions by the tax administration as an attempt to intimidate the daily's staff for their criticism of the work of the federal government and disclosure of a series of corruption scandals. The federal authorities are asked to de-block immediately all accounts of "Dnevni Avaz" in order to make it possible for the newspaper to be published and to make the financial investigation transparent. (hina) jn ms