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SARAJEVO, May 18 (FENA) - A report on the state of the media freedoms in 17 local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina "The Real Voice of Journalism", whose conclusions and recommendations were presented today in Sarajevo, showed that the main challenges that local media face are lack of financial independence and direct and indirect political and economic pressures.
These forms of pressure occur very often, according to the report, they more pronounced at the local level "because, in smaller communities, in a divided society like the one in Bosnia and Herzegovina, local lords are often those who are overtly dominant."
The Report, among other things, points out that the censorship problem is extremely present, which prevents the media from performing their day to day tasks in a professional manner.
One of the authors of the report, Tatjana Milovanović, a field manager at the Center for Post-Conflict Studies, said that the very title of the Report implies that their intention was to "give voice" to more than 30 journalists from 17 local communities in BiH.
She noted that the difficult economic situation in BiH did not spare the media, and in addition to this, BiH is a small market for everyone, including the media, which in most cases receive financial assistance from local or state budgets.
“Unfortunately, this leaves a huge space for politicians to regulate and control the information that is being released in the media,” she stressed.
Since the general elections are approaching, Milovanović expressed fear that the situation regarding political pressure will not improve; on the contrary, pressure on the media will become higher, as see previous experiences have shown.
Erna Mačkić, editor and journalist of the Balkan Investigative Research Network (BIRN), believes that the freedom of media in BiH is violated in every sense, and journalists are in a very bad financial situation, not only in local communities in BiH, but throughout the country and beyond.
“Moreover, journalists are constantly exposed to different kinds of pressure, not only threats from criminal groups and political parties, but also the pressure by the editors and auto-censorship and censorship,” she stressed, adding that all the media are in this situation, private media and those financed from the state budget.
Because of all of the said above, Mačkić believes that there is no professional reporting, and almost no investigative journalism, except in the media sponsored by international organizations.
In addition to this, she noted that there is also omnipresent media illiteracy in BiH, due to which citizens often do not understand the reports made by journalists, especially when it comes to professional and expertise topics.
The research was carried out within the project "The Real Voice of Journalism" financed by the European Union through a program of small grants "Protecting the freedom of the media and freedom of expression in the Western Balkans", and the Report was published by the Center for Post-Conflict Research.
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(FENA) S. R.
