Bosnian journalists demand justice in case of journalist threatened and assaulted by hooligans · Global Voices
Protest of journalists in front of the parliament in Sarajevo, 30 September 2019. Photo by <PERSON>, courtesy of RadioSarajevo.ba, used with permission.
A group of hooligans who presented themselves as “fans of football club Sarajevo” besieged the newsroom of the online news portal RadioSarajevo.ba in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) during the late hours of 27 September 2019. Threatening death and harm to his family, they forced an employee to erase a piece of news that reported that a member of their group had been sentenced to five years in prison in Belarus for possession of cocaine.
Creating a de facto hostage situation lasting 2.5 hours, the hooligans also forced the journalist <PERSON> “to call other news portals and newspapers and ask them to remove the article as well.” The police intervened, and arrested two members of the group on charges of threatening the safety of Radio Sarajevo journalists and editors.
Football and other sports fans groups called ultras have been playing significant role in the political life of Balkan countries due to their mobilization potential through association with popular clubs.
The targeted media outlet republished the article that was targeted by the censorship attempt and alarmed the public about the situation, pointing that this incident is just an instance of the atmosphere of pressure against free media from different centers of power. OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media and Reporters without Borders condemned the attack, with the local association BH Journalists, a member of the International Federation of Journalists, demanding strict sanctions for the assailants.
Some 50 journalists and other media workers held a protest walk to the parliament in Sarajevo on 30 September, urging the authorities to make sure journalists can work in secure conditions without fear of assault from.
Protest of journalists in front of the parliament in Sarajevo, 30 September 2019. Photo by <PERSON>, courtesy of RadioSarajevo.ba, used with permission.
Global Voices talked to <PERSON>, member of RadioSarajevo.ba editorial team, about the aftermath of the incident. He explained that they consider the incident as “brazen and unacceptable attack on their newsroom and endangering the security of our coleauges and the members of their families.”
Huliganski upadi pokušali su se – mi to tako vidimo – nametnuti kao metod za discipliniranje novinara i redakcija, i tome smo se odlučno suprostavili. 463
Zahvaljujemo se još jednom svim kolegama iz BiH, regiona i cijelog svijeta koji su, prepoznajući ove opasnosti, pružili podršku našoj redakciji, uključujući i Reportere bez granica i domaća novinarska udruženja, redakcije…
Mi smo ohrabreni činjenicom da je u konačnici policija u Sarajevu reagirala i brzo identificirala počinitelje napada. Za razliku od ovog, mnogo je slučajeva u BiH kada policija nije brzo i profesionalno reagirala na napade na novinare. Štaviše, čak su neki policajci i podržavali napade na kolege, kao što je slučaj u Mostaru.
Assaults by hooligans–in our view–are a new method for disciplining journalists and newsrooms, and we resolutely stand against this method. We are thankful to all the colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Balkan region and the whole world who recognized these dangers and offered support to our team. These included Reporters without Borders, domestic journalist associations and individual outlets…
We are encouraged by the fact that the Sarajevo police intervened and quickly identified the perpetrators. However, unlike this case, in many similar cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina the police failed to react to attacks on journalists quickly and professionally. There were incidents, for instance in Mostar, when some policemen supported attacks on journalists.
The mentioned incident in Mostar (a city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina) took place on 5 June, after a bomb explosion. 463