Bosnian Journalist Association strongly condemned the brutal attack on Vladimir Kovacevic, BN TV’s journalist who was attacked Sunday and called for protests and boycotting of RS authorities if the case is not solved very soon.
“We are horrified by the manner in which the attack was committed. We consider it to be organised and planned with the intent of endangering Vladimir Kovacevic's life and preventing him from performing his professional work at BN TV,” the Association’s Management Board said.
Kovacevic was attacked in front of his apartment building by two masked individuals who beat him with extendable batons, inflicting serious injuries.
They say that the attack was the result of prolonged attacks and verbal insults against BN TV’ s journalists by the President of the Serb-dominated, semi-autonomous Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik and other officials from the ruling coalition in this entity. The prolonged attacks on BN TV and other media representatives in Bosnia must end immediately, they warned.
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The Association added that the RS President has often directed his political activities against journalists and media, humiliating and insulting them in the most primitive ways, calling them enemies, spies, foreign agents, thus turning journalists into “walking targets,” creating conditions for “direct violence.”
The Association called on all media representatives and outlets to boycott all activities of the RS authorities and to stage protests in Banjaluka if the public is not informed of all the circumstances concerning the attack in the next five days.
Regional platform for advocating of media freedom and journalists’ safety ‘Safe journalists,’ representing more than 8,000 members, also condemned the brutal attack.
They said they were horrified by the manner of the attack and deeply concerned by the fact that Kovacevic was attacked right after reporting about the citizens’ protest in Banjaluka where citizens have been gathering around the “Justice for David” group.
This was the fifth attack against journalists in Bosnia, that was recorded in 2018.
The group also requested that the RS Interior Ministry investigates the attack urgently and professionally and that they inform the public on the circumstances of the attack as son as possible, and sanction the perpetrators in accordance with the law.
