The House of Representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH), one of the two semi-autonomous entities within the country, has on Wednesday supported an initiative to define attacks on journalists as attacks on officials.
The initiative came from the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
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According to N1’s Tina Jelin-Dizdar, apart from some, members of the main Bosniak Party for Democratic Action (SDA) were mostly either against the initiative or abstained.
Members of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) and the Independent Bloc also abstained.
Apart from the SDO, members of Nasa Stranka (Our Party, NS), the Democratic Front (DF), the Union for a Better Future (SBB), the Croat Democratic Union 1990 (HDZ 1990), the Party of Democratic Activity (A-SDA) and Truth and Justice (Narod i Pravda) voted in favour.
At first, the initiative did not pass. SDP’s Damir Masic, however, then asked for each representative to vote individually, and then it passed with 54 votes in favour.
The initiative came after a high-ranking member of the SDA, Huso Cesir, attacked a cameraman of the investigative outlet ‘Zurnal’, who was trying to record the official’s private company while working on an alleged corruption story in late March.
The incident triggered strong reactions by media associations and international organisations, including the US Embassy and OSCE's Media Freedom representative.
SDA leader Bakir Izetbegovic later condemned the attack but said Cesir will not be sanctioned in the party because he “attacked a camera” and not the cameraman.
“Cesir is a deserving man, he was a good soldier, he was a good SDA member…,” Izetbegovic said.
