Bosnia was not criticised for the state of its media freedom at the Global Conference for Media Freedom: London 2019, Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak told N1 on Friday, but added that important issues concerning the work of public broadcasters remain to be solved as well as the bitter taste of the fact that the State still has no institution ready to protect the journalists and their freedoms.

“We'll have two main propositions for our key institutions and these are: joining the the Global Fund which is yet to be formed and whose aim is to support the media freedom, and the second proposition is that we join the group of countries that will form plans and reports on how to ensure media freedom,” Crnadak said.

Speaking from London where he attended the conference which gathered over 70 ministers from across the world, representatives of over 100 member states and more than 1,000 journalists, Crnadak said that Bosnia is specific in this regard.

“I emphasized that despite threats to journalists we also have an issue concerning our public broadcasters. According to the OSCE's report, they are under immense political control. We've had concrete examples where people from the public broadcasters, supporting some candidates and parties, affected the results of the elections,” Crnadak noted.

The Foreign Minister concluded that Bosnia has many steps it needs to take in its judiciary, the rule of law and the respect of existing laws in order to ensure the protection of the freedom of the press.

The London conference is the biggest event if this kind ever to be held in the world.