Journalists, activists and opposition politicians gathered on Tuesday in a protest against attempts by the Bosnia's Serb-majority entity government to criminalise defamation, calling on members of the Republika Srpska National Assembly to reject such proposals.

Several hundred protesters rallied in the main square in the entity's administrative centre, Banja Luka, ahead of the entity parliament's session scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m.. The parliament has on its agenda the government's proposal to amend the entity's criminal code, under which defamation would become a criminal offence.

The protesters were supported by opposition leaders Milan Milicevic from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and Branislav Borenovic from the Democratic Progress Party (PDP).

Sinisa Vukelic, the editor of the Capital.ba web portal and a member of Banja Luka Association of Journalists, thanked for the support, recalling that Republika Srpska had decriminalised defamation two decades ago and that the entity's government was now trying to abolish this to protect its own interests.

“The RS government turned its back on the UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the BH Association of Journalists and said ‘we're not interested in what you're thinking, we want to protect our own interests because we are afraid of facts and truth’,” he said.

The proposal to criminalise defamation came from Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, who said that its aim was to protect the interests of Republika Srpska and its government in the face of “special warfare” involving journalists.

Vukelic reiterated the call to withdraw the proposal from agenda.

“We're telling the citizens this is our own battle. What is next, the right to medical treatment, to education,” he asked.