The BH Journalists Association expressed concern over the request of BiH Presidency member, Milorad Dodik, to re-introduce laws against defamation and insult into the criminal legislation of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, saying such “rigid intervention into media legislation” would not be in line with European standards and would represent “inadmissible limitation of media freedom and freedom of expression.”
The association was referring to a tweet Dodik posted on Monday when he asked the RS Justice Ministry to prepare a set of laws on preventing the spread of fake news, hate speech, the introduction of defamation and insult as criminal offences, as well as the expansion of criminal offences against the constitutional order.
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He stated that this set of laws should be adapted to European conventions.
The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association, however, said that Dodik’s initiative is “contrary to European standards for the protection of freedom of expression and information.”
“The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association believes that such a rigid intervention into media legislation, even at the level of the initiative of the current member of the Presidency of BiH, represents an inadmissible limitation of media freedom and freedom of expression, and hints at the return of Bosnia and Herzegovina two decades ago to the period when journalists could end up in prison for their writings and their work in the public interest,” the BH Journalist Association said.
It noted that Dodik “is not the only politician who advocates the criminalization of defamation and insult”, as there have been similar initiatives coming from some of the leading politicians in the country in recent months.
“In the case of BiH and the undisguised pressures and interference of politicians in the work of the judiciary, such initiatives are unacceptable and open space for political abuse of the legislative-legal system and judicial institutions,” it said.
The association argued that, although defamation is still a criminal offence in some European countries, the courts almost never apply the option of imprisonment for this offence.
“On the other hand, the examples from Turkey, where journalists were sentenced to long-term prison for defamation, are not at all encouraging in this respect. It is not difficult to assume that in BiH there are many who wish for the return of a type of verbal delict and prison sentences for media professionals and other citizens who publicly express critical views and question the actions of local authorities,” it warned.
The association pointed out that BiH was the first country in the region to decriminalize defamation and was the leader of positive trends in media legislation, stressing that “bringing defamation and insult back into the realm of criminal law would needlessly take us ten steps back and send a very bad message to our European partners at a time when we expect candidate status for the European Union.”
It also pointed out that the European Commission asked BiH authorities to guarantee freedom of expression and the media, as well as the protection of journalists, as one of the eight fundamental conditions for obtaining candidate status.
“Therefore, these kinds of attempts to stifle the freedom of the media and put journalists and the media under pressure, especially those who critically report on the moves of the authorities and uncover corruption affairs in which certain politicians are involved, must not be allowed,” the statement said.
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