The Steering Board of the BH Journalists Association condemned on Thursday the extremely inappropriate and insulting behaviour of leaders of the Social Democratic Party of BiH (SDP BiH) and the People and Justice (NiP) party, Nermin Niksic and Elmedin Konakovic, towards media representatives in the Sarajevo Canton.

“The SDP leader, Nermin Niksic, stopped the N1 journalist Suncica Sehic on her way out of a conference hall, took her hand and told her repeatedly that she was “pathetic” for asking questions at the press conference. Reporter Sehic's questions were also disliked by NiP leader Elmedin Konakovic, who told the journalist, among other things, that she was “nervous” and “angry that she left TVSA,” and concluded that “she is hunting him down”.

Inappropriate and rude attitude toward journalists is not foreign to the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton and the leader of Our Party Edin Forto, who recently, as a guest on TVSA angrily said to the journalist: “Do you hear what you are asking?”

“Instead of answering journalists’ questions, representatives of the government and political parties that are part of the ruling coalition, but also the opposition, are increasingly reacting with insults and humiliation to journalists who only seek answers to questions of public interest directly related to Sarajevo Canton citizens and the whole of BiH” BH Journalists pointed out.

It is particularly indicative and worrying, BH Journalists added, that the said politicians treated journalists in these cases in a primitive way and with a misogynistic vocabulary towards journalists who, in addition to professional violence, are most often exposed to verbal violence because they are women.