BH Journalists Association and the Free Media Help Line asked the police administration in Bosnia's Federation entity as well as Ministry of Internal Affairs of Sarajevo Canton to urgently investigate the attacks on reporters of four media outlets, including N1, which occurred on Friday in Sarajevo during a protest in front of the Parliament building.

“On that occasion, the participants of the protest insulted the journalistic teams of N1 TV, Dnevni avaz, Fena and Face TV, and physically prevented the journalist and cameraman of N1 Aleksandra Tolj Ruzic and Haris Hukara from recording the statement, while they tried to steal a mobile phone from the journalist of Dnevni avaz and made it impossible for him to record it,” said the Steering Board of the association.

They assessed the violence against journalists unacceptable, requesting from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Democratic Front (DF) to, together with the police, contribute to identifying the attackers and sanctioning them.

“It is unacceptable to persecute journalistic teams whose task was to report from the Sarajevo protests, and to allow a few radical and primitive individuals to determine which media can or cannot report from a public gathering,” said the statement.

BH Journalists Association also finds it indicative that supporters and members of the SDA and DF parties, repeated targeted attacks on journalistic teams and verbal insults to journalists of certain media outlets during this one and other protests over the last few months and that, at the same time, these two politicaal parties remained silent about it and did nothing “to stop the radicals who brutally violate the rights of journalists and media freedom.”

Protesters threaten N1 during demonstrations in Sarajevo

The association said it expected “an urgent reaction from the competent institutions,” namely the police and the prosecutor's office, first of all, a detailed investigation into this case and the sanctioning of the perpetrators in accordance with the law. They also call on the leadership of the SDA and DF to, in accordance with their ethical codes and internal regulations, raise their voice against violence against the media and journalists, and in this way send a message to their supporters and the entire public that “threats and violence must be stopped and that such behavior will not be tolerated.”

BH Journalist Association also said they would inform all relevant institutions about this case and about the increase in the number of attacks and pressures on journalists, including the OSCE, the Delegation of the European Union to BiH, the Institution of the Ombudsman for Human Rights of BiH and diplomatic and consular offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina.