The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided, at its plenary session on Thursday, that the article of the law criminalizing defamation in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity was unconstitutional thus abolishing that provision.

The appeal was sent by Denis Zvizdic, the Deputy Speaker of the BiH House of Representatives, at the end of August last year.

Zvizdic also submitted a request for the adoption of a temporary measure by which the BiH Constitutional Court would suspend the application of the provisions treating defamation as a criminal offence in the RS until the final decision of the Constitutional Court.

Defamation was criminalized by amendments to the RS Criminal Code, which the entity National Assembly adopted in July 2023.

The changes entered into force on August 26, when defamation officially became a criminal offence in this entity.

The provisions of the Law thus state that making malicious or untrue statements about a person is called defamation, with fines ranging from € 500 to € 3,000.