Managerial Board of the Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT), the country's public broadcaster, issued a statement on Thursday, slamming the BH Radio 1 General Manager's decision to observe the day of mourning in the Serb-majority part of BiH that was declared over the “tragic events in Kosovo.” Pročitaj više

After the authorities in the neighbouring Serbia declared the day of mourning over what the Government's press release called “tragic events in Kosovo,” the authorities in Republika Srpska entity, which makes nearly a half of Bosnia and Herzegovina's territory, did the same.

But, on Thursday morning the BH Radio 1 station started playing classical music only, in order to observe the day of mourning that was declared in only one part of the country, which sparked reactions among employees and editors.

“It has never happened before nor it is a practice that only one broadcaster within BHRT passes a unilateral decision on such important programme stand such as the declaring of a day of mourning,” the BHRT Managerial Board said, adding that Dejan Kerleta, the general manager of BH Radio1, which is one of the broadcasters under BHRT alongside BHT 1 tv channel, made this decision on his own without any consultations with this body or BHRT General Manager Belmin Karamehmedovic.

According to N1's unnamed sources, there was a heated discussion in the morning meeting at the BH Radio 1, where some of the editors distanced themselves from this decision.

Amir Suzanj, one of the editors, asked for explanation of this decision and whether Karamehmedovic had anything to do with that.

He also said he refused to be a “toy in the hands of propaganda of (Serbian president) Aleksandar Vucic.”

BH Radio1 general manager Dejan Kerleta was also contacted for a comment but he has not responded yet.

The BHRT Managerial Board said that such “unilateral and unharmonised decisions are detrimental to BHRT,” assessing them as a “politicisation of editorial policy of the Public Broadcasting Service of BiH.”

The decision was put out of force immediately.

Alongside the state public broadcasting service BHRT, which consists of BH Radio 1 and BHT 1 – a radio and TV channels, both Bosnia's entities have their own public broadcasters – Radio Television of Republika Srpska and Radio Television of the Federation BiH.