A member of the Senate of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity and member of the ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in the Banja Luka City Assembly, Marinko Umicevic verbally attacked the CAPITAL portal’s journalist Bojana Ninkovic and insulted the editor-in-chief Sinisa Vukelic on Saturday.

In a telephone conversation, Capital’s journalist Bojana Ninkovic asked Umicevic who is also the president of the RS Handball Federation and technical director of the Bema factory, to comment on the fact that the Borac m:tel Handball Club received a grant of 126,867 Bosnian marks (some €65,000) from the City of Banja Luka in 2020, while at the same time Umicevic was the club's vice president and councillor in the Assembly of the City of Banja Luka, which by law is a conflict of interest. Umicevic uttered a series of the most vulgar insults and swear words against the journalist of and the director and editor-in-chief of the portal, Sinisa Vukelic.

After reporting the incident to the Helpline for Assistance to Journalists, the Board of Directors of the Association “BH Journalists” and the Helpine for Assistance to Journalists strongly condemned the brutal insults directed at the CAPITAL team by Marinko Umicevic.

“This is yet another in a series of cases reported to the Helpline for Journalists in recent months in which politicians and high-ranking public officials in Republika Srpska verbally attack, threaten, insult and belittle journalists, thus “responding” to their requests for access to information from the public. Those who deal with investigative journalism and reveal numerous corrupt government scandals are especially “targeted,” which is why they are exposed to pressure, insults and hate speech on social networks and portals, as well as reckless attempts to compromise their personal and professional integrity on the daily basis” the Association said.