Media Sustainability Index (MSI) - Europe and Eurasia

MSI Europe & Eurasia 2006/07

Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Introduction
• Objective 1: Free Speech
• Objective 2: Professional Journalism
• Objective 3: Plurality of News Sources
• Objective 4: Business Management
• Objective 5: Supporting Institutions
• Panel Participants
• Download Bosnia and Herzegovina Chapter (699KB)

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Introduction

2006/07 MSI Score: 2.90/4/00

The general elections were the most important event in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2006. Just as in the campaign in 2002, the 2006 election campaign presented the opportunity for Bosnian politicians to use nationalistic rhetoric and obtain more votes. The three biggest ethnic political parties—the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), and the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS)—in this campaign had strong opposition in the Croatian Democratic Union 1990 (HDZ 1990), the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH), and the Union of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD). The winner of this election was the SNSD, led by Milorad Dodik. SNSD captured more than 50 percent of the votes from Bosnian Serbs. Dodik, the former favorite of the international community, also used nationalistic rhetoric in this campaign. He claimed that the SNSD would protect the Republika Srpska—the Serb entity of BiH—from centralization to Sarajevo and said he would possibly organize the referendum for independence.

The best electoral result among the Bosniak population was achieved by Haris Silajdzic (SBiH), the former BiH prime minister, who responded to Dodik's claims by saying that the Bosnian Serb entity should be dissolved.

Most all reform processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been stalled because of these fundamentally divergent approaches that do not leave room for compromise. The police reform, which has been the main requirement for signing a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union (EU), has not yet been adopted. 

Another important requirement for signing an SAA with the EU—the Law on the Public Broadcasting System of BiH (JRTS BiH)—was accepted on October 5, 2005, at the state level as well as in the Republika Srpska entity in May 2006, but it has never passed in the Parliament of the Federation B&H (the other entity comprising the federal BiH system).

Negotiation between Bosnian political parties about constitutional reforms has endured for a year under the sponsorship of the American administration and the Dayton Project—a nongovernmental organization (NGO) led by former American diplomat Donald Hays—but has not achieved substantive results. The bill with constitutional changes was rejected in the Parliament, because some parties considered that it does not go far enough.

The Office of High Representative (OHR) had to extend its mandate for a year (until June 2008). OHR is the institution established by the Dayton Peace Agreement with the mandate to sponsor the democratization process, assume supreme legislative and administrative authority, impose laws, and discharge officials if their activities contravene the peace agreement. The High Representative—German diplomat Christian Schwartz-Schilling—has tried to use its powers as rarely as possible, insisting that Bosnian politicians should take responsibility for running the country. But Bosnian politicians have not assumed this risk. In June 2007, Schwartz-Schilling will be replaced by a new European diplomat.

The Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) of Bosnia-Herzegovina prescribed the rules for all broadcasters in the election campaign, including a mandate that equal time be granted to all relevant political parties. Unlike broadcasters, the print media were not subject to any regulation regarding the equal treatment of political parties in electoral periods. This definitely allowed the print media to demonstrate their favorites in the election process.

The election campaign also showed that the media market remains fragmented along ethnic lines. Journalists were less critical to politicians from their ethnic group and at times caustic toward politicians from other ethnic groups.

The Media Sustainability Index (MSI) panel agreed, as in 2005, that the most discouraging element of the media sector in 2006 was the underdeveloped market, characterized by the population’s limited purchasing power, fragmentation along ethnic lines, little interest among foreign investors, and a large number of outlets continuing to compete in a limited market. This situation was exacerbated by the privileged position of media from other countries operating in BiH.

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OBJECTIVE 1: FREE SPEECH

Bosnia Objective Score: 3.09/4.00

The legal frame that regulates the media issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina is based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other major international legal acts. The legislation has been in place for several years, and the framework is stable, which has helped media to plan their activities.

Mehmed Agovic, the Director General of the Public Broadcasting System of Bosnia and Herzegovina, says that Bosnia and Herzegovina has “a legal framework of media sector on a high level, maybe the best in region. The reason is the assumption and implementation of all European standards in the media field.” ¹

The Law on Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina prescribes the regulatory principles of broadcasting that shall include: a) the protection of freedom of expression and diversity of opinion while respecting generally accepted standards of decency, nondiscrimination, fairness, accuracy, and impartiality; b) the development of professional and viable commercial and public broadcasters with the intention of striking an appropriate balance between the two; and c) that broadcasters shall be separate from political control and manipulation, so as to strengthen democratic principles and the foundations of a market economy.

The Freedom of Access to Information Act is also a very progressive law, which came into force in 2000. The Act was created based on leading European standards. “For the first time in this part of Europe, in the Freedom of Access to Information Act all information in the possession of public authorities has been considered as a public property that belongs to all citizens and not just to the government—the Act prescribes that authorities have to provide citizens with all information, even these that belongs to the national security issues. Exceptions are possible only after the ‘test of public interests,’ if it shows up that publishing of some information could be damaging,” said Dunja Mijatovic, the Director of the Broadcasting Division of the CRA of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

However, the law in many ways has not been tested. There is an absence of public awareness of these legal possibilities. Citizens still do not use all opportunities they have according to the Act.

“An OSCE-sponsored survey conducted in 2004 on a sample of 1,550 respondents showed that 63.6 percent of citizens had never even heard of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information.” ²

The second problem with this Act is the implementation. The Act did not prescribe the fines for the authorities who violate its prescriptions. According to the results of research conducted by the Mediacentar Sarajevo in 2006³ , 31.3 percent of authorities did not respond to requests for information that have come from citizens and organizations.

Journalists underline that the Act has other weak points, too. “Legal standards could be a good ground point for a free speech and information accessibility, but in practice authorities stretch all deadlines and block providing information on time. Access to information is often a battle with a huge and slow administration. So, theoretically it is well-designed, but there are still some problems in practice. The situation is better from year to year,” said Kenan Cerimagic, the news program editor of the Independent Television Hayat.

The CRA is responsible for a protection of free speech in the electronic media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The print media have been regulated by the Press Code. The body responsible for the implementation of the Code is the Press Council. CRA is responsible for licensing and regulating broadcasting and telecommunications, while the Press Council, a voluntary and self-regulatory body, deals with complaints about the print media.

Since 2002, Bosnia and Herzegovina has fully decriminalized libel and defamation. The most frequent cases of libel before the court are those in which journalists sued other journalists for libel. The biggest problem that panelists see in this area is that according to Bosnian legislation, the jurisdiction for libel cases has been given to the level of the municipal courts. The judges at this level, especially in some rural areas, are not experienced and do not have sufficient knowledge of the law to fairly adjudicate libel and defamation cases.

No crimes against journalists were recorded in the past year.

All Bosnian media have unrestricted access to international news and news services, and all major media use services of international news agencies—Reuters or Associated Press.

The State does not prescribe any restrictions for entering into the journalism profession, so the entry is free for all interested young journalists.

The biggest problem that Bosnian journalists faced in the past year as they practiced their profession was a new practice by some politicians to boycott some broadcasters or newspapers who are, according to these politicians, too critical toward them. The beginning of this is placed in 2006, when Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, traveled to the World Cup in Germany with a public plane. When a correspondent of the Public Broadcasting Service asked him why he had used a public property to travel and watch a football game, Dodik answered that this is not his problem because he (the reporter) comes from the other entity.

This sort of banal correspondence continued, and in January 2007, the Dodik Government decided to cease cooperation with the public television network, BHT1, and later denied its journalists access to governmental press conferences. Additionally, journalists of BHT1 found themselves barred from entering the building where the RS President, Milan Jelic, was holding a press conference. The ban was attributed to allegedly disparaging news coverage of the RS Entity Day on January 9, 2007, and the allegedly “hostile” treatment on BHT1 of both RS Prime Minister Dodik and BiH Council of Ministers Chairman Nikola Spiric on January 11, 2007.

The RS government publicly characterized BHT1’s editorial policy as “politicized, malicious, and unprofessional.” In response to these allegations, the network’s news editor, Amir Zukic, immediately denounced the government’s decision as “political interference in the editorial policy of a public broadcaster.” On January 16, 2007, the Steering Board of the Public Broadcasting Service dismissed General Director Drago Maric on the very day his term in that post would have ended. The Board has been led by Nikola Deretic, who is a close friend of Dodik, so the dismissal was explained in Bosnian media as a form of political pressure on PBS. The Board has explained Maric’s dismissal on his last day as legitimate. ⁴ Maric was then replaced by Agovic. On January 30, 2007, the RS Deputy Premier, Anton Kasipovic, and the new General Director of BHT1, Agovic, met and decided that the RS Government’s boycott should be lifted and relations reestablished with BHT1.

The decision to dismiss the General Director produced debates among the Bosnian public and within the international community in Bosnia. Schwartz-Schilling, the High Representative, and Ambassador Douglas Davidson of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), on behalf of the Steering Board of Ambassadors of the Peace Implementation Council, invited the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media to address concerns over the state of media freedom in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklós Haraszti, said that “denying access to a public broadcaster even for a moment poses concerns all the more when the call comes from public officials for it harbors the potential to constitute the first step towards censorship. Interfering with the free flow of information as a retaliatory measure is thus an unacceptable reaction by government officials under the terms of these commitments, even when they feel the media is misinterpreting or distorting their policies and views.”⁵ In his report, Haraszti wrote that all the high officials that he met stressed that it was an “isolated incident.” Several interlocutors from the media world also seemed convinced that “the Government had learned its lesson.”

The report stated: “Media reporting is never perfect. This explains the need for mechanisms that redress mistakes and imperfections. Bosnia and Herzegovina is fortunate enough to have one of the most advanced self-regulatory mechanisms in Europe. Complaints about broadcasting are sent to the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), which has the right to consider a complaint in any case where a given program, advertisement, or broadcast appears to have been biased, incorrect, offensive, or harmful; to have endangered privacy, harmed the physical, mental, or moral development of children; or to have incited racial, religious, or national hatred.”

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OBJECTIVE 2: PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM

Bosnia Objective Score: 2.65/4.00

The MSI panelists agreed that notable progress has been made in the implantation of professional standards in the media, compared to the past few years.

In general, one could say that all major broadcasters consult all relevant parties regarding the issues they are covering. In the print media, the practice is quite different; sometimes when the opinion of an official or individual differs from the opinion of the media outlet, those with opposing views are often not consulted in the writing of stories.

For instance, the biggest Bosnian daily, Dnevni avaz, published a serial of articles during the campaign about the president of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zlatko Lagumdzija. Lagumdzija was never contacted for these articles; the only sources were his opponents.

The daily Nezavisne novine, which for a long time was considered the only daily that tried to cover the whole country in the last election campaign, strongly supported Dodik. The daily published numerous articles about the great economic results of his government (while many argue that the statistics do not indicate such success). During Dodik’s conflict with the public broadcaster discussed above, Nezavisne novine backed Dodik and did not support the public broadcaster.

The CRA’s report for 2006 mentioned that fewer complaints on media coverage, professionalism, and breaking of rules were received in 2006. In 2006, the CRA processed 177 complaints. Most of them were connected with the breaking of rules of license and rules of election campaign coverage. One hundred forty-three cases were connected with program contents, and 34 cases with technical conditions. Citizens initiated 86 of these procedures. The CRA accepted 59 complaints and defined penalty payments in the total amount of BAM 79.500,00 (EUR 40.600). ⁶ In 2005, the CRA processed 186 complaints, 55 had been accepted, and the CRA defined penalty payments in total amount of BAM 232.650 (EUR 118.952).⁷

Mijatovic explains that the reasons for the CRA intervention have changed: “In previous years, we had a lot of complaints because of a hate speech in the media. Now, most of these complaints are about politeness in media programs, and fair and unprejudiced reporting. Most of these protests are caused by unsuitable quotations regarding some third person, when media publish just one side of story.”

All MSI panelists agreed that in a lot of cases, there was not “classical malice” at work but rather an attempt to be the first media to publish some exclusive information. The goal of media in these cases is not to harm some person, but to obtain a higher audience.

“Increasing commercial interest, caused by a huge competition, removed the media from idealistic and political interests, which were the most important in the previous period,” said Mijatovic.

The editors think that the public is tired of political topics, affairs, and scandals. “Between a domestic political scandal and a story about a bear in some Finish Zoo, our public is more interested in a story about this bear. We spent a few days and lots of money to research some big story, but the audience is more interested in some entertainment story, which could be taken from some news agency’s service,” said Cerimagic.

The public broadcasting systems produce a lot of news programs. “The news programs are our priority,” said Mira Lolic-Mocevic, manager of the Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS), one of three national public broadcasters. “In 2006, we had 23 percent of our air time dedicated to news programs, 27 percent to movies, 14.1 percent to entertainment, 8.1 percent to music, 6.5 percent to programs for children, 5.2 percent to sports, 3.1 percent to educational programs, and 0.9 percent each to programs for teenagers and religious programs.”

Lolic-Mocevic said that the RTRS produced 54 percent of its own content in 2006.
Unfortunately, specialized programs are very rare in Bosnian media. Public broadcasters do have programs on foreign policy (Global – BHT; Paralele – FTV), economy (Pozitiv – FTV), and consumer protection (Džepobran – FTV).

The salaries at the broadcasters are ordinary, but not sufficient. Many excellent journalists in the past year left their media and found new jobs in public-relations agencies and civil services. The situation is better than the previous years because salaries are paid more regularly.

“The most alarming situation is in the public broadcasting sector that ran a debt of some 10 million KM in unpaid salaries and unpaid benefits for their employees as of end 2005. ⁸ The situation in smaller RTV stations is not any better, as is indicated in the research conducted in 2003 by the Independent Union of Professional Journalists in BiH, which reveals that in BiH, 57.8 percent of journalists work in media outlets with no employment contracts, whereas some 50 percent do not receive regular salaries and have no health insurance.”⁹

In the past few years, especially in the print media, journalists seek to protect their owners’ interests in the articles they write. There is no real dialogue between persons with different opinions in these newspapers; the dialogue exists only between the like-minded persons. In 2006, the Press Council received 39 complains on reporting in the print media. The Press Council accepted nine complaints and concluded that media have violated the Press Code. In another nine cases, the problem was fixed by mediation; the media published the letter of the appellant. In 12 cases, the Press Council rejected the complaints, and in nine cases, it was not authorized to decide (the cases connected with the CRA).¹⁰ But as the Press Council is a voluntary and self-regulatory body, nobody has an obligation to send a case to it so some accusations against the print media have been directly sent to the courts.

The general conclusion of the panel is that Bosnian media are making progress in the implantation of professional standards, but there are still many problems, caused by a difficult financial situation, unsatisfactory technical equipment (some panelists said that some media in rural areas do not have even a simple photo camera), and a large number of good journalists who have left the profession.

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OBJECTIVE 3: PLURALITY OF NEWS SOURCES

Bosnia Objective Score: 2.95/4.00

There are more than 180 electronic media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most of them are local radio and television stations. There are three national public broadcasters (BHRT, RTVFBiH, and RTRS) and three main commercial broadcasters (OBN, TV Pink BH, and Mreza Plus, a network of independent television stations from Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The CRA has issued licenses to 39 television stations (17 public and 22 privately owned). The licenses are issued for a period of 10 years for the privately owned stations and two years for the public stations.

Panelists have in the past assumed that the large number of outlets in the poor and fragmented Bosnian-Herzegovinian market would be reduced in a few years. Panelists agreed that the large number of media outlets does not reflect a vital market with development potential and an ability to offer diverse voices and opinions. They continue to believe that the number of outlets will be reduced by the market.

Although OBN, TV Pink BH, and Mreza Plus are thriving as the three major Bosnian commercial networks, smaller commercial broadcasters face very difficult conditions, points out the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Haraszti in his report on the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “It is a puzzle how such a large number of broadcasters are able to survive in such a limited market. All over Bosnia and Herzegovina, many broadcasters exist without any apparent commercial viability and even without any apparent demand for their programming on the part of audiences. In addition, there are several small-size municipal radio and TV stations which are heterogeneous in size, programming, audience, and financial backup. Governmental financial support for local media outlets throughout the country, especially at the cantonal and municipal levels in the Federation and Republika Srpska, respectively, distorts both the market and potentially the editorial independence of these broadcast outlets.”¹¹ All major independent broadcasters produce their own news programs.

Generally, the ownership of media is transparent; the court registration of every company (including media) is a public document. But, in the past few years in the print-media industry, the power has been concentrated in two conglomerates. These conglomerates now control the biggest national dailies. The Avaz Corporation controls the biggest national daily, Dnevni avaz, as well as a series of different weeklies and magazines, and a television station, Alfa. This corporation in the past year has shifted its core business; it is not solely a media company but has now entered real estate with a business hotel and trade center to be finished in the next year.

The other large owner in the print-media sector is the Sarajevska pivara (Sarajevo brewery), a company that also has a lot of different activities outside of the media sector. In September 2006, the brewery bought the oldest national daily, Oslobodjenje, signaling a battle for the Bosnian print-media market. The media owned by the respective companies have used their media to publish numerous negative articles about the other companies.

Each also has its political favorites. Generally, the Avaz Corporation prefers politicians from the SBiH and SDA, while the other Sarajevo-based newspapers in their comments and articles prefer a social democratic option. All major media in Republika Srpska favor the ruling politics of Dodik. In this sense, all political parties have a chance to present their political views, just not equally in every media.

“A little bog with a lot of crocodiles” could be the real description of the Bosnian print-media market. Aside from these two dailies, the competition is enhanced by newspapers from neighboring Serbia and Croatia. There are 13 daily newspapers from those countries and more than 60 weekly and monthly magazines that circulate in Bosnia.

Media from neighboring countries are also a large problem for Bosnian broadcasters. Cable operators have established their infrastructure in all large towns, and they offer substantial programming from Serbia and Croatia. This situation began in 2005, when cable operators began rebroadcasting the programs of Croatian TV Nova, which features highly popular television series. The local television stations, which bought the rights for these series for the Bosnian market, claimed that they have lost hundreds of thousands of euros in advertising revenues because of this situation. The claims have never been fully resolved.

Internet access is much higher in 2006. According to the CRA’s information¹² , Internet providers had 237,660 subscribers. Their estimation is that there are approximately 950,000 Internet users in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Internet penetration is at 24.5 percent. 

The situation among the news agencies has not changed in the past year. The most important public agencies cover two entities—FENA (Federation of BiH) and SRNA (Republika Srpska). The biggest independent news agency is ONASA.

There are few programs and magazines for different minority groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “RTRS has broadcast a specialized program for the ethnic minorities since 2004, but the problem is to prepare the information in their own mother tongue. We have not enough and adequate people nor technical resources to improve this program,” said Lolic-Mocevic.

There are no doubts that the plurality of affordable public and private news sources exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are a lot of public and private broadcasters, with national and local coverage, a lot of print and electronic media with different strategies, and the Internet in the past year became an important news source, especially for the young generation.

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OBJECTIVE 4: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Bosnia Objective Score: 2.74/4.00

Over the past few years, the public broadcasters have begun to lose their leading positions in the television market. The market share of the three public channels fell to 31.1 percent in 2006 and has continued to decline since then. The market share of the commercial networks, on the other hand, has steadily increased. They now have around 40 percent of the market. The remainder of the audience watches foreign television stations and satellite television channels¹³ .

According to the research agency Mareco Index Bosnia, the gross value of the media advertising market in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2006 was 285 million BAM (approximately 150 million EUR). The same organization estimated the total advertising revenues in 2005 as approximately 100 million EUR. The television stations have received the largest share of these advertising revenues—around 130 million EUR. Magazines received just 4 million and dailies around 9 million EUR. Despite the fact that these figures are just rough estimations, it seems apparent that the advertising revenue in the past year was much higher than in previous years. This estimation is based on a regular price list of all media, but it has not taken into account that media give a discount to their costumers. The real revenue is known just to media. Senad Zaimovic, from the marketing agency Fabrika, assumes that the real advertising revenue this year is 7–8 percent higher than in 2005.

Panelists have agreed that advertising agencies support an advertising market. The editors and journalists did not have any complaint on their work and said that the advertising agencies have never tried to influence the editorial politics of Bosnian media.

For all Bosnian media, marketing is the major source of revenue. The print media have a low circulation. According to the Press Council, all Bosnian dailies together have a circulation of fewer than 50,000 copies. ¹⁴

Public broadcasters have an obligatory subscription for all citizens in the amount of 6 KM (about 3 EUR) per month, which ultimately is symbolic revenue for these broadcasters.

The Association of Electronic Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina last year, for the first time, agreed to organize a survey using PeopleMeters. “We now know the electronic measurement of the broadcasting market, which makes us one of the most developed countries regarding the broadcasting industry,” said Zaimovic, general manager of leading Bosnian marketing agency Fabrika. However, some media still have reservations about the survey, saying that the markets for survey are not well-defined; thus, a large number of PeopleMeters have been located in large cities, and just a few in rural areas.

Media editors say that they use the market research to formulate their strategic plans, enhance advertising revenue, and tailor products to the needs and interests of the audience. Lolic-Mocevic said that RTRS has ordered four different specialized researches in the past year.

The biggest problem for all print media in the past year was the law on value-added tax (VAT), which came into force in January 2006 and envisions a single tax rate of 17 percent. The publishing industry was the main opponent of this law. Numerous organizations, such as the Press Council, journalists’ groups, and associations of newspaper publishers, requested that press and publishing be exempted from taxation, stressing the particular role of media in democratic societies. All publishers of print media in Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed that the imposition of VAT presented a real threat to their existence. But the state parliament rejected requests for exemptions from VAT. The magazine Dani almost immediately started to print its issues with fewer pages because of the increased costs of publishing after VAT. But by the end of the year, Dani went back to its full number of pages. No media have been closed because of VAT. The publishers say they have compensated in part with increased marketing revenues after VAT. Zaimovic said that VAT helped to avoid double taxation, which was a big problem for media in previous years.

The biggest problem for broadcasters is competition from neighboring countries. While foreign capital has not made a significant entrance into the media market of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it has come via Pink BH (which bought four local television stations) and OBN (which was bought by a tycoon from Croatia). It is assessed that the main reason why foreign capital did not enter the local market is that it can achieve its interests to a degree via television companies from Croatia.

Local authorities finance some local media for specific programs of concern to local citizens. For example, the City of Sarajevo in its budget for 2007 has planned the amount of 30,000 BAM (@15,000 EUR) for the NTV Hayat’s program designed for deaf people. ¹⁵

The small and fragmented market, the strong competition from neighboring countries via cable systems, and limited advertising revenues are the main characteristics of the Bosnian media market. There were some improvements in the past year. The electronic media have agreed and financed the common system of measuring with PeopleMeters, and the print media survived the imposition of VAT. But, the media industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains weak, if growing.

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OBJECTIVE 5: SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS

Bosnia Objective Score: 3.05/4.00

In 2006, there were no significant changes in supporting media institutions. The organizations that were formed a few years ago are still operating. The Association of Electronic Media (AEM) and the Association of Newspaper and Magazine Publishers have been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina for several years, promoting the interests of its member broadcasters and print-media publishers.

Since December 2004, BH Novinari (B&H Journalists) has been established as the merger of three associations—the Independent Union of Professional Journalists from Sarajevo, the Association of Journalists Apel in Mostar, and the Independent Association of RS Journalists in Banja Luka. The membership is still low, and activities remain rather fragmented. Leaders of this organization still have different opinions regarding key questions. The organization could not publish a joint statement after the crisis between the Government of Republika Srpska and the public broadcaster.
 
A new organization—the Association of Young Journalists of Republika Srpska—was the only journalists’ association coming from Banja Luka that criticized the government’s attitude toward the Public Broadcasting Service.

There are not enough NGOs working actively to protect and promote free speech, the MSI panelists said. A few were founded last year, such as Dosta and Grozd, but their main task was the publishing of information relevant for last year’s elections.

The most important role in the area of promotion of free speech belongs to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. As opposed to the other countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has two Helsinki Committees, one with a seat in Sarajevo and the other one in Bijeljina. The work of some other organizations in this area is also important, such as that of the Transparency International BiH, Media Plan Institute, Mediacentar Sarajevo, the Centre for Free Access to Information, and Open Society Fund B&H.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, journalism is studied at five faculties—one in Sarajevo, one in Tuzla, one in Mostar, and two in Banja Luka. These faculties are producing a large numbers of journalists who are not necessarily required by the Bosnian media market. The MSI panelists, similar to last year’s panel, expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of education received at these faculties and stressed that those newsrooms are getting staff that are unable to work independently.

Cerimagic said that “the place for a new generation in Bosnian media exists, but nobody produces quality journalists. There are too many knowing media theory, the protection of the media institution, and yet no practical steps in this direction.”

Panelists expressed a concern regarding the fact that excellent short-term journalist training programs, such as the Media Plan Institute’s year-long specialized journalism school, which trained students from all over the region, have a very uncertain future. However, Radenko Udovicic, program director of the Media Plan Institute, said that the school will accept new students in September 2007, after the process of transformation. According to Udovicic, the school will become a specialized course for journalism students at Sarajevo University.

Mediacentar Sarajevo organizes training for media managers, as well as short training programs on various aspects of investigative journalism. Of particular significance is Mediacentar’s regional project, the Online Journalism Resource Center at www.netnovinar.org, launched in cooperation with Belgrade’s Media Centre and the Investigative Journalism Centre from Zagreb.

Although most transmitters for RTV program broadcasts are still owned by the state, some transmitters are owned by commercial stations. Internet access is not restricted by the state or private conglomerates. The CRA is in charge of this area and imposes rules of conduct on Internet providers.

Presses in Bosnia and Herzegovina are mostly in private hands, and some of Bosnian media use the printing houses from neighboring countries. The Sarajevska Pivara has announced that it will obtain new high-quality presses for all Bosnian dailies and magazines that use their services by the middle of 2007.

Last year, panelists said that political and business interests of owners of printing companies have resulted in selective approaches to clients. As a consequence, some media outlets, unable to reach agreement with local printing companies, switched to presses elsewhere in the region. Dario Novalic, director of the Sarajevo biweekly Start, last year said that “the printing press always ‘breaks down’ when an independent newspaper is supposed to be printed.” “This is not the practice anymore, which is some improvement,” said Novalic.

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Panel Participants

Mehmed Halilovic, Assistant Ombudsman for Media, Sarajevo
Dunja Mijatovic, Director of Broadcasting, CRA, Sarajevo
Dario Novalic, Director, Start biweekly magazine, Sarajevo
Borka Rudic, Journalist Association BH Novinari, Sarajevo
Zvonimir Jukic, Chief Correspondent, Television of Federation B&H, Mostar
Mira Lolic-Mocevic, Editor-in-Chief, Radio Television of Republika Srpska, Banja Luka
Ljiljana Zurovac, Press Council, Sarajevo
Mehmed Agovic, Director General, Public Broadcasting System of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
Kenan Cerimagic, News Program Editor, Independent Television Hayat, Sarajevo
Senad Zaimovic, General Manager, Marketing Agency Fabrika, Sarajevo

The opinions of the following research participants, who did not take part in the panel discussion, were used in preparing this report:

Adnan Osmanagic, Director, Radio Stari Grad, Sarajevo

Moderator
Amer Dzihana, Mediacentar Sarajevo

Disclaimer: The views and opinions presented in the chapter on Bosnia and Herzegovina are those of the panel participants and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Mediacentar Sarajevo.

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