On Saturday, August 19, a masked man armed with brass knuckles hit Dervišević, the owner of the independent news website Times.ba, on the back of his head and on his face while he was outside his family’s home in the eastern city of Brčko, according to media reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ.
Dervišević told CPJ that he and several witnesses made statements to the police, and he filed a criminal complaint. The journalist said he also requested 24-hour police protection for himself and his family until the alleged assailant was found, which the police granted on Wednesday.
Dervišević told CPJ that he thought the attack was retaliation for his reporting on efforts to oust the local mayor and alleged links between local politicians and criminal gangs.
“Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina must take the vicious assault of journalist Mirza Dervišević very seriously and conduct a swift and credible investigation to determine whether it was linked to his recent reporting,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Local journalists who report on matters of public interest and expose alleged wrongdoing in their communities are often vulnerable to such attacks. Authorities must send a clear signal that violence against the media will not go unpunished and that they are committed to ensuring journalists’ safety.”
The journalist posted graphic photos on social media of the injuries he sustained, including a split eyebrow and cuts to his face, knees, and the back of his head. He said he received treatment in a local hospital.
Zekerija Mujkanović, chief prosecutor in Brčko, told CPJ via email that a criminal investigation was underway, and the police in Brčko had taken “concrete and effective measures to ensure the safety” of the journalist.
CPJ emailed the police in Brčko for comment but did not receive any replies.
]]>In the evening of March 18, a group of several dozen unidentified people, some of whom wore masks and other facial coverings, attacked a group of four journalists in the northwestern city of Banja Luka while they were leaving a meeting of a local group of LGBTQ activists, according to news reports, three of those journalists, who spoke to CPJ, and a report by SafeJournalists, a regional website tracking violence against the press.
The attackers used bottles and sticks to beat Vanja Stokić, editor-in-chief of the privately owned news website Etrafika.net; Etrafika reporter Melani Isović; Ajdin Kamber, a photographer on assignment for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle; and freelance journalist Vanja Šunjić, according to those sources. None of the journalists were seriously injured.
“Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina should conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the recent attack on four journalists in Banja Luka and ensure the perpetrators are held to account,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must do their utmost to ensure that reporters can cover events of public interest safely, and without fear that they will be harassed and attacked.”
Stokić, Kamber, and Isović told CPJ via email and messaging app that they were leaving the activists’ meeting when the group of attackers threw bottles at them, pushed them to the ground, and beat them with sticks and bottles. They ran through the city’s streets and escaped danger, the journalists said. Police were at the scene but did not intervene, they said.
The four journalists suffered minor injuries including scrapes and bruises and were treated in a local emergency room.
CPJ emailed the police and the prosecutor’s office in Banja Luka for comment but did not receive any replies.
]]>On February 24, police in the northwestern city of Banja Luka questioned crime reporter Nikola Morača on suspicion of violating the confidentiality of a criminal investigation and confiscated his phone after he published an article the previous day in EuroBlic and SrpskaInfo, two Serbian-language publications under the Ringier parent company, alleging that local authorities failed to arrest a suspect in connection with the rape of an 18-year-old girl, according to news reports and the journalist, who communicated with CPJ via email.
Also that day, police questioned Siniša Trkulja, responsible editor for SrpskaInfo, and Boris Lakić, SrpskaInfo’s executive editor, and Nebojša Tomašević, reporter for privately owned news website Glas Srpska, which published a summary of Morača’s article.
Morača, Trkulja, and Lakić remain criminal suspects, and could face up to one year each in prison if charged and convicted, according to CPJ’s review of the Criminal Code in Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s two semi-autonomous entities of which Banja Luka is the capital.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities must immediately drop all charges against journalists at EuroBlic and SrpskaInfo, return Nikola Morača’s cellphone, and ensure that members of the press do not face judicial harassment for simply doing their jobs,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Prosecuting these journalists will have a chilling effect on crime reporting in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Police unsuccessfully searched the EuroBlic and SrpskaInfo newsrooms in Banja Luka for Morača on February 24, he told CPJ. After he and his lawyer responded to the summons, police and prosecutors questioned him for three hours about his work and how he knew the initials of the suspect’s name, which Morača said prosecutors had made public. Morača declined to reveal his sources, he told CPJ.
Police denied pressuring Morača to reveal his sources, SrpskaInfo reported.
EuroBlic and SrpskaInfo editors defended Morača’s article in a statement, but said they were willing to remove it while the investigation was ongoing.The article, which CPJ reviewed, has since been taken down from SrpskaInfo’s website.
The editors called the investigation “open pressure on [Morača], our newsroom, and the journalistic profession.”
Morača told SrpskaInfo that he considered it his journalistic duty to report that prosecutors had not ordered the arrest of the suspect identified by police in the rape investigation.
CPJ emailed questions to the police and the prosecutor’s office in Banja Luka but received no reply.
[Editor’s note: The reference to the criminal code in the fourth paragraph has been corrected.]
]]>Starting in May, Siniša Golub, a man who was previously the subject of eTrafika’s reporting, sent threats of death and physical violence to journalists at the outlet, according to reports by eTrafika and SafeJournalists, a regional news website that tracks violence against journalists, as well as eTrafika managing editor Vanja Stokić, who communicated with CPJ via email.
In 2018, eTrafika published an article alleging that Golub had operated on a dog in an illegal clinic without proper veterinarian credentials.
From May 4 to July 13, Golub sent seven messages to eTrafika’s official Facebook page, requesting the outlet take that article down, warning its journalists that he knew the location of eTrafika’s headquarters, and saying there would be “bloodshed”, according to Stokić and screenshots reviewed by CPJ.
On July 20, the prosecutor’s office in the northwestern city of Banja Luka, where eTrafika is headquartered, refused to open a criminal investigation because Golub sent the messages to the outlet’s institutional page, instead of to individual journalists, according to Stokić and SafeJournalists. However, following a July 21 statement by local press freedom groups lead by the BH Journalists Association and Free Media Helpline calling on authorities to act, the office opened a criminal investigation on July 22, Stokić told CPJ.
“While we welcome the news that authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina are taking the death threats against journalists working for the news website eTrafika seriously, it is troubling that they needed to be pressured into opening an investigation,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities must ensure that journalists at the outlet can work safely, and show that repeated and increasingly violent threats to members of the press for doing their jobs will not go unpunished, especially when the perpetrator openly reveals himself.”
In that 2018 article, Golub told eTrafika that he had helped an injured dog and said he had graduated from veterinary school, although he admitted that he was not accredited as a veterinarian in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In December 2021, Golub emailed eTrafika and asked them to remove the article as the reporting was false, Stokić told CPJ, adding that eTrafika refused his request and stood by its reporting, and did not hear from him again until May 2022.
“He might want to remove the article so that it would not appear in searches for his name,” Stokić said.
CPJ’s Facebook message to Golub and email to the Banja Luka prosecutor’s office did not receive any replies.
[Editors’ note: This article has been updated in its fifth paragraph to add further details about the July 21 statement by local press freedom groups.]
]]>In the early hours of June 15, Miljanović-Zubac’s car was destroyed in a fire while parked at her home in the southern town of Trebinje, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ via email, and Safejournalists.net, a news website tracking violence against journalists in the region. The Trebinje prosecutor’s office is investigating the fire on suspicion of arson, that report said.
Miljanović-Zubac, a reporter for the public broadcaster Republic of Srpska Radio Television (RTRS), told CPJ that she believed the attack may be retaliation for her frequent coverage of corruption, organized crime, smuggling, and drug trafficking in the region, saying she frequently receives insults from online commenters and local politicians.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities should conduct a swift and thorough investigation into the alleged arson attack on investigative reporter Nataša Miljanović-Zubac’s car, and consider her reporting as a likely motive,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Authorities should treat this case as a priority, find the perpetrators, and hold them to account. Miljanović-Zubac’s reporting serves the public interest, and her safety and well-being must be ensured.”
Miljanović-Zubac told CPJ that the arson attack “destroyed my only tangible asset which I also heavily used for my reporting purposes.”
“Considering I am not financially able to replace this car, my mobility has been severely affected,” she said. She told CPJ that she was not working on a major story at the moment and did not know who was behind the attack.
CPJ emailed the Trebinje police for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.
In 2021, a Serbian nationalist politician made misogynistic comments and insulted Miljanović-Zubac in a live TV show, Safejournalists.net reported. Miljanović-Zubac told CPJ she is currently in a legal case against the politician over those comments.
]]>On May 6, Puhalo, a regular columnist for news website Frontal, received numerous online insults, threats of physical violence, and death threats following an opinion piece he published on media trade website Analiziraj, according to reports by Safejournalists.net, a regional news site tracking violence against journalists, and Sarajevo Times, as well as Puhalo, who corresponded with CPJ via email.
Puhalo’s opinion piece, in which he discussed the controversy over official estimates of the number of children killed in the siege of Sarajevo during the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, provoked a strong reaction on social media, with Puhalo receiving dozens of insults and threats in comments and direct messages, according to these reports. According to Puhalo and CPJ’s review of screenshots of the Facebook messages, there were threats of physical violence, including of being “tortured” and “beaten,” and death threats. Five of the threatening messages came from three accounts, according to CPJ’s review.
“These threats made against columnist Srđan Puhalo are extremely chilling, and authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina must take them seriously, especially when they came from social media accounts whose owners could obviously be traced,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Threatening a journalist because of his opinion is completely unacceptable, and authorities must take every possible measure to ensure Puhalo’s safety.”
Puhalo told CPJ that he filed a complaint with police in Banja Luka, where he lives, after the threats and is awaiting news of the investigation.
CPJ emailed questions to the press department of the police administration in Banja Luka, but did not receive an immediate reply.
CPJ also sent direct messages to the Facebook accounts that made the threats, but did not receive any immediate replies.
]]>On May 26, a Facebook user named “Marko Aprcovic” sent death threats to Bursać, a Bosnia-based columnist for Antena M, a news website run by the Montenegrin broadcaster Radio Antena M, and to Šuković, the Montenegro-based owner and editor-in-chief of the broadcaster, according to news reports as well as Šuković, who communicated with CPJ via email, and Bursać, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.
Aprcovic’s Facebook account, which has no posts or photos, sent a message to Šuković threatening to bomb Radio Antena M’s office, and told Bursać “I’ll kill you if you ever step foot into Montenegro. A bullet to the head and greetings!” according to those sources.
Šuković and Bursać told CPJ that authorities in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina have each opened investigations into the threats.
“The death threats made to journalists Dragan Bursać and Darko Šuković are extremely chilling, and authorities must take them seriously,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Montenegrin and Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities must take every possible measure to ensure the safety of both journalists, and show that threatening members of the press for their work is completely unacceptable.”
Šuković told CPJ that he believed the threats were in response to Bursać’s work for Antena M.
The day before receiving the threats, Bursać wrote a column for Antena M criticizing Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić’s visit to Banja Luka, the Bosnia and Herzegovina city where Bursać is based.
Bursać told CPJ that he believed the threat was probably not related to that article specifically, however, saying that he receives threatening messages “continuously” due to his coverage and criticism of right-wing nationalism in the region.
CPJ emailed the Montenegrin Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Interior of the Republika Srpska, which oversees the region in Bosnia and Herzegovina where Bursać lives, but did not receive any immediate replies.
CPJ also messaged the Marko Aprcovic Facebook account for comment, but did not immediately receive any response.
]]>One anonymous Twitter user sent Vučić a message saying he should end up “in Neretva river or put on a stake,” and prompted the journalist to close his Twitter account, according to that report.
Vučić told CPJ he filed a complaint with police about the threats. He said he often receives criticism over his commentary on Croatian nationalism and radicalism.
He received the threats after reacting to news that West Herzegovina Canton declared itself “corona-free zone,” by tweeting that that the area would soon also declare itself a “fascism-free zone,” according to news reports.
On June 16, the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of Sarajevo announced that authorities were investigating the threats against Vučić, and said officers were treating the case as a priority, according to reports.
CPJ emailed the press department of the national police in Sarajevo but did not receive a reply.
]]>On October 22, Avdić, a reporter for the investigative outlet Žurnal, was forwarded a threatening video via messaging app, which CPJ reviewed, featuring Mirza Gacanin, whom Avdić had alleged in his reporting to be connected with a drug cartel, according to a report by his employer and the journalist, who communicated with CPJ via email.
In the video, Gacanin says that an unnamed journalist “will be searched for in the canals,” and also makes an obscene reference to the journalist’s children. On October 23, Gacanin messaged Avdić directly, confirming that he was the unnamed journalist in his video, Avdić said.
On October 24, Gacanin sent Avdić a video of a sheep on the ground, which Avdić told CPJ was a reference to a sheep ready to be slaughtered. Avdić forwarded the messages to the Sarajevo police, who opened an investigation into the threats on October 23, he said. He was interviewed by police on October 28, he told CPJ.
CPJ repeatedly called Mirza Gacanin, but he did not answer the phone.
“These threats made against journalist Avdo Avdić are extremely chilling, and authorities must take them seriously,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Threatening a reporter because of his coverage is completely unacceptable, and Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities must take every possible measure to ensure the safety of Avdić and his family.”
Avdić told CPJ that this was not the first time he had received threats but, “it may be the first time that I feel my family could be in real danger.”
CPJ emailed the Sarajevo prosecutor’s office for comment, but did not receive a reply.
CPJ research shows that, of 870 journalists murdered in retaliation for their reporting since 1992, at least 42% were threatened before they were killed.
]]>The guard grabbed Mešanović’s camera and threw it in the mud, damaging the camera and preventing Mešanović from continuing his reporting, while the journalist was documenting the eviction of families from their properties near the state-owned Kreka coal mine, RTV TK reported.
The guard worked for a private company hired by the Bosnia and Herzegovina national mining authority to carry out the evictions, a representative of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Journalists Association, an independent advocacy organization, told CPJ via email.
A security guard told Mešanović that there was “no need” for the journalist to film there because local authorities would issue an official statement about the evictions, and that journalists were banned from the area, according to the journalists association representative.
Osman Bleković, the director of the Kreka mining company, apologized for the attack in a letter sent to the journalists association and RTV TK, which CPJ reviewed.
Local police have started an investigation into the incident, a representative from SafeJournalists.net, a regional press freedom organization, told CPJ via email.
CPJ emailed questions to the Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining, and Industry, which oversees the mining authority, and to the press department of the federal police in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but did not receive any reply.
Editor’s Note: This text has been updated in the first paragraph to correct the spelling of Šikulje.
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