Boycott of Bosnia-Herzegovina public broadcaster breaches media freedom principles, says OSCE report
VIENNA, 29 March 2007 - The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, presented a report today on the state of public broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The report was prepared as a result of Haraszti's visit to Sarajevo and Banja Luka from 5 to 7 February. The visit was in connection with the decision of the Republika Srpska Government to boycott the state public television network, BHT1, by forbidding its officials from giving any statements to journalists and subsequently denying them access to a governmental press conference.
"Because of these specific incidents, and because of the role played by state-owned broadcasters in the 1990's in fuelling the rush to war in the region, I have made the public broadcasting system in BiH the focus of the report, together with the responsibilities of the authorities with regard to public broadcasting," said Miklos Haraszti, addressing the OSCE Permanent Council, the Organization's decision-making body.
Although the report rates the overall situation of media freedom in the country as "commendable", it calls upon the authorities to complete the public broadcasting system reform in order to reunify the three public broadcasters in BiH.
"Under no circumstances should a public broadcaster whose mission is to inform all citizens regardless of their social, political or other affiliations be the object of a boycott by a governmental body," added Haraszti.
The report offers practical recommendations on how to improve freedom of the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina in general and public service broadcasting in particular.
The full report is available on this page under "Documents".