{"id":2739,"date":"2025-01-09T22:35:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T21:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/?p=2739"},"modified":"2025-06-25T19:04:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:04:51","slug":"legal-uncertainty-threatens-media-and-journalists-in-the-western-balkans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/legal-uncertainty-threatens-media-and-journalists-in-the-western-balkans\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal uncertainty threatens media and journalists in the Western Balkans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"ingress\">In certain Western Balkan countries, there is a notable shrinkage of the space for media and journalists, accompanied by restrictions on their legal security. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), for instance, the re-criminalization of defamation, proposals of foreign agents&#8217; laws, and changes in media regulations introducing licensing are key examples of this negative trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;These laws are drafted to protect &#8216;favoured&#8217; media. Political parties in BiH have, over the years, developed a dependent relationship with loyal media outlets and journalists, which, of course, involves significant budgetary and marketing funds flowing into these media outlets,&#8221; said Leila Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107, Director of the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) in BiH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Leila Bic\u030cakc\u030cic\u0301, Center for Investigative Journalism BiH\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qubB_oGzl0Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107, the legal solutions are designed to stifle criticism and eliminate competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Amendments to the Criminal Code in the Republika Srpska, which re-criminalised defamation, had the intended effect after their introduction\u2014intimidation and self-censorship. Journalists fear they could become subjects of criminal investigations and avoid taking such risks. They opt for less controversial topics,&#8221; Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107 explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, the proposed Foreign Agents Act aims to &#8220;silence&#8221; critical media and civil society representatives who are disloyal to ruling parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Finally, there&#8217;s the proposed Media Law in Republika Srpska, which, among other things, suggests the &#8216;certification&#8217; of journalists by the ministry. All three laws share the common goal of eliminating critical voices,&#8221; she emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107 expects the &#8220;replications&#8221; of such practices in the region to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As long as there are no sanctions for such legal solutions &#8211; and by that, I mean concrete action from the European Union and its institutions, considering these are being proposed in candidate countries &#8211; this practice will persist,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107 believes that using the &#8220;right to be forgotten&#8221;, as a basis for media requests to delete content, is a dangerous trend. For this reason, her organisation&#8217;s project, implemented within the Fojo Media Institute programme, focused on addressing this phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;If action isn\u2019t taken in time, we risk creating a situation where media are obliged to delete content simply because someone requested it for personal reasons. If demands based on the &#8216;right to be forgotten&#8217; are accommodated without adequately assessing what this right means and how it applies to the media, we could face a legal process of erasing history,&#8221; warned the CIN Director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107 noted that those reported on by the media, often due to their involvement in illicit activities, naturally do not want such content to remain accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;However, it\u2019s crucial to highlight that just because someone has been legally rehabilitated does not mean that their &#8216;mistake&#8217; is automatically erased from history. This must be taken into consideration when deciding on each request to delete content,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The media community, in her view, must initiate a debate on this topic and develop recommendations for its members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There are international documents, as well as rulings by the European Court of Human Rights on similar cases. It is vital to open a debate at the national and\/or regional level so that media outlets can establish joint recommendations for responding to requests to delete content. Otherwise, someone else will decide for the media, which is never a good solution,&#8221; concluded Bi\u010dak\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fojo&#8217;s work in the Western Balkans is carried out with the support of the <a href=\"https:\/\/si.se\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swedish Institute<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In certain Western Balkan countries, there is a notable shrinkage of the space for media and journalists, accompanied by restrictions on their legal security. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), for instance, the re-criminalization of defamation, proposals of foreign agents&#8217; laws, and changes in media regulations introducing licensing are key examples of this negative trend. &#8220;These [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jet_sm_ready_style":"","_jet_sm_style":"","_jet_sm_controls_values":"","_jet_sm_fonts_collection":"","_jet_sm_fonts_links":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-2739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-western-balkans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2739"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3475,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions\/3475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fojo.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=2739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}