BH journalists send public protest to Bakir Izetbegović

(Patria) - The Board of Directors of the BH Journalists Association (BHN) sends a public protest to Bakir Izetbegović, president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), due to a politically irresponsible statement and an attempt to relativize the physical attack on Adi Keba, a photographer for the Žurnal portal. At the SDA press conference, held on Saturday, March 30, Izetbegović stated that Huso Ćesir, the SDA leader from the Sarajevo municipality of Novi Grad, „did not attack the photographer but the camera,“ thereby directly justifying violence and the violation of media freedoms in BiH, including the right to safe and dignified work. 

"Besides being an example of political arrogance and stupidity, Izetbegović's statement about the „attack on the camera“ represents a worrying attempt to defend the criminal act of Huso Ćesir and show solidarity with him, solely because of membership in the same political party and alleged „war merits,“ thereby suggesting that media freedoms in BiH should be sacrificed for the war merits of individuals. The BHN Board of Directors considers any justification of attacks on journalists unacceptable, especially not in the context of war or other merits, and least of all at this moment does the journalistic community expect from Mr. Izetbegović and the largest Bosniak political party a condemnation of the criminal act, as well as a public apology to photographer Adi Keba and the editorial board of the Žurnal portal.

In the domain of the same political manipulation and obfuscation of the background of the attack on the Žurnal photographer – which is this portal's reporting on the criminal and corrupt business ventures of Huso Ćesir, a politician and owner of several private companies – falls Izetbegović's call for journalist associations to „expel from their ranks just one“ journalist „for whom the truth is not sacred.“

We remind Izetbegović that the journalistic and media community is the only profession in this country that has systematically and responsibly, for more than two decades, dealt with sanctioning unprofessional conduct of journalists and media through the work of the Press and Online Media Council and the Communications Regulatory Agency. In addition, every citizen of this country, including politician and businessman Huso Ćesir, has the possibility, instead of fists and insults, to use legitimate means of denial, letters to editors, complaints to the Press Council or the CRA, and filing a lawsuit for defamation.

In this context, the BHN Board of Directors publicly calls on Izetbegović to, before moral lessons, send a public apology to all journalists in BiH for the behavior of his party colleague Ćesir, but also for his own, disproportionate and politically incorrect views on the violation of media freedoms," the statement from BH journalists reads.