Bosniak Club Initiates Vital Interest Over Appointment of RTV FBiH Management Board

(Patria) - The Bosniak People's Club in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament made a decision today determining that the Proposal of the Decision on the Appointment of the Management Board (MB) of Radio-Television (RTV) FBiH pertains to the vital national interest of the Bosniak people, writes Patria.

The Club emphasizes that the Proposal of the Decision on the Appointment of the RTV FBiH MB, which is on the agenda of today's session, pertains to the vital national interest of the Bosniak people as defined in Article IV.A.17a) of the FBiH Constitution and Article 115 of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament - "public information system" and will be considered a matter of vital interest in accordance with Article 117 of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament.



For the adoption of this Proposal of the Decision, the Club explains, a majority in each constituent people's club represented in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament is required.

In its explanation, the Bosniak People's Club points out that the FBiH Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament stipulate the following:

"If two-thirds of the delegates (16 of them) of one of the constituent peoples' clubs decide that a law, other regulation, or act relates to a vital national interest as defined in Article IV.A.17a of the Constitution, and the definition of vital national interest includes the 'public information system,' such an act will be considered in accordance with the procedure prescribed by Article 117 of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Peoples, meaning it will be considered adopted if a majority of delegates in each constituent people's club represented in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament votes for it. The aforementioned provisions of the Constitution and Rules of Procedure contain the legal basis for this decision.

The Law on the Public Service of Radio and Television of FBiH stipulates that the Parliament of the Federation appoints the members of the Management Board from a shortlist of candidates who have made it to the shortlist, which is submitted to it by the election and appointment commissions of both houses of the Parliament of the Federation within 30 days of the submission of the shortlist.

The election and appointment commissions conduct a fair, open, and transparent selection process, using the standards and deadlines described in the Law on Ministerial and Other Appointments, Appointments of the Council of Ministers, and Other Appointments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to select the most qualified candidates.

The process for compiling the shortlist of candidates who have made it to the shortlist by the election and appointment commissions begins four months before the expiry of the mandate of the Management Board members."

"The FBiH Parliament, during the election of new members of the Management Board of Radio and Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, violated the procedure prescribed by law, in that the election process was conducted by a joint working group of both houses of the Parliament of the FBiH.

We believe this is an usurpation of the competencies of the election and appointment commissions, but if they decided on such an election model, such a working group should not have conducted the procedure without at least one member from the Bosniak Club of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament.

Unfortunately, no delegate from the Bosniak Club participated in the work of the joint working group of the election and appointment commissions of both houses of the Parliament of the Federation, which conducted the procedure of interviewing, scoring, and ranking candidates.



Namely, a member of this working group from the Bosniak Club had previously resigned, and his position was not filled.

Before conducting the scoring and ranking procedure of candidates in this process, the president of the Bosniak Club had addressed the working group and the Speaker of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament in writing, insisting that the vacant position in the working group be filled first, and then the procedure continue, so that at least one delegate from the Bosniak Club would participate in the election process, at least through the working group.

However, this was not done, meaning the working group was filled with the missing Bosniak delegate only after the procedure related to the FTV MB was completed, so that representatives of all constituent peoples had their representatives in the working group that ranked the candidates, except for the Bosniak Club.

We consider this fact to be a gross violation of the vital national interest of the Bosniak people as defined in Article IV.A.17a) of the FBiH Constitution - 'equal rights of constituent peoples in the decision-making process.'

In addition to the above, we consider the disputed decision to be illegal because the appointment procedure was carried out contrary to Article 65, Paragraph (4) of the Law on the Public Service of Radio and Television of FBiH (Official Gazette of FBiH, No. 48/08).

Namely, the Law on the Public Service of Radio and Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Article 65, stipulates that after the initial appointment, members of the Management Board can be appointed in such a way that one member is appointed for four years, one for three years, one for two, and one member for one year.

Accordingly, according to Article 65 of this Law, all four members of the Management Board cannot be appointed simultaneously.

This unlawful procedure will also result in a violation of Article II.A.2. (1) c) of the FBiH Constitution, which prescribes the constitutional principle of equality before the law.

Furthermore, we believe that the appointment of Zoran Krešić to the FTV Management Board, whose name is in the Proposal of the Decision, is a violation of the vital national interest of the Bosniak people because the proposed candidate, in his public statements, which are available to everyone, has openly called for the destruction of the Federation, the blocking of the state, has called para-state entities sacred, and has relativized the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for the joint criminal enterprise against Bosniaks.

We remind that the joint criminal enterprise aimed at the political and military subjugation, permanent removal, and ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks who lived in parts of the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed to belong to the so-called Croatian Community (and later Republic) of Herceg-Bosna.



In the realization of the joint criminal enterprise, media controlled by the ideologues, strategists, and perpetrators of the criminal plan played an extremely significant role.

Therefore, we believe it is harmful to the Bosniak people to make public resources of the radio-television service available to such a person through participation in its management structures.

Moreover, we are of the opinion that this appointment is not only against the interests of the Bosniak people, but not in anyone's interest, because invoking the destruction of the constitutional order, glorifying para-state projects, and relativizing joint criminal enterprises is contrary to the fundamental constitutional values proclaimed by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are crucially important for all peoples and citizens in this country," the explanation of the decision of the Bosniak People's Club in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament states.