Who are BH Journalists and why is it not a journalists' association, but an interest group gathered around Borka Rudić!

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

How often have you had the opportunity to hear that RTRS, as the public service of the smaller BiH entity, is under the control of Milorad Dodik and that it is a privatized mouthpiece of Dodik's policy. We have read and heard this many times.

But we have never seen or heard a reaction from the so-called Association “BH Journalists” that such qualifications of RTRS represent an attack on the freedom of journalism, the integrity of the media, those responsible in that media, and the journalists of RTRS themselves.

Because, judging by the activities of that association, “BH Journalists” have long ceased to be a professional association, but serve other purposes, including those of certain media structures.

A few months ago, the association exclusively led by Borka Rudić stood up in defense of Franjo Šarčević, a mathematics professor who thinks he has the right to lecture everyone and dictate their way of life and behavior. Franjo Šarčević was bothered by a child from Sarajevo dressed in the Army of RBiH uniform, which is not a deviant phenomenon, as we see such images all over Europe and the USA.

And after he attacked the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, because she took a picture with that child, Šarčević invented security threats, although the only threat was that someone would come and take away his job as a professor, even though that someone has neither the strength nor the capacity to do so.

And then Borka Rudić entered the scene and started defending Šarčević for reasons known only to her. What Šarčević and his team write on the Prometej portal would have long been sanctioned in a normal country, but it is acceptable to society and Borka's “BH Journalists”, and they even defend him from “death threats” which they are not.

When I asked Rudić why she didn't speak out when the same Šarčević called the author of these lines a measure of moronism, she replied that it was between the two of us and that we should resolve it.

That is actually the best answer about the practice of the Association “BH Journalists”, for which we don't know at all who it represents, how it is financed, where it spends money, and why, as a professional association, it does not treat everyone equally, but selectively chooses cases and reacts.

We also don't know when or where the bodies of BH Journalists are elected, who elects them, or who the members of that association are.

The latest case or reaction from BH Journalists concerned Television of Sarajevo Canton, i.e., public accusations that this media outlet has become a mouthpiece for the parties of the Trojka coalition, which forms the government in Sarajevo Canton.

“At the last session of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, where the report on the operations of Cantonal TVSA for 2022 was to be discussed, deputies Haris Zahiragić (SDA) and Muamer Bandić (SBiH) used the live broadcast of the session for politicized assessments of the work of this media outlet and its role as a public service for the citizens of Sarajevo Canton, and for making slanderous assessments about editorial decisions and the selection of guests for certain shows. These two deputies also verbally insulted and attacked the program director Zerina Ćosić Vrabac and other journalists and editors of this media house, and Haris Zahiragić even played recordings of one of TVSA's shows during the assembly session broadcast in an attempt to professionally discredit the cantonal public television,” states Borka Rudić in the statement of her Association.

I rewound the session and reviewed the discussion Rudić refers to, and I did not see anywhere that anyone insulted Ćosić Vrabac, let alone insulted TVSA journalists. And as Marijela Hašimbegović said, TVSA is a Public Service that has its Code of Ethics, but it violates it.

However, Rudić consciously neglects in her reactions, including the one about TVSA, that it is an institution founded and financed by the Sarajevo Canton, and therefore the legislative body, the Assembly, is obliged to consider the functioning of that public broadcaster. The fact that Rudić and the political options important to her do not like the qualifications that TVSA has become the PR of the government, and that she does not like the recording in which the host of a TVSA show flatters the Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Konaković by praising his energy and champion Europeanism, is Rudić's problem, not society's.

However, according to the information we received from TVSA itself, Rudić is not concerned about the journalists and employees of that Public Service, who have been suffering dictatorship and persecution for years. She is actually protecting the cadres of former journalist, and now politician, Duška Jurišić, because, as we learn, Jurišić still controls TVSA through installed cadres.

The positions to which certain cadres in the TVSA Public Service have been elected and appointed are political and public, therefore subject to accountability and public criticism. But, obviously, someone does not understand that, so any criticism, even positive, is used for false protection of journalists and journalism, and is de facto protection of political patrons and their extended arms of power in the Public Service.

The fact that dictatorship reigns at TVSA and that working conditions are poor does not concern Borka Rudić, because she is not a journalists' association. If she were, she would probably defend the journalists of that television house from real problems, instead of redirecting criticism of TVSA's management as an attack on journalists by twisting facts.

The journalistic profession in Bosnia and Herzegovina is too often under attack and must be protected, both by state regulations and by internal organization. Because, what journalists have today as professional representatives has long lost its meaning. It serves only itself and individuals who live off it through the non-transparent consumption of various grants.