Media as a copy of Informer, the Troika as the SNS from Baščaršija: They twisted truth and democracy to protect crime!

By: Rasim Belko

There is no Murphy, no USAID, not even prosecutors with a media PR plan, so there isn't even a thousandth of the uproar that the media recently drowned us in about the 'spengavanje' affair. It's no wonder, the same media that were both prosecutors and judges in the respirator affair have now been turned into trained PR machines for the authorities.

Thus, one of the biggest scandals of the last decade is passing with stingy reporting, and mostly in favor of those who should normally be written about in the crime section, not in the daily political columns.

Today, these "independent, most influential, most read, most-this-most-that" media are superficially following an affair that, by all accounts, could surpass the respirators, provided that the judicial-police apparatus works according to the law, and not according to the phone tariff.

Since the authorities in FBiH have successfully integrated (not to say co-opted) the media scene that was once dependent on USAID, their only problem is a few media outlets that they are now targeting with all available methods, from labels to media witch hunts, simply because they publish the truth and, what impudence, uncover scandals.

Thus, at today's extraordinary session of the House of Representatives, which nominally should have discussed 'spengavanje', the most was said about how journalists obtained documents and evidence, and the least about the fact that a hearing has already been held before the Supreme Court of FBiH and restrictive measures have been imposed on the chief of staff of Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić, Arijana Huseinović Ajanović, acting director of FUP, Vahidin Munjžić, inspector Muhamed Ohranović, and director of the Police Academy, Ervin Mušinović.

But for the majority composed of SDP, HDZ, NiP, and NES (with NS, which today raised its hand halfway for the agenda), this seems to be nothing spectacular, because crime, by all accounts, is forbidden to mention if it is "ours".

Let's recall, before Fadil Novalić received a final verdict in the respirator case, he was tried at every session of both houses of the FBiH Parliament. Back then, SDP, NiP, and Our Party did not care much about the presumption of innocence, the investigation, or the evidence, because they had to carry out the part of the Prosecutor's Office's plan that concerned their cadres, whom they later rewarded with positions. USAID-funded media followed closely and cheered.

Anyone who even superficially follows the work of the FBiH Parliament knows that parliamentary democracy died the day the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives were amended to suit the ruling majority. Preventing discussion about 'spengavanje' is just a natural continuation of a governance model that is a mix of anarchy, tyranny, and corruption across all verticals.

In the past three years, the Sarajevo Troika no longer even keeps track of its cadres under investigation, pre-investigation, or indictments; there have simply become too many for an Excel table.

And the knot is slowly unraveling, because in the latest messages from Prime Minister Nikšić, we saw how serious the illegal influence of the authorities on the police-judicial system is. In other words, to prosecute the remaining crime, we will have to wait for this government to leave, and perhaps for the planets to align.

In the meantime, society is sinking into a problem that is clearly visible to the naked eye; in terms of media landscape, we have already become Vučić's Serbia, and the government is starting to strongly resemble the SNS from Baščaršija.

Corruption, nepotism, and other Balkan disciplines are not a matter of "ours and theirs," but the reason why we are at the bottom of every European list except the one measuring crime.

And it will remain so as long as 85% of the media serve the regime, and 15% try to do journalism. And changes of government, as we see, do not change that ratio much. That is, until we clean the judicial-police apparatus of cadres prone to crime.

Because as long as the laws of this country are not equal for everyone, we will spend our lives in a quagmire with no way out.

Fadil was synchronously condemned even before the verdict by the same media that are now "regime" and were once USAID media, Murphy, and the Troika.

And today, not a word can be said about Nikšić – the Troika, reinforced by NES, is duly blocking the discussion, USAID has long since withdrawn, and the US Embassy is silent as if forbidden to even whisper. And the latter is perhaps the most indicative!