Attack on Gordana Katana is an attack on the entire journalistic community!

The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) strongly condemns the verbal attack by the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, on journalist Gordana Katana, a correspondent for Oslobođenje from Banja Luka, reports the Patria news agency.

- This is not the first instance of arrogant behavior by which Milorad Dodik prevents journalists from doing their job peacefully and with dignity, thereby violating the basic postulates of freedom, democracy, and human rights, while also undermining the reputation of the institution of the President of the RS.

Milorad Dodik, the president of one of the leading political parties in BiH, by attacking Gordana Katana, has clearly indicated what treatment journalists in this country can expect in the coming period. The attack on Gordana Katana is perceived as an attack on the entire journalistic community in BiH - the statement reads.

The Management Board of the BH Journalists Association and the Journalist Assistance Line also send the strongest protest to Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), for spreading hate speech and misogyny towards journalist Gordana Katana, a correspondent for the Oslobođenje newspaper from Banja Luka.

- The Management Board of BH Journalists expresses concern over the fact that journalists, gathered yesterday at a press conference in Banja Luka, silently listened to the insults directed at colleague Katana, with only a few reporting to the public about her humiliation, while most media outlets remained silent or only briefly mentioned this act. Journalistic solidarity, leaving the press conference, and boycotting Milorad Dodik are the only honorable journalistic responses to the years-long violation of media freedoms in the RS, because, sooner or later, all those who remained silent about this attack will find themselves in Dodik's crosshairs.

The Management Board of BH Journalists once again calls on all journalists to show inter-professional solidarity and boycott all events organized by Milorad Dodik – whether as President of Republika Srpska or as President of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats of the RS - the statement reads.