Patria Responds: The Same Journalists at BNN, BPS Donors, and Members of the Pravednost Foundation!

Media freedoms in Bosnia and Herzegovina are threatened, as shown by reports from the non-governmental sector that conduct analyses year after year. Attacks by political powers on the media have become commonplace, and there are more and more individuals who want to dictate editorial policy and determine what content media outlets publish, which is unacceptable in a democratic society. Unfortunately, the unspoken rule of "colleague does not attack colleague" no longer applies in BiH. It is precisely for these ethical reasons that the Patria news agency has not responded to the brutal attacks by the BNN portal, which is directly controlled by Semir and Sefer Halilović.

In their desire to establish themselves in the media space, the Halilovići use BNN for settling scores with dissidents and attacking other media outlets.

In order to protect the dignity and authority of Patria agency journalists with many years of experience, we publicly call on our colleagues from BNN and their editor Aldina Rovčanin to explain why they feel the need to attack the "mini Patria," as they like to label it?

The Patria news agency has approached journalistic associations and requested protection from the brutal attacks that have been coming from this portal for years.

- Editor Rovčanin, what kind of journalism did you study that you allowed yourself to sign off on a text titled "Sick: Alispahić's Mafia 'Patria' Mentioned Sefer and Semir Halilović Negatively 12,000 Times"?

Your journalistic professionalism dictated that, if you were not going to contact us, you should at least consult the Business Entities Register and accurately determine the founders and owners of the Patria agency there.

Mentioning the name Bakir Alispahić in the context of ownership of Patria is a tendentious connection that results in provoking negative connotations towards both Mr. Alispahić and the Patria agency. If your bosses, the Halilovići, have a problem with Mr. Alispahić, then they should seek "justice" elsewhere, not through brutal attacks on people who have nothing to do with it.

We publicly invite you to prove this connection, because we will do so in your case subsequently.

You refer to the writings of former editor Tarik Lazović (not Tarila, as you named him in the text) who confirmed in May 2014 that "Bakir Alispahić stands behind Patria" after suffering brutal attacks from SDA, which resulted in an order from Bakir Izetbegović to the director of Energoinvest to evict the Patria agency from its premises on Ćemaluša Street, even though we paid rent regularly. You are located in the same building, we met in the hallways. The premises of BPS and the Pravednost Foundation are also in the same building.

And just as then, so today, we will continue to write against crime and corruption associated with any party, which is in the public interest and for the protection of the common good.

We invite you, since you "Googled" how many times your bosses Semir and Sefer Halilović and Prime Minister Elmedin Konaković were mentioned, to try to understand the journalistic profession (which is clearly not your strong suit) and see that these texts also mention other people, individuals, real beings. The truth is that the Patria Agency, since its inception in February 2014 until today, has dealt with the Halilovići on several occasions, always with a clear reason.

On this occasion, we ask you if it is ethical for a journalist to be a member of a political party and actively engage in journalism and accuse other media and colleagues? Where in the world have you seen that?

We understand that you are disturbed and concerned by the story that the Patria agency uncovered, and later other media reported, that the Pravednost Foundation, founded by your Semir Halilović, whose members include BNN journalists, received 800,000 KM from the Ministry for Veterans' Affairs of KS over four years, because the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office is actively working on this case.

The documents we published show that the Foundation was entitled to 40,000 KM for its own expenses from each tranche, which amounted to 200,000 KM. We can now claim that only this portion of the budget funds was used to finance BNN and BPS.

On the website of the Central Election Commission (izbori.ba), in the section on political party donations, one can easily find donors and the names of those who contribute funds to political entities.

It is interesting that two BNN journalists each paid 4,000 KM to BPS on the same day, Medina Delalić and Maja Kundačina. An impressive donation for a journalist? And when you problematize who among Patria's journalists worked at Dnevni avaz (which is legitimate and legal), we "colleagues" ask you where your names appear on the BNN portal as founders and members of the Management Board of the Pravednost Foundation and on the list of BPS donors? What a moral situation.

We apologize to all other colleagues and ask for understanding, but the insults written in the BNN articles could not be ignored without a response.

To call a media outlet "mafia-like" and its employees "sick people," and to circle their names as if they were suspects in a crime, is inappropriate, but what can one expect from those who no longer know whether they are journalists, politicians, or something else entirely.