Sidran: Freedom of the press in BiH boils down to the freedom of a fox in a henhouse

Poet Abdulah Sidran, who spoke about freedom of the press and human rights on Sunday at a session of the Association of Independent Intellectuals Krug 99, said that freedom for these two concepts in BiH is still a fiction, which he also felt firsthand, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

- I have experienced, both as a private individual and as a public worker firsthand, that in our conditions - with the journalism we have, with the judiciary we have, with the overall social relations we have - freedom of the press is an unreality, a fiction, and that in such conditions it boils down to the freedom of a fox in a henhouse - Sidran said. This is a metaphor which, in his experience, he says, stands as one hundred percent accurate.

Academician Sidran said, among other things, that it is unnecessary to glorify and praise this phenomenon.

- Our social state is such that, in my opinion, it was not necessary to glorify the phenomenon, the idea, the social rule about freedom and inviolability of freedom of the press, that this rule, this practice has produced in human lives and in social relations many more negative consequences than we can possibly have from that respect for the highly elevated, glorified idea of freedom of the press - Sidran concluded.