Bosnia Journalists Join Forces Against Pressures

In a rare display of professional unity in the ethnically divided country, journalists across Bosnia and Herzegovina have joined forces to stand up for media freedoms.

"Media that dare to do the essence of our job - asking questions - find themselves under different pressures," Milkica Milojevic, president of the BH Journalists association told Balkan Insight.

"An atmosphere has been created in which thinking differently is considered socially unacceptable," she added.

At a protest in the northwestern town of Banja Luka, more than 50 journalists and activists gathered on Monday. Another rally was scheduled to take place in the capital, Sarajevo, on Tuesday.

Milojevic said journalists associations would be organizing other protests, which have meanwhile drawn support from media associations in Croatia and Serbia.

The Banja Luka-based Club of Journalists organized Monday's rally after a series of recent incidents involving journalists.

Last week, police raided the Sarajevo-based news web portal, Klix.ba, searching for the original audio recording that allegedly featured the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Zeljka Cvijanovic, talking about buying the votes of opposition deputies in parliament.

In another incident, a television crew from the Bijeljina-based TV company BNTV was banned from entering the building of the President of Republika Srpska. Another incident concerned verbal abuse of media in the southwestern city of Mostar.

"This all shows that the state wants journalists to bend their spines, but that will not happen," Sinisa Vukelic, president of the Club of Journalists, was quoted as saying during the protest in Banja Luka.

Vukelic said the judiciary should carefully investigate...