Bosnians Launch Petition Against Serbian Reality Show

The Bosnian NGO, Omladinski Demokratik Pokret (Youth Democratic Movement), is gathering signatures in an attempt to convince the authorities to halt the broadcasting of the Serbian reality TV show 'Farma' ('The Farm').

The show, which has also attracted controversy in Serbia itself for showing sex and fighting between contestants, is accused by the Bosnian NGO of promoting ethnic hatred and domestic violence.

"The [ethnic] insults, the sexist statements, and the communication of the lowest level of morality shouldn't be part of any show that our children could see," says the petition.

The show "has a negative impact on the citizens of our country; it awakens their lowest passions, encouraging offensive speech and hatred between different nations [ethnic groups]", according to the petition.

It calls on the Bosnian communications authority to suspend broadcasts of the series or to postpone them to night-time.

The petition was launched on December 2, and it has already received the support of more than 5,000 Bosnian citizens.

It came after one of the contestants, Semir Dzanokic, a Serbian citizen born in the Sandzak region of Novi Pazar, hit Tamara Djuric, a girl from Belgrade.

The dispute erupted shortly after Dzanokic complained about Serbian traditional songs being sung in the house where the contestants are staying.

Immediately after the broadcast of the sequence, Pink TV, which is airing the show in Bosnia, said it had received several message of complaints from the audience.

The Communication Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the independent state body which is in charge for controlling the media sector in the country, declined to comment on the issue.

"Currently we cannot state...