Threats Force Bosnian Journalist to Accept Police Protection

A Bosnian columnist who is well known for his critical writing about nationalism has been put under police protection after receiving numerous deaths threats.

While Bosnia is ranked 62th in the world out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom in the latest World Press Freedom Index, which is higher than the result in 2017, when it was ranked 65th, Dragan Bursac has not benefited from this progress.

"So far, only one person out of seven still remains unknown, or at least I have not been told if he is identified, while the other cases are before the prosecution office," Bursac told BIRN, referring to those who have threatened him.

His location is now a secret besides other measures that police in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, are taking to secure him and his family, Bursac explained.

His latest problems started last July, when he published a column titled, "Does Banja Luka celebrate genocide in Srebrenica?" in which he expressed deep revulsion at a planned demonstration in support of the former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, under whose auspices Bosnian Serb troops killed some 8,000 Bosniaks in the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995 - the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

The protest was to be held under the slogan "Support for General Ratko Mladic - Stop the Lies about Srebrenica."

It was scheduled for July 11 - the same day as the annual commemoration of the massacre of Bosniaks in Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic, but was eventually cancelled.

Bursac said he was appalled by the inaction of the courts. "The problem is in the judiciary. Specifically, the persons who threaten me and my family not only are not sanctioned but furthermore, under...