Serbian Investigative Outlet Rebuffs Bosnian Serb President's Attack

A Serbian investigative journalism outlet, the CINS, has denied the claims by Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik that its editor, Dino Jahic, used international funds to "topple political structures in the region".

Dodik made the claim after the Bosnian Centre for Investigative Journalism, CIN - a separate organisation that Jahic once worked for - wrote about the property and assets of Dodik and other Bosnian politicians and published a database of Bosnian politicians' property.

"It is completely impermissible and disturbing that a person holding public office uses fabrications to gain cheap political points and divert attention from things that really matter, such as the spending of citizens' money and the property of officials," CINS said.

Jahic was deputy editor of CIN before becoming editor-in-chief of the CINS, a different organisation that conducts investigations in neighbouring Serbia, in 2016.

The first attacks on Jahic came in a text published by Inforsprska.ba news website entitled "Dirty Dealings of Soros' Instructor", which the Republika Srpska News Agency, SRNA, and the entity's public broadcaster, RTRS, republished.

The text promoted the claim that both centres for investigative journalism are working to overthrow regimes opposed to the West and are the tools of the billionaire philanthropist George Soros - a hate figure among nationalists in Eastern Europe for his promotion of liberal causes and open borders.

Jahic is accused of controlling funds worth 38 million US dollars, provided by Britain, Saudi Arabia and the US.

The CINS editor called the allegations by Dodik and the Bosnian media "nonsense" in an interview for the Serbian website Cenzolovka, which monitors press freedoms.

"Neither I nor...

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