Vienna, 09/08/2017
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) expressed condemnation after a journalist from Banja Luka receives death threat.
Journalist Dragan Bursac (Dragan Bursać) received a death threat after an article he wrote was published and later shared on Facebook. The article deals with the siege of the Bosnian-Herzegovina town Bihac (Bihać), during the war in 1990s, and is titled “I was silent while Bihac was shelled”.
As the the Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety reported, after Bursac published his article an inadmissible reaction was followed via Facebook where a person wrote a bunch of very disturbing abominations which end up with words “you will not hold your head on your shoulders, I can promise you that”.
The journalist has faced three death threats and verbal abuse in the last year.
SEEMO is asking the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to protect better journalists in the country. SEEMO welcomes also the prompt reaction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, who arrested a person who threatened Bursac.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South, East and Central Europe and its press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.