July 9, 2016

07/09/2016: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – SEEMO CONDEMNS BEHAVIOUR OF POLITICIAN IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Vienna, 07/09/2016

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned the behaviour of a high-level politician in Bosnia and Herzegovina toward a journalist while attending a public event.

On September 4, a minister in the government of Repulbika Srpska appeared at a cooking festival near Lake Bardaca, where Jelena Grahovac, a reporter for Alternativna Televizija TV (ATV) station attempted to interview him. After asking a question about alleged abuses of ministerial strategic reserves that caused recent speculation, the minister allegedly grabbed the journalist’s hand and pulled the microphone downwards, telling Grahovac that ‘he would like her to do something good’. This was recorded by a TV camera.

‘It is not acceptable for a governmental official to behave like this,” Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General said today. “Ms. Grahovac was performing her duty as a journalist to report on matters that are in the public interest. The minister in question should be aware that he is subject to public scrutiny because of his role in the government’.

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.