The EU regional project TACSO (Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations) in BiH, in co-operation with the Delegation of the European Union to BiH, held on December 9, 2013 the final round of consultations with a focus group of the representatives of media community in BiH on the document that will guide EU financial support to media freedom and integrity in the EU Enlargement countries from 2014 to 2020.
Five representatives of media and NGO’s dealing with media issues who participated in a media consultation workshop that took place in Brussels on 7 to 8 November with aim at giving recommendations in developing the document “DG Enlargement Draft Guidelines for EU support to media freedom and media integrity in enlargement countries, 2014-2020”, participated as well as panelists in introductory part of the follow-up event took place in Sarajevo on 9 December.
During the event, Boro Kontic, Director of Mediacentar stressed that there were a number of specificities in discussing BiH media landscape. “BiH’s problem is not the law itself, but its implementation and achieving that regulatory framework is realistic.”, added Kontic.
All participants assessed that the key issues are to eliminate political interference on the media, to help strengthening of media organisations in order to meet the latest challenges, to protect journalists from attacks, to support the justice system as well as all the other conclusions of the EU organised Speak Up! Conference held in June.
During the event, it was also emphasised that genuine professional and independent media cannot be created solely on international financial assistance. Identified priorities have to be taken up by BIH authorities, but also by media stakeholders themselves.
Journalists, editors, media freedom advocates and experts were invited to give their suggestions for future EU assistance when aiming to reach greater level of media freedom and media integrity in BiH. In an open dialogue with the media community, EU showed its readiness to consult media experts on how to best focus its support for achieving sustainable conditions for freedom of expression.
Radenko Udovicic, Director of Media Plan Institute and Borka Rudic, Secretary General of the BiH Journalist Association emphasised the need to involve parliaments in BiH during the evaluation of media freedom in BiH and to request them to report on it, as is the practice in most EU Member States. “What is important is to have continual dialogue between media organizations that fight for media freedom for what has so far been achieved and is, I am afraid, becoming more and more threatened. Our general problem is that we have a lot of capacities but show little co-operation. What would empower the media community is connecting and ongoing dialogue within the media community in order to increase public awareness of the need for freedom of expression and freedom of media reporting”, stated Ljiljana Zurovac, Executive Director of the BiH Press Council.
The annual EC Progress Report indicates the major shortcomings in this field. The latest Progress report on BiH, published in October 2013, noted increased political and financial pressures on the media as well as issues related to regulation and the functioning of the public service broadcasting. The lack of finalization of the reform of the public broadcasting service and the establishment of the PBS Corporation were also noted.
Freedom of expression and freedom of media are the key indicators of a country’s readiness to become a member of the EU. Professional, independent and unbiased media institutions are one of the most important aspects of a thriving democratic society and represent core values of the EU. The issues of media freedom remain a great priority in the EU Enlargement process and the EU is focusing its financial assistance to this priority.
More information on EU funded TACSO project in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its activities on web site tacso.org.
