Seek to Resolve Indictment Publishing Issue

The issue related to publishing of indictments to web pages emerged after the Agency for Protection of Personal Data made a decision to protect personal data of persons indicted for war crimes and other crimes.

An AIS member informed the meeting participants that it might be possible to obtain edited versions of indictments filed by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of requests filed by individual media outlets.

“This decision arose from the Law on Personal Data Protection. We are aware of the fact that the Court and Prosecution have to act in accordance to the Law, but, at the same time, it does not mean that the number of victims or names of courts should be removed from edited versions of indictments,” an AIS member said.

AIS members also mentioned the non-existence of weekly press briefings by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Prosecution, saying that, even though they had filed numerous requests, the media keep getting the same answer from the State Court and Prosecution, whose representatives say there is “no technical support” needed for holding such meetings.

AIS members agreed that they should hold a joint meeting with the new President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Chief State Prosecutor at the beginning of next year in an attempt to solve this issue.

At the mentioned meeting they will stress the severity of the problem facing the media in their daily work related to reporting from war-crimes trials.

At this meeting AIS members identified the issue of “non-openness” of local courts and prosecutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Citing examples, the participants mentioned recent attempts to establish communication with the District Prosecution in Eastern Sarajevo, which almost fully ignored the requests for interviews with the Chief Prosecutor.

AIS representatives concluded that they should identify local communities in which these problems are most prominent and try to solve the issues through mediation between judicial institutions and medias in those local communities.

In addition, AIS members agreed to hold a joint meeting with the Association members from local communities in January 2011 in order to define a working plan for next year and a strategy for dialogue between judicial institutions and media in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole.

The AIS meeting was attended by: Merima Husejnovic, Marija Tausan, Aida Alic, Denis Dzidic, Albina Sorguc, Dragana Erjavec, Erna Mackic, Velma Saric, Muamer Selimbegovic, Sabina Woelkner and Amila Nezirovic.