This post is also available in: Bosnian
Nearly 400 signatures were collected in Sarajevo over the course of two hours on the first day of signing of a petition within a campaign on “Stop Censoring War-Crimes”.
By signing the petition citizens gave their support to the campaign initiated by the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, in Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at putting an end to refusing admission to and providing selective information about trials for war crimes, organized crimes and other crimes.
By collecting signatures, BIRN wants to prove that the general public is interested in those trials and that citizens do not support the withholding of information about indictees’ identity and recordings from courtrooms.
The collection of signatures that took place in front of the Cathedral today lasted shorter than planned due to rain, but the activities will be continued every Wednesday and Saturday.
On Wednesday, June 26 BIRN launched the campaign officially, because courts and prosecutions tend to become more and more closed towards the general public.
The openness of judicial institutions towards the public has been lessened over the course of the past years, because the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to hide indictments from the public, wh8ile the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted rulebooks, stipulating that names of indictees, towns and institutions should be replaced with initials only, while only ten-minute audio and video recordings from trials should be issued.
Under such circumstances it has become impossible for the media to inform the public objectively, completely and precisely about trials for war crimes, organized crimes, terrorism and other grave crimes.
Additional information about the campaign can be found on Facebook page “Stop Censoring War-Crimes”.
