Bosnian Court Refuses to Publish Defendants Photos
This post is also available in: Bosnian
Under the new regulations on exercising access to information, the Bosnian court is not allowed to make or distribute personal photos of the defendants, the court told BIRN in response to a request for a picture of a suspect in a war crimes case.
Unlike other courts in the country, the Bosnian state court, since it was set up in 2003, has not allowed cameras in the courtroom, arguing that it makes public video and other material from hearings itself.
Under the new regulations, which were adopted on May 30, the controversial practice of the anonymisation of verdicts and other rulings, using only initials instead of the defendants full names, was abolished.
This followed a campaign by BIRN in Bosnia to end the concealment of crucial facts about cases which are in the public interest, such as trials for war crimes and other serious offences.
But the court still delivers only ten minutes of video footage from each trial, which are inadequate for producing proper media reports.
