Documentaries mark BIRN’s year

During 2014, BIRN B&H published around 3,400 news and analysis about arrests, indictments and trials relating to war crimes, as well as articles about current issues that are connected to the work of judicial institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and with dealing with the past.BIRN journalists have also reported about the trials of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as about other topics related to the work of this institution.In an interview for BIRN-Justice Report, Serge Brammertz spoke about the expectations with regards to the remaining cases at the ICTY, as well as about dissatisfaction with the work of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the processing of cases, which are transferred to local courts from The Hague.BIRN reports, analysis and interviews were published by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s media outlets, as well as by the media in the region. BIRN’s editors spoke about current affairs in the Public Broadcasting Services, as well as in other media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. BIRN B&H products had over 6,000 republications.During this year, the BIRN-Justice Report internet site was visited by 66,964 people, with 683,277 views. The greatest number of hits was from Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by the United States, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia.BIRN B&H produced two documentaries in order to urge society and institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to do more in finding missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, survivors of sexual abuse spoke to BIRN B&H about the trauma they experienced with the aim of ensuing that the perpetrators are prosecuted.The movie “Silent scream”, about victims of sexual abuse was shown in Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka, Zenica, Prijedor, Bihac, Trebinje, Brcko and Tuzla. The reactions of the audience were positive in the majority of cases, and at some of the screenings, the survivors spoke about their trauma for the very first time.The suffering of survivors The movie “Missing you” presents the suffering of persons who are trying to find the remains of their loved ones. Among them is Fikret Bacic, who is searching for his wife and two children, who were executed in the village of Zecovi, near Prijedor.Along with the documentaries, BIRN did a number of contributions for the TV Justice programme, which airs on 22 television stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a monthly basis, and can also be viewed on four satellite channels. In the TV Justice programme, viewers had the opportunity to see the testimony of an indictee for war crimes committed in Ljutocka dolina in Bosnian Krajina, in which he showed where men, women and children were executed. Also, viewers could see what certain people from Bosnia and Herzegovina experienced during their detention in camps in neighbouring countries.Besides that, experts in the TV Justice programme spoke about current issues regarding the processing of war crimes, the application of the Criminal Code, as well as about the trauma survivors are facing. During this year, the stories of survivors of sexual abuse could also be seen in TV Justice programme, some of which were told for the first time before the editorial teams of BIRN B&H.Mediha Kehric, editor of the Radio Television Lukavac, told TV Justice that this is an opportunity to learn the truth about the war crimes, but also about those who have committed the criminal acts. “This is a kind of support for the judicial authorities on the path to the truth. Such a programme leaves room for everyone to find out what happened and to obtain real truth and justice,” said Kehric.In addition to television productions, BIRN B&H continued with the production and distribution of radio content. From 2009 until today, a total of 260 BIRN-Radio Justice’s programmes have aired. In the programme, which lasts 15 minutes, listeners are able to hear everything