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The Bosnian state court on Wednesday said that legal regulations should be drawn up to govern media reporting on criminal proceedings in an attempt to tackle unprofessionalism, derogatory reporting and prejudice.
The court said in a statement that media have been increasingly publishing “unprofessional, tendentious and incorrect reports, articles and commentaries” about the cases it handles.
It said that it does not want to “exert any influence on the freedom of press and freedom of expression”, but to safeguard the state court’s independence, promote the rule of law and ensure that “proper information” is provided to the public.
The statement said that poor reporting on war crimes cases increases ethnic tensions in the country and offends war victims.
“Bearing in mind the sensitivity of war crimes cases, and the importance of conducting judicial proceedings for such offences, being especially sensitive of the victims, it is necessary to avoid tendentious and bombastic reporting, as well as incorrect and malicious commentaries on these cases,” it said.
The president of the Bosnian state court, Ranko Debevec, told BIRN that “education in journalism” was needed.
“Unfortunately, there is very little such education here,” Debevec said.
“We know what freedom of expression is and its limits. But commenting on first-instance judgments handed down by judges, saying they are shameful or incorrect, which many media outlets do in practice, is completely absurd,” he added.
The court asked the Bosnian authorities to “draft appropriate laws setting forth rules on media coverage of criminal proceedings”.
It also asked the country’s Communications Regulatory Agency to amend its rules on media coverage of judicial proceedings in order to “correct the flaws and irregularities noticed in practice”.
It further called on media outlets to “report on judicial proceedings in a fair, honest, responsible and transparent manner, without any prejudices and derogatory allusions, respecting the presumption of innocence of the accused, and dignity of the victims and witnesses”.
