...INDEPENDENT MEDIA OR "INDEPENDENT MEDIA"
The news should be like this: two daily (Oslobodjenje, Dnevni Avaz) and
two weekly (BH Dani, Slobodna Bosna) papers have a joint statement which
condemns the latest wave of violence over the Bosnian media. Especially
Dnevni Avaz
The statement is the result of an increasing repression of Bosnian
authorities (SDA) against the most popular daily papers in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. This may sound confusing. Because, for 5 years, Dnevni Avaz
has been one of the spokespapers for the party mentioned above.
Sometimes even more.If you were paying attention to POO newsletters
before,about the media, you should know what I'm talking about.
Things are somewhat different these days. After the defeat of SDA at the
elections, Dnevni Avaz took the flag of "independent journalism" and
began writing about the disasterous SDA politics which gave the Bosniaks
and furthermore, Bosnians, "the hardest ten years", as it was said in
SDA slogan. It was strange to see how the front page of Dnevni Avaz
celebrates the victory of SDP at the local elections. The chameleon
philosophy looked strange, at least in case of Dnevni Avaz.
The effect of Dnevni Avaz editorial change can be seen through frequent
actions of tax, financial and secret police services whose aim is to
destroy the disobediente papers. Allegedly, Dnevni Avaz hasn't been
working legally for some time. If Avaz really did not pay taxes, why was
there no reaction before while there was love between SDA and Avaz. Of
course, there are no answers to these questions. It is intriguing that
the attacks are coming mostly from the radical part of SDA which bought
"Vecernje novine", the competition papers. By destroyin Avaz, they will
be able to make room for new "public mouth" of the party.
Out of professional reasons, Oslobodjenje, BH Dani, Slobodna Bosna
protest against violence that is going on in Dnevni Avaz. Regardless of
the fact that Dnevni Avaz was always deaf, dumb and blind when the
journalists from Slobodna Bosna and BH Dani and Oslobodjenje were
attacked.
Still, the news from the beginning of this text is not totally true. In
one of the latest issues of Oslobodjenje, it's editor said that no
statement has been signed although there were some talks about it. Thing
that supports his statement is the fact that there are three different
versions of the statement in other three newspapers. Does this mean that
the fight against repressions over Bosnian media will end before it
started? I hope I'm wrong.
A joint statement against SDA media witch-hunt is extremely useful. There
is also a petition made by a group of Sarajevo intellectuals that must
be welcomed. But it seems to me that this "joint-different" fight of the
local media could end up like the Serbian opposition's fight against the
Slobodan Milosevic regime. And that is bad.