EFJ has welcomed Bosnia Herzegovina Journalists Association

The BHJA was founded in 2004 as an umbrella association of journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina with activities covering the entire territory of the country. It has 750 members from all sectors of the media and all types of journalists and media workers (including freelance journalists, journalism students, photograhers, proofreaders, cameramen). The association is led by General Secretary, Borka Rudic and President, Milkica Milojevic with a team of six staff in Sarajevo. . What are your priorities for the next years? And what is your major work for the moment? The priority for BHJA in the next years is advocating the Law on Media Ownership Transparency and the Law on Advertising in the Media as they are relevant for the decrease of the real issue of political interference and increase of media objectivity, freedom and fair market conditions. A lot of work is planned to serve the institutional and capacity needs of the Association. One of the priorities is also to keep the level of support to the Journalists’ Clubs, which serves as the official affiliates in cities across Bosnia. These clubs proved to be a significant tool for union to protect and serve journalists at local level. They also help promote solidarity among journalists through various gatherings and meetings. Journalists in these meetings exchanged ideas to defend media freedom and journalists rights.

One of the BHJA projects is to improve the implemetation of EU standardards on defamation cases by national judicary bodies. BHJA will organise workshops and discussion among editors, media owners, lawyers and judges that aim to improve the knowledge and awareness of national lawyers and attorneys on media issues throuh the project financed by Civil Rights Defenders.

Meanwhile, the BHJA is conducting a bi-monthly monitoring on the state of PSB.

Our on-going activities are organising educational workshops for jorunalists, editors and students of journalism through the “Novinarska akademija“ (Journalist´s Academy) project and various in-house trainings.

This year, we are participating in a regional project called Media Circle (Fairpress). The goal is to establish a sustainable mechanism to monitor media ownership and advocacy of favourable media laws to ensure media independence.

What do you hope to develop or cooperate with the EFJ and its affiliates by joining the EFJ? In another word, what can the EFJ do to support or help your union become stronger?

We hope to develop a stonger legitimacy of BHJA through the EFJ membership and strenghten our legal support to members. We also hope that the BHJA will get the support of EFJ to advocate the adoption of favourable media laws that are compatible and corespondent to European standards, and support issues that are affecting the media community, jorunalists pressional rights, freedom of expression in my country.