Media in the Republic of Srpska

Character and Work of the Information Minister

AIM Banja Luka, May 26, 2000

At the 10th session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska held in early May, deputies of the Socialist Party (SPRS) and SDS launched the initiative for the dissolution of the Ministry of Information.

Explaining this initiative, Slobodan Bilic, a SPRS deputy, stated that the Government failed to abide by the Parliament's conclusion on initiating the procedure for the adoption of the Law on Information and Law on RS Radio and Television. The deputies also said that the Information Ministry was "a relic from the past which no longer exists in most of the developed democratic countries".

Commenting on the mentioned initiative, Rajko Vasic, Minister of Information, said that this demand was "silly and would create an anarchy among the media". Linking this demand with the earlier stand of representatives of the international community on the need for to dissolve the Ministry of Information, Vasic said that certain political structures wanted to "please the international community in a totally dumb way".

However, leaving politics aside, very few journalists in the Republic of Srpska would be able to offer a valid argument in favour of keeping the RS Ministry of Information. Minister Vasic is the person most responsible for such an attitude.

During his two and a half year term of office the only thing that showed that RS had a minister of information was a bunch of press releases signed by him, mostly intended for "protecting the reputation and work of the Government and Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, who was the one to appoint him to that function".

When in January 1998 Vasic was appointed Minister, journalists in RS thought that better days had come for the media. Already two - three months later it was clear to everyone that this was just wishful thinking and that "foreigners" would continue to be in charge of the freedom of expression and codes of professional conduct.

Vasic rejected such opinions on several occasions claiming that the Government, i.e. Ministry he was in charge of, never interfered in editorial policy of the media financed from the budget. True, in the last two years the reporting of the so called state media has changed for the better, but most people think that this was more a consequence of a kind of a show of force of representatives of the international community in autumn 1997 at the closing down of SRT, than a result of Minister's efforts.

According to Vasic, the dismissal of sixteen editors of local radio and TV stations - founded by communes and not the RS National Assembly - was also an example of non-interference in the media's internal affairs. According to him, the dismissal of the Director of the "Srna" Press Agency, which the Supreme Court of the Republic of Srpska proclaimed illegal, was neither interference in the editorial policy of the media because, as minister had put it, "it was simply necessary to free these media of the SDS's direct control".

When reconstructing the Bosnian-Herzegovinian society, representatives of the international community tried, with a number of decisions, to regulate the local media space and each time met with fierce opposition of the Minister Vasic. That is why the reconstruction of the RS Radio-Television and the establishment of a public corporation in the field of media at the state level had turned into a veritable small-scale war which was waged between Office of the High Representative (OHR) and Minister Vasic for months. Swearing to follow "the Dayton Peace Accords to the letter", the Government and Minister Vasic interpreted the OHR demands as an attempt at revising the Dayton Accords, with the explanation that the media were under the exclusive jurisdiction of entities.

That is why, without Minister's consent, the Independent Media Commission (IMC) took charge of allocating broadcasting frequencies to the electronic media. The same thing happened with the Public TV Service at the level of B&H. It was the reason why at one time Prime Minister Dodik had proclaimed Deputy High Representative Simon Haislock persona non-grata in RS, which was accompanied by an avalanche of protests and harsh words in papers and on TV stations. Despite all this, thanks to that same Public Service the citizens of B&H were recently able to follow the "Euro Song" Competition, Beauty Contest for the Miss World and similar broadcasts and as far as it could be observed, no one broke his TV set or protested in the streets because of that. Insistence on the adoption of the RS Law on Information, which is long overdue, was labelled "gross interference of OHR in the internal affairs of the Republic of Srpska".

"We have to develop a legal environment which will simply make the media totally independent of day-to-day politics, irrespective of the fact that they are financed from the budget", was Minister Vasic's usual reply whenever the question of the adoption of this Law was raised. In addition, according to him, "it is not the state which should concern itself with the freedom of information, but journalists who have to win that freedom for themselves". Incidentally, the draft law has not yet seen the light of day because its authors are behaving as if they are about to invent a wheel and not sum up in experiences of countries with developed democratic traditions few articles.

This Law should regulate both the rights and duties of journalists and the media and enable RS create conditions for the development of professional and impartial information system. Journalists generally think that the right to information is the reason behind constant postponement of the adoption of this Law. It is easy to sanction a reporter and the house he works for, but in a political system which behaves as if it exists only for its own sake it seems inconceivable that government and communal records could made accessible to journalists "to poke their noses into things that don't concern them".

In this way, and by protecting their sources, journalists come by the truth indirectly which is why the Minister accused them of "being unprofessionally and unqualified in carrying out their work" emphasising that their only aim was "discredit the Government and its achievements".

Numerous examples tellingly illustrate the Minister's attitude towards journalists. For almost two years Vasic ignored all invitations of the media associations and non-governmental organisations to participate in round tables dedicated to the status of information and journalists in the Republic of Srpska. His idea of the freedom of information and accessibility of sources can also be seen in a protest letter journalists had sent to the Minister in February 1999 because of his selective information of the media on the activities of the Government and its ministers.

In his columns the Minister liked to mention that he had not forgotten that he was also a journalist. For over a year, under a pen-name Velibor Rajcevic, in the "Independent Paper" Vasic called to task everyone who dared thought or speak differently from the ruling oligarchy, a part of which he himself had become. And there would be nothing strange about it had we - who are in this profession -not been taught that a columnist must have a name and a face.

Anyone who holds his professional reputation dear, would resign because of all that has been said. But, we are not living in a normal state and, therefore, love for power is much stronger than any moral scruple. Especially when it is combined with money, as is the case with the printer Vasic, which is probably his additional activity now.

Gordana Katana

(AIM)