On March 9, following an exhaustive campaign by the RS authorities to introduce a new set of laws, including, criminalization of defamation, Buka reporter Aleksandar Trifunović and EuroBlic reporter Nikola Morača from Banja Luka found scratches on their cars.

Although they have no evidence to prove the attack was the result of the campaign, the reporters say that the damage rendered to their cars cannot be viewed outside of that context. They see this act as a way of sending a message to the entire media community that stood against the non-democratic legislative changes.

“Yes, we fear that it won’t end here,” warns the president of the Banja Luka Journalists’ Club, Siniša Vukelić, whom the RS President Milorad Dodik named “ugly creature” for opposing the new law just a day before the cars of his colleagues were vandalized.

High fines foreseen

In early March 2023, the RS Government adopted a Draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the RS, which introduces new criminal offenses against honor and reputation, i.e. the criminal offense of insult and slander. The Draft Law foresees fines ranging from five to 120 thousand BAM.

Dodik announced these amendments at the end of last year, and since then he has often publicly advocated the restriction of media freedom. That was also the case on March 8, when he gave a statement marking certain reporters ineligible.

“We will also put this Law on amendments to the Criminal Code on the agenda. I think that those who have gone too far with this [libel] are creating an unfavorable atmosphere. They want to impose themselves and defend themselves, like Vukelić and some others who have been lying for years,” said Dodik.

Vukelić observes this labeling of journalists in the context of the ambiance that has been created since 2006 and the coming to power of the coalition led by the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats. He warns that the situation is getting worse and worse.

“This is the concept of media suppression. We still vividly remember the assassination attempt on Vladimir Kovačević. (…) Resistance is created through laws, attitudes towards journalists, the actions of the police, confiscation of phones without a court order, detention”, says Vukelić.

His colleagues Nikola Morača and Aleksandar Trifunović share a similar view, warning that an atmosphere of lynching has been created and that they [the reporters] were specifically targeted to send a message to the entire media community.

“Trifunović and I did not have any common topics. I do a crime page, while he does broader social topics. And as for what just happened, the only thing we had in common is that we both commented on the introduction of the law, i.e. the criminalization of defamation”, said Morača.

“We simply happened to be a good choice for sending the message to the media community, not just to the two of us. Nikola’s phone was recently confiscated. He was recently mentioned in the media lot. I gave over thirty statements and interviews about the new Defamation Act”, says Trifunović.

The car vandalism situation, as they say, upset them, but they got even more concerned when they realized that it happened to both of them at the same time.
“None of us had this level of anxiety up until this point. Only then did we realize that we were targeted,” says Trifunović.

Case investigation

Before the kick-off of the official investigation of the RS Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dodik said that some clues suggest that the journalists themselves staged everything. Trifunović was at the police, giving his statement when he read Dodik’s statement.

“I was talking to the chief investigator at that moment and I asked him if we were the suspects. ‘As we speak, I am reading the statement of the RS president.’ He just waved his hand and said, “Aleksandar, the investigation hasn’t even started yet.”

The Banja Luka Police Administration told CIN that their officers are still working to shed light on the incident, and did not want to comment on whether Dodik’s statement was motivated by police investigation findings.

Siniša Vukelić finds this level of speculation, subterfuge, and willingness of Dodik to accuse the journalists, who are injured parties and concerned about their families, unbelievable.
“It is unbelievable that he accuses the injured party of doing this to itself. This shows how far he is willing to go to defend the indefensible and carry out his plan, which is to have full control over the media”, says Vukelić.

When asked if he feared that Dodik’s statement could or should direct the course of the investigation, Trifunović said that it would be easy to find someone who is desperate enough and persuade them to do anything.

“We have a stationary surveillance system in the building. I’m not looking for an alibi, but it’s clear when I entered my apartment, and when Nikola entered his. It is very easy to check it all”, said Trifunović.

As for the question about the possible influence of Dodik’s statement on the course of the investigation, Morača said that everything is possible. His answer was prompted by his experience from late February when he made a statement to the police as a suspect because of the articles he published in the daily newspaper Blic.

We asked Morača how we got to a situation where journalists have become a bigger problem than the subject that they report on, to which he responded that he wonders the same thing until the present day.

“The only possible answer is that they wanted to get hold of the phone by any means. But there you go, they’ve got hold of it, say, in a legal way, Morača concluded.