Tag: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Justice Series: Media, Civil Society and War Crime Trials

BIRN BiH

BIRN BiH’s Justice Series programme is the organisation’s flagship effort that was launched in 2005, which aims to increase understanding of and support for the work of the war crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.

Project

TV Justice

Summary

After identifying the past as the main stumbling block for all major issues affecting the country, BIRN BiH became the pioneer in engaging the media and civil society representatives in the reconciliation process. BIRN BiH does not only produce reports and articles via its thematic programme, but it conducts analysis, engages with experts from the field, and most importantly, investigates the institutional mechanisms for tackling the issues of transitional justice.

The Justice Series programme encompasses three core activities for delivery of news and analysis: Justice Report Agency, Radio Justice, and TV Justice. The programme  offers reliable information about war crime trials and transitional justice issues from all the judicial instances of BiH. This information is regularly published on BIRN BiH’s main website, and distributed to over 300 media outlets in the country and worldwide.

BIRN BIH articles that are written as part of this programme are republished on a daily basis in almost all printed media outlets in the country, region and diaspora, as well as in many electronic media outlets.

In addition to the court-side reporting from the Court of BiH and local Cantonal and District courts, the programme includes the following activities: investigative reporting and analysis on local and regional transitional justice efforts; an online archive; coverage of ICTY trials; training activities for media and judiciary, universities, researchers, NGOs and the judiciary, as well as advocacy efforts to promote dialogue between the media and judiciary representatives.

BIRN BiH’s Justice Series programme targets a wide audience, from victims of war crimes to politicians and the international community.

This programme has received funding from the following organisations: the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, the MATRA Program of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency through Civil Rights Defenders, National Endowment for Democracy, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the British Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Foreign Commonwealth Office, the United States Agency for International Development – Justice Sector Development Project II, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Open Society Fund.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
BIRN BiH’s objective is to contribute to the establishment of truth and reconciliation by offering impartial information about war crime trials and other pillars of transitional justice.

BIRN’s Justice Series programme aims to bridge the gap between judicial institutions, security organisations and local government, and the citizens of BiH through timely, objective and reliable reporting on the issues of the past.

By dealing effectively with issues of the past it will also contribute to the overall social, political, and economic progress of BiH.

Specific Objectives:

BIRN BiH encourages:

  • Establishing publicly available source of information by fighting impunity and promoting justice at the state and local level
  • Maximizing the reconciliatory factor of war crimes trials within divided communities in BiH
  • Facilitating regional reconciliation by providing cross coverage of domestic war crimes processes in the regional media.
  • Facilitating the exchange of experience with different post conflict countries of the world
  • Inclusion of over one million members of the diaspora in justice and reconciliation process by delivering news and stories via BIRN BiH media partners

Main Activities:

  • Court-side reporting form the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH
  • Court-side reporting from 16 local war crime courts within BiH
  • Reporting on transitional justice issues in BiH and the region
  • Conducting in-depth analyses and upholding the principles of investigative journalism
  • Online Archiving
  • Production of Radio Justice magazine
  • Production of TV Justice magazine
  • Coverage of ICTY trials
  • Organization of conferences, trainings, workshops for the media and judicial representatives
  • Advocacy through Association of Court Reporters
  • Capacity building and encouraging dialogue between the judiciary and media at the state and local levels in BiH

Target Groups:

BIRN BiH main beneficiaries and target groups are:

  • Local and regional media and their audiences (i.e. BHRT, FTV, RTRS, HRT, RTS, etc)
  • International media (Aljazeera, BBC, CNN, the Guardian, NYTimes, etc)
  • The war victims associations from across the country
  • Women victims of war and in search of their missing members of family
  • Former male camp detainees
  • Judicial institutions at the State, local Cantonal and District levels
  • Members of International Community in BiH, especially those directly involved in the rule of law and judiciary (OSCE, EU Delegation, OHR, UN agencies, foreign embassies, etc)
  • National and International non-governmental organizations (i.e. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Center for Transitional Justice, TRIAL, etc)
  • Academic institutions and future generations in the country and abroad (USA, Canada, EU countries)
  • Staff of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Highlights:

  • The primary material stored in the BIRN BiH archive includes daily reports on war crime trials from courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. They are the baseline for all our other products, such as TV and radio shows, and also serve as a source of inspiration for analyses, the stories of victims and interviews with relevant stakeholders.
  • BIRN BIH also produced two documentary films, “Missing You…” and “Silent Scream.” “Missing You…” depicts the suffering and harsh reality facing people who lost family members during times of peace and war. “Silent Scream” explores the trauma sexual abuse victims still experience twenty years after the end of the Bosnian war.
  • BIRN BIH publications

TV Justice

BIRN BiH

As part of its Justice Series Programme, BIRN BiH produces a high quality television show covering war crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The show is broadcast on public and commercial television networks across the country.

Summary

TV Justice is a programme provided in English and Bosnian, available online, and distributed to television stations for broadcasting throughout the country, the region and internationally.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:

In launching the TV Justice project, the goal was to take advantage of BIRN BiH’s editorial excellence in trial monitoring, legal analysis and war crimes investigations and combine it with top quality production expertise to televise justice issues. The team’s overall goal is to increase understanding of and support for the work of the local judicial institutions dealing with war crimes, and to ensure a transparent and accessible justice system and thereby contribute to the establishment of truth and reconciliation in the region.

Specific Objectives:

The project aims to maximize the power of war crimes trials to promote reconciliation within divided communities by offering regular, fair, objective and sustained coverage and by strengthening understanding and cooperation between the representatives of the judiciary and the community.
Main Activities:

There are two main project activities: Production of TV Justice magazine, and production of ad hoc video clips and documentaries. In addition, the team has carried out research on 35 thematic cross-sectoral analyses of the work of the local judiciary, including access to public information, witness protection and support, right to defense, transparency and the independence of rule of law in Bosnia.

BIRN BiH also works to contribute to the exchange of experiences on different methods of transitional justice in post-conflict countries around the world, and involve over one million Bosnian diaspora in the justice and reconciliation process.

Target Groups:

The project targets the general public as well as local, regional and international media and judicial institutions, and civil society groups, victims, local governments, international policy-makers, and members of the diaspora.

 

Radio Justice

BIRN BiH – past programme
Since 2007, BIRN BiH has been producing audio reports that cover the war crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina and are broadcast on over 140 radio stations within the country and region

Summary

The idea for Radio Justice came after radio editors and journalists in BiH said their use of Justice Report, BIRN BiH’s daily courtside reporting service from war crimes trials would increase if it were received in audio format.

In February 2010, BIRN BiH started a weekly magazine on the trials conducted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH.

It serves as a weekly analysis of war crimes trials, the court’s work and transitional justice in general. In addition, each magazine presents common problems faced by judicial institutions in the country, including transparency, accessibility, independence, implementation of effective legal remedies, and protection of victims.

In 2011, aiming to contribute to reporting on the transfer of war crimes cases to Cantonal and District courts in the country and on the Cantonal and District courts’ work, BIRN BiH launched Local Radio Justice magazine.

This radio magazine is dedicated to all war crime trials held before District and Cantonal Courts as well as other topics related to war crimes trials and transitional justice in local communities. This programme is broadcast on local radio stations.

The radio reports, daily announcements and investigative reports are distributed to local, regional and diaspora-based radio stations free-of-charge.

It is supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, the MATRA Program of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency through Civil Rights Defenders, National Endowment for Democracy, the British Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Foreign Commonwealth Office, the United States Agency for International Development – Justice Sector Development Project II.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
The BIRN BiH team aims to contribute to the establishment of truth and reconciliation through this project by cooperating with large number of local radio stataions. Due to the fact that radio is the most popular traditional medium in the country, through Radio Justice programs BIRN BiH is able to reach much wider audience.

Specific Objectives:
The BIRN BIH team produces daily audio reports and a weekly and monthly magazine for the Radio Justice project, with the goal of increasing understanding of and support for the work of war crimes courts in BiH through objective reporting on the process.

Main Activities:
The Radio Justice project includes the production of daily audio court-side reports, Radio Justice weekly as well as monthly magazine.
Target Groups:
The Radio Justice project targets a wide audience, from war crimes victims to local and regional judiciary institutions and international organisations.
Highlights:
So far over 2,700 radio reportages have been distributed to 140 stations across the country, and aired at 56.

Domestic radio stations receive daily and weekly audio files of the most relevant courtside reports produced by BIRN BiH journalists, cut to the broadcast-length of 30 seconds to one minute. In 2013, BIRN BiH produced in total 900 minutes of radio programming.

In 2013, Radio Justice team produced over 200 daily audio reports, 52 weekly radio magazines, 12 Local Justice Under Spotlight, and a total of 36 The Hague Chronicles. At the end of 2013, and upon feedback from many radio editors, the Hague Chronicle has been integrated with the weekly Radio Justice magazine.

According to Mareco Index Bosnia among the most listened radio stations in the country are the public broadcasters, BH Radio 1, Federal Radio, and Redio of Republika Srpska. BIRN BiH’s radio shows are regularly broadcasted via the aforementioned radio stations, with exception to Radio of Republika Srpska, thus reaching an estimated one million listeners in BiH.

BIRN BiH partnered with community-based radio stations we are able to reach audiences in small and rural communities in both Entities. BIRN’s radio programme is available in the following communities: Zenica, Doboj, Doboj South, Tuzla, Sipovo, Cazin, Bileca, Jablanica, Olovo, Gacko, Busovaca, Mostar, Breza, Lukavac, Bobovac, Bosanska krupa, Vitez, Sapna, Gorazde, Konjic, Kljuc, Bihac, Jajce, Zvornik, Bijeljina, Donji Vakuf, Vogosca, and Sarajevo.

Many radio editors report back to BIRN their impressions of the show as well as the reactions of their audiences. We can conclude they are very interested in the topic of war crimes and willing to broadcast BIRN BiH’s programme. They consider it to be a significant part of their scheme, especially news and information segments. Here is what some of them had to say about it:

“Any type of information that can initiate positive thinking is important. The people, regardless of their ethnicity, should be informed about those who committed war crimes, especially if they occurred in their communities. The fact that these criminals are in facing courts and justice encourages this positive way of thinking,” said Despot Mojsilovic, editor in chief of Radio Breza.

“I appreciate BIRN’s radio programme very much, and am very content to be able to use it in our airing scheme. Information you provide about the happenings during the war is very unique. The war was interlinked among all the nations of this region, and it is of pivotal importance for people to know that war criminals are being processed or in jail. And because of this your show is of huge importance, not just for BiH, but for the entire region,” stated from Radio ZOS.

“Your show is done in a very professional manner. It is very different from other political shows that we can hear on the radio today,” said Vojo Stjepanovic, editor in chief of Radio Doboj.

Transparency of Judiciary and Responsibility of Media

BIRN BiH

Through its judicial transparency project, BIRN BiH aims to increase understanding of and support for the work of the State and Cantonal and District courts processing war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Summary

The project, which was launched in 2005, provides in-depth analysis of local courts and training to journalists. BIRN BiH analyses the level of transparency at local courts and prosecution offices and formulates recommendations for the smoother and more efficient processing of war crimes.

Through these activities, BIRN BiH promotes public awareness of war crimes trials, bringing the country closer to establishing truth and reconciliation. By dealing effectively with issues of the past it also contributes to Bosnia’s progress with Euro-Atlantic integration.

With this project, BIRN BiH works to maximize awareness of the work of local courts dealing with war crimes through objective, fair reporting.

As part of this project, the BIRN BiH team founded and runs the Bosnian Association of Court Reporters, and has conducted more than 50 workshops and trainings in local communities for representatives of the judiciary and media.

The project is supported through institutional grants from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, and the MATRA Program of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, the project has received support from the United States Agency for International Development – Justice Sector Development Project II, and Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Information Sheet

Main Objective:
BIRN BiH works to provide a comprehensive source of information open to the public, researchers and media, and involve Bosnian citizens and the wartime diaspora in the justice and reconciliation process. By making information available to the public, BIRN BiH advocates for a more efficient and transparent judiciary and public trust in judicial institutions.

Specific Objectives:

To maximize the awareness and knowledge of the work of local courts dealing with war crimes, among the target groups through objective, and fair reporting.

To conduct a progress report on the work of the local courts dealing with war crimes, ensuring that they are not left behind in the judiciary reform processes.

To seek common solutions to sector-wide needs and problems.

To incite constructive dialog between stakeholders including the judiciary, civil society, media and international community.

To involve BIH citizens and the wartime diaspora in the justice and reconciliation process, as key victims and witnesses, but also a vital factor in BiH’s community and future development.

Main Activities:

The BIRN BiH team also conducts progress reports on the work of the local courts, and seeks common solutions to sector-wide needs. BIRN BiH encourages constructive dialog between stakeholders in the judiciary, civil society, media and international community through workshops and trainings in local communities.
Target Groups:
The judicial transparency and media responsibility project targets the general public as well as local, regional and international media and judicial institutions, and civil society groups, local governments, and international policy-makers.
They include local journalists, editors of media outlets, public relations officers of the courts, prosecutor offices, and police, judges and prosecutors, as well as an OSCE representative.
Highlights:

BIRN BiH’s advocacy programme has been a leading facilitator of the dialogue between media and judiciary at the local and state level.BIRN BiH founded the Association of Court Reporters (AiS). Together we organize a series of meetings between local media and representatives of the judiciary each year. In 2013, BIRN BiH – AiS meetings were held in Travnik, Eastern Sarajevo, Doboj, Trebinje, Brcko District, and Sarajevo. Since the start of the project, BIRN BiH organized more than 70 workshops in local communities for representatives of judiciary and media.

BIRN BiH was the first organization in the country to notice the Court of BiH’s adoption of the Rulebook on Access to Information, and Instructions on Anonymization of Courts Decisions, Audio/Video Recordings from Trials and publicly address it.

Through the transparency project and consistent campaigning against censorship, BIRN BiH has succeeded in making the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council in BiH (HJPC) to adopt a decision that should put an end to anonymisation of indictments, verdicts, and other courts’ audio-visual material. The decision is expected to be released in 2014.

BIRN BiH and AiS managed to introduce amendments to the existing Press Code of the BiH Press Council and the rules for journalists reporting on war crimes trials. It has also been a leading facilitator of the dialogue between media and judiciary at the local and state level.

In September 2009, BIRN BiH organised the first regional conference dedicated to judiciary transparency and the responsibility of the media, which brought together all the major actors from ex-Yugoslavia.

BIRN BiH established a partnership with FBiH Association of Prosecutors in order to have better impact on judiciary representatives over workshops that will be organized in the following years.

Justice Sector in Bosnia Needs Urgent Reform

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, organized its third and final presentation of its analysis, “Bosnia’s Justice Sector Reform: Optimism and Delay’,” on May 23, 2017 in the American Corner in Mostar.

The key issues for lawyers and representatives of veterans’ organizations were seen as transparency and the efficiency of the state and local courts.

Talking about the quality of indictments and about the cases now in front of Bosnia’s state court, Zvonko Vidovic from the Office of the Legal Aid for Defenders, said the quality must be improved.

“What will be the legacy of the current judiciary? The state court needs to reorganize immediately and send more cases to the lower level courts if we want to see results,” Vidovic explained.

“I am very interested in the justice sector in BiH being demystified. They have abolished the principle of material truth. Now, we do not establish truth in justice. We suffer because truth is not in justice,” Nenad Gvozdic, a lawyer from Mostar said.

Analysis on the implementation of the State Strategy for Justice sector reform between 2014 and 2018 was carried out with the support of the US embassy in Sarajevo.

 

 

Justice Sector Reform Debated in Banja Luka

The Balkan investigative reporting network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, organized a debate on an analysis of the implementation of the State Strategy for Justice Sector reform between 2014 and 2018 in Banja Luka, Bosnia, on May 19.

Local media and NGO representatives discussed the delays and problems that the judiciary faces in its reform process, pointing out several major obstacles. One of the biggest is transparency, which affects journalists and trial monitors across the country.

Erna Mackic, BIRN BiH editor, mentioned BIRN’s map of war crime prosecutions on the Balkans, noting that, according to the accessibility of judicial documentation, BiH had prosecuted the lowest number of war crime cases, which is not true.

“BiH has the biggest number of war crime verdicts, but you cannot see that because they are unavailable to the public,” Mackic said.

Zlatica Gruhonjic, director of the Centre for Democracy and Transitional Justice, working on documenting detention camps across BiH, said the key problem they face is anonymization of verdicts.

“It is very important to have organizations like BIRN because detektor.ba website is such a valuable source of information,” Gruhonjic said.

“I hope the judiciary will put a special focus during the reform on openness, since the media have so many problems in gathering needed information,” Ognjen Matavulj, journalist from Vecernje novosti, said.

The analysis of the implementation of the State Strategy for Justice sector reform between 2014 and 2018 was conducted with the support of the US embassy in Sarajevo.

BIRN BiH Joins Visit to NATO Headquarters

Denis Dzidic, editor of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, joined a visit by the International Republican Institute, IRI, to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. 

He took part in a meeting titled: “Understanding and Preventing Violent Extremism and Foreign Influence,” which took place on April 20 and 21. 

At numerous other meetings, participants discussed a number of security topics, among which Communication Challenges in Euro-Atlantic Integration and Public Diplomacy Cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina were the most important for BIRN BiH. 

Dzidic also presented work that BIRN BiH has done on monitoring court proceedings for terrorism in Bosnia in relation to people who have gone to fight for ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Some of the findings related to research that BIRN BiH has done in relation to religious radicalization.

 

BIRN BiH Unveils Analysis on Justice Reform

BIRN in Bosnia and Herzegovina has published an analysis of the implementation of the State Strategy for Justice Reform between 2014 and 2018, which shows that serious delays have blighted the processes.

According to BIRN BiH’s analysis, delays marked the State Strategy for Justice reform from the start. The document was only adopted 20 months after the original deadline passed, in September 2015, under international pressure. 

The Action Plan to implement the Strategy was only adopted 17 months later, in February this year. Containing 40 pages and hundreds of measures, a handful have been fulfilled. 

“Successes have been marked in regard to the implementation of the law on free legal aid, and enhancement of the system for plea agreement,” BIRN BiH editor Erna Mackic said. 

“However, key issues such as the creation of a state-level Appeal Court and solving the laws on the Constitutional Court and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council have not been solved.” 

The analysis shows that the creation of the Appeals Court remains a stumbling block because representatives of the judiciary and political parties cannot agree on its proposed jurisdiction. 

Considering that this issue is currently in the EU-led Structured dialogue on justice, and that the issue of the Constitutional Court and the HJPC laws are likely to follow, the creation of the Appeals Court is causing delays in reforms, the analysis shows. 

“Lack of political will to reform the justice sector is visible through delays in the adoption of the Strategy and Action plan but also in the issue of the Appeals Court. It is important to add that many of the measures in the Strategy depend on financial support, which is currently not adequate,” BIRN BiH editor Denis Dzidic said. 

The analysis of the Strategy for Justice Reform between 2014 and 2018 was carried out with the support of the US embassy in Sarajevo and presented in the American Corner in Sarajevo, with officials from judicial institutions, domestic and international organizations and the media present.

BIRN BiH Attends ODIHR Trial Monitoring Meeting

Mirna Buljugic, the director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH), participated in the ODIHR Trial Monitoring annual meeting in Skopje, Macedonia, at the end of April 2017.

The objective of the meeting was to share good practice and talk about challenges to trial monitoring around the world.

Buljugic presented BIRN BiH’s work at a session entitled Access to Information, talking about challenges journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina are facing trying to access audio and video material from court hearings, court files (indictments and verdicts) and interviews with legal professionals.

BIRN BiH’s campaign ‘Stop Censorship on War Crimes’ was shared as an example of good advocacy campaign that successfully encouraged people to put pressure on judicial institutions to change practices and rules forbidding the public from getting relevant information on war crime trials.

BIRN BiH Helps Initiative Plan Monitoring Bosnia’s

Members of the Initiative for Monitoring the European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina [the Initiative], including BIRN BiH, held a two-day strategic planning session focusing on monitoring Bosnia’s European integration process in the upcoming period. The session took place on March 21st and 22nd in the capital, Sarajevo.

The European integration process has been widely recognized as Bosnia’s best chance of improving its human rights and the standard of living of all its citizens.

In June, Bosnia and Herzegovina is due to submit its answers to the Questionnaire of the European Commission. After that, it hopes to obtain EU candidate country status.

Following the practice applied in Croatia and Serbia, where the NGO sector has actively participated in the negotiation and monitoring process, along with the state and the EU, the Initiative recognizes the need to assume an active role in the upcoming period and help Bosnian society and the country achieve the set goals.

On the first day of the planning session, Natasa Dragojlovic Ciric, coordinator of the National Convention on the European Union in Serbia, spoke of the importance of establishing bigger and stronger networking between civil society organizations in the process of monitoring the obligations undertaken by governments.

On day two, Jelena Berkovic, from GONG organization in Croatia, helped the members plan their activities in the upcoming period in order to be able to both follow and contribute to the EU integration process in the most efficient manner.