The media in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) depends on public, partisan and government funding. Meanwhile BiH journalists lack institutional protection, and therefore need an improvement in the media legislative framework. This is what research shows, conducted among 80 journalists from across Bosnia and Herzegovina, of various ages and genders, working in print and electronic, private and public media.
It was the English poet and civil servant, John Milton, who said of free speech: “For this is the freedom that most of all gives happiness or misery, or success or disappointment, or honor or shame.” This statement remains one of the most powerful on this topic, as it recognizes a fundamental truth about human nature: we, as a species, naturally aspire to freedom. Humans are beings who impose boundaries and frameworks. We are taught modes of behavior and we go through life alongside them. Freedom of speech is inherent within all freedoms. In the modern world, where fluent discourse is propagated, hidden forms of censorship often arise.
From May 28th to August 21st, 1992, over 3,000 Bosnian Muslims and Croats were confined, tortured and killed at the Omarska camp in entity of Republika Srpska. Despite the extent of the atrocities committed at Omarska, the former camp pointedly lacks any form of memorialization as a result of entity of Republika Srpska’s enduring war crimes denial. This marks a symbolic continuation of genocide, perpetuating survivor’s trauma and impeding efforts towards reconciliation.
On May 23, 2012, Emir Hodžić went viral for standing alone in Prijedor’s main square, wearing a white armband on his left arm. The white armband, now used as a symbol of remembrance, commemorated the decree issued by Serb nationalist authorities in Prijedor (Crisis Committee of the Serbian District of Prijedor) on May 31, 1992, ordering the non-Serb population of Prijedor to hang white sheets outside their homes and to wear a white armband.
In 2013, the largest mass grave site in Europe since World War II was discovered on the outskirts of Prijedor in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Last month, the Post Conflict Research Center and Sarajevo Memorial Center organized the inaugural International Youth School Prijedor in May 2024. The school included a visit to the Tomašica mass grave, an international conference on the use of detention camps, and participation in the White Armband Day memorial walk.