Pressure on the judicial authority, calling the judge names, drawing a target on the forehead of the judge who has to make a decision, is what we have been witnessing in the last few days in the reports on Radio and Television of Republika Srpska. After the last report on the enforcement procedure between the two public services, BHRT responded that the public did not receive complete information about what happened at the hearing in Banja Luka. Under pressure, an additional hearing was convened at RTRS’s objection, which is another indicator of pressure on the judiciary and a demonstration of political power.
According to data from the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, all RTRS accounts have been blocked. The reason for this is the judgment of the District Commercial Court in Banja Luka, and due to multi-year debts to BHRT. However, RTRS does not see a problem in non-payment of its debt, but instead looks for the culprit in the judge. Therefore, in the Republika Srpska entity, brutal political pressure was launched on the judiciary and Gordana Marić, judge of the District Commercial Court in Banja Luka, because she rejected the objection of Radio-television of Republika Srpska to the decision on blocking of accounts in favor of Radiotelevision of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BHRT writes.
“We are obliged to clarify to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina that at the hearing on RTRS’s objection to the executive procedure, which was held on August 12, 2020, in Banja Luka, the lawyer of RTRS submitted evidence at the hearing in which he requested the suspension of the executive process and return everything to the previous state,” the BHRT announced.
“When we reached the moment when the representatives of the RTRS should be organized, with the great support of the authorities in the RS, they have no other arguments but in this unprecedented way they are trying to put pressure on the judges and the judiciary, which until now has done its job correctly, in accordance with the law and with justice,” said the acting General Director of BHRT, Belmin Karamehmedović.
Calling and drawing a target on the head of the judge who has to decide on the objection of the RTRS to the initiated execution process is a problem that needs to be solved by the HJPC, which should protect the judges and enable them to independently, based on their knowledge and conscience, make decisions that are in accordance with the laws of all levels of government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BHRT said.
“Law and justice are absolutely on the side of BHRT. We will not allow pressure to be put on the judiciary with all our strength and in all possible ways. We ask the Court and all relevant institutions to do their work only as provided by law, and we will also oppose all pressures on the judiciary and individual judges,” said Karamehmedović.
Some journalists believe that RTRS relied on the political support of SNSD cadres without concrete legal facts.
“Raport’s findings from the judicial circles themselves confirm the unprecedented torture to which Judge Gordana Marić, the judge of the District Commercial Court in Banja Luka, who rejected RTRS’s complaint, was exposed, and that in fact the hearing was convened under unprecedented pressure, which is completely unusual for this stage of the executive procedure, and that RTRS’s lawyers presented before the judge, instead of legal arguments, official letters and politicians’ urgencies. They everyone, without the slightest shame, in violation of the principle of separation of powers, put themselves in the role of the millionaire debtor’s lawyer and appeal to some public interest in order to force the court and the judge to act outside the law,” says journalist Semira Degirmendžić.
Although the accounts of RTRS have been blocked since July 7, not a single mark has been paid into the accounts of BHRT, and in the Republika Srpska entity they are trying to trample on the legal obligations of RTRS towards BHRT and are spreading spins and falsehoods. Politicians, who today defend RTRS through pressure on the judiciary, have been preventing help from BHRT for years.
The Traffic Commission appeals that the Public Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina urgently needs financial assistance.
“There is no need to wait a day, in terms of solving the situation in BHRT, not only because of BHRT but because of the entire radio and television system of Bosnia and Herzegovina which is collapsing. BHRT is an institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and it is a glaring example of how negative policies are destroying institutions and we have to stand up to it,” pointed out Jasmin Emrić, a member of the Commission for Traffic and Communications of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
The latest judgment in which RTRS has to pay BHRT about 5 million marks is only one in a series of multimillion-dollar debts owed by RTRS to BHRT for the last decade, which puts BHRT in a difficult financial situation that brought it to the brink of survival.
