The ruling majority in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska (NARS), the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the RS, which makes insult and defamation a criminal offense.
The text of the future legal solution will be discussed during public hearings in a period of 60 days.
In the text of the adopted draft, it is foreseen that in this way new criminal offenses against honor and reputation will be introduced into the Criminal Code, i.e. criminal offenses of insult, defamation, disclosure of personal and family circumstances, and the criminal offense of public display of a message due to belonging to a certain race, religion and nationality. Also, high fines are foreseen for the mentioned criminal acts.
Media associations and representatives of relevant international organizations previously appealed to the proponent to withdraw this solution, pointing out the numerous problems it could cause.
The caucus of SDS deputies suggested that defamation and insult be excluded from this text, but their conclusions were not adopted.
E.Dz.
