The citizens of B&H trust media the most (79.2 %), followed by religious communities and non-governmental organizations, while they trust the politicians the least, as showed by the study “Media Freedoms in B&H in 2016,” which were presented today in Sarajevo by the Association of B&H Journalists and Foundation Friedrich Ebert.
Most respondents believe that the freedom of the media in B&H is little or almost not present, and it say that the causes of that is the state of political and financial dependence, the general political situation in the country, lack of professionalism and inadequate legal framework.
The dominant media in B&H is still TV with 64.6 % (in 2015 – 58 %), 24.6% of the subjects are best informed via the internet (2015 – 29 %), daily newspapers are permanent source of information for only 4.6% of subjects, and radio for 5.6 %.
General Secretary of the Association of B&H Journalists Borka Rudic, said that a lot has changed in recent years thanks to the insistence of media organizations and the media to protect journalists.
She specified that 92% of citizens believe that any attack and pressure on journalists is intolerable, which is a big improvement compared to the survey in 2009 when one in five respondents felt that the press sometimes should be beaten.
Rudic said that the people noted politicians as the biggest and most common violators of journalists’ rights and media freedoms in B&H.
Director of Media Center Boro Kontic stated that the opinion of the profession coincides with the attitude of citizens in the opinion that political and financial dependence are the biggest obstacles to media freedom in B&H.
The study was presented on the occasion of the 3rd of May – World Press Freedom Day.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
