Bosnia and Herzegovina

Country overview

Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a country in a deep political crisis. “The political landscape in Bosnia has been increasingly unstable, particularly since the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreements, which ended a brutal war that claimed around 100,000 lives. The agreements established a complex political structure aimed at maintaining peace among the country’s three main ethnic groups: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats (Emehet, 2025). BTI Index (2024) lists the country as weak, stating that “both, the executive and the legislature in Bosnia and Herzegovina operated at minimal capacity, democracy was highly defective”. Milorad Dodik, President of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, has been insisting on “peaceful separation” from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), which further exacerbated the situation in B&H. High Representative for B&H Christian Schmidt on many occasions criticized the dysfunctional state of the country’s political institutions, often fueled by corrupt practices, ethnic divisions, and internal disputes. Media market is quite untransparent and many crucial information regarding it is not available to the general public. Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina operate in an impoverished, oversaturated and captive market, in adverse political and economic conditions. The political climate is marked by divisive rhetoric and ongoing disputes between ethno-national political elites. Consequently, most media outlets are divided along ethnonational and political lines. While television remains the primary source of information for the general public, online media and social networks are more popular among younger generations, a trend that is affecting the broader media landscape in terms of both production and quality. There has not been any significant progress in the legal and regulatory field regarding the media and freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is, in general, protected by laws. However, the country dropped from 64th to 81st place in the 2024 Reporters Without Borders’ Media Freedom Index (Bosnia-Herzegovina | RSF, n.d.). The main relevant laws in this field (Law on Transparency of the Media Ownership and Law on Advertising) are still missing, no anti-SLAPP regulation exists, while consequences of the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska (RS), which criminalized defamation in the B&H entity Republika Srpska in 2023, have become visible in 2024 (with zero indictments, one investigation order, and 130 criminal charges). The national regulator – Communication Regulatory Agency (CRA) – continued to act as a regulatory institution, but the concern regarding its political independence remained in 2024, especially since the mandate of the current director has expired and a new director has not been appointed yet. Political influence on Public Service Media has been an issue for years in B&H and no progress has been made in this regard in 2024.

Fundamental Protection

The Fundamental Protection area scores within the medium-high risk band. Key points include:

• Protection of the right to information is facing many challenges, especially after the new Law on Freedom of Access to Information has been adopted in 2023 (Official Gazzete BiH 61/23). Many weaknesses are evident in the application of the Law on the part of public bodies which are reflected in: delaying the decision-making procedure in the first instance and second instance procedures, making decisions that do not contain all elements prescribed by law (introduction, enacting clause, explanation, instruction on legal remedy), formal satisfaction of the request, with absence ensuring real access to information, the practice of public authorities denying access to information, by referring to the protection of personal data, i.e. commercial interests of third parties, without conducting the public interest test.
• Although no murders of journalists have been recorded, verbal and digital attacks on journalists are often taking place, and journalists say that they do not feel safe. In December 2024, journalist Avdo Avdic was granted police protection after receiving death threats.
• The absence of explicit anti-SLAPP legislation creates a fertile ground for the misuse of legal systems to silence critical voices. In the session of July 2024, the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament was supposed to consider the Draft Law on Citizens’ Initiative and Protection of Citizens and Activists of the FBiH – this did not happen, because the proposer withdrew it. The public was deprived of an adequate and convincing explanation as to why this was done. In one article, Article 6, the Law contained special provisions on the legal mechanism for early dismissal of lawsuits or claims in SLAPP proceedings. There is no data about the exact number of SLAPPs in 2024 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the experts agree that the trend of SLAPPs continued in 2024.
• B&H media regulator faces challenges, especially when it comes to political interference and no changes in that regard have been made in 2024. The current director of CRA is the former director of RTRS (public service media) which is under direct control of the ruling party in Republika Srpska. Since the current director has been appointed, no fines for RTRS have been prescribed (which has been mentioned in the previous Report as well). His mandate expired in mid-2024 and a new director has not been appointed yet (by the time of this writing, February 2025). In October 2024, the new Council of the CRA has been appointed (the election of the new Council was confirmed in April 2024 by members of the House of Representatives of the B&H Parliamentary Assembly, but candidates waited six months for confirmation by the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the political blockade of that institution).

Market Plurality

Market Plurality is associated with a very high risk. Key points include:

• Media ownership transparency remains problematic due to the lack of regulation. In 2024. the State Ministry of Transport and Communication has appointed the members of the Working group for drafting the Law on Transparency of Media Ownership. However, according to some estimates, the process of adoption of the Law might last up to five years (JaBIHuEU, 2024).
• Data on ownership is mostly available in public registers except in cases when foreign companies register media in Bosnia and Herzegovina making it harder to confirm the true ownership. Digital media ownership is even more hard to track, because anyone can open a web portal for the price of domain which is 40 KM (20 EUR) and the fact that there are way too many web portals (digital native) that open and close almost on a daily base. In general, they do not register as companies in many cases.
• Editorial independence remains vulnerable to commercial and owner influence. Advertising also serves as a mean of silencing the media, leading journalists to self-censor when reporting on companies that advertise in their outlets and no changes in this regard occurred in 2024.
• Self-regulatory norms in this regard do exist (in the Print and Online Media Code of Ethics), but they are not efficiently implemented.

Political Independence

The Political Independence area registered a high risk score. Key points include:

• Political interference based on ownership is a common phenomenon in the media.
• The process of allocation of state subsidies, in most cases, is not transparent and fair. Since there are many administrative levels (state – entities – cantons-municipalities) all of them have their own rules and preferences in this context.
• Intransparency of the distribution of state advertising is a big issue in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The public sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina directs significant funds to the media based on commercial contracts for advertising and other media services. The criteria used to select the media with which contracts to be signed in some cases are specified through public procurement procedures, while in other cases they are not published or defined. The worrying fact is that these issues are not adequately regulated, which opens space for possible abuses.
• Political influence on PSM has been an issue for years in B&H and no progress has been made in this regard in 2024. In general, public broadcasters in BiH are in a deep crisis, not only in terms of finances, but also political affiliation and low public trust.

Social Inclusiveness

Social Inclusiveness is associated with a very high risk score. Key points include:

• The process of switching from analog to digital signal in Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been completed yet, which limits PSM presence in the whole country. Online services of PSM are very limited as well and no progress in this context has been made in 2024.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have a law requiring net neutrality.
• Policies on media accessibility for people with disabilities are present in the country, but poorly implemented. There is no media monitoring done by the Communication Regulatory Agency, nor any sanctions for the media that do not comply with such obligations.