TWO decades ago, when the West began a strenuous effort to refashion war-ravaged Bosnia, improving the state of the local media in the Balkans—which had often stirred up hatred—was top of the list. But twenty years on, results are disappointing. At a conference on November 4th and 5th in Kilkenny, Ireland, held by the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), a lobby group, much of the talk was about things getting worse in the continent’s once-violent and still troubled backyard. Journalists in and around former Yugoslavia once again face threats and ethnic antagonism. And there is scant support for anyone brave enough to uncover awkward truths.
Life for a journalist in post-Yugoslav places is not quite as hazardous as it is in Turkey, where more than 100 media folk have been arrested since the coup attempt in July, including a dozen staffers at the daily Cumhuriyet; nor is it as bad as Russia. But the backsliding in the Balkans is especially sad considering the vast amount of Western aid that was supposed to foster press freedom and good reporting there.
In post-war Bosnia, for example, foreign advisers tried to create...Continue reading
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