RTRS: Function – Milorad Dodik

2. – 8 September 2019.

PAT POSITION: We have left behind us a week in which the politics of reconstruction was continued, topics surrounding the formation of the Council of the Ministers of the Bosnia and Herzegovina and sending of the Annual National Programme (ANP) for the NATO Cooperation Council are treated very delicately.

Although it was already clear on 2 of September that the thirty-day deadline, which was self-imposed by the leaders of SNSD, SDA and HDZ according to the agreement on the political activities, will not be respected, since the will for the agreement and compromise was not shown through, the greatest attention of the newsreel was dedicated to this topic.  Expectedly, the attitude of the leader of SNSD and the Member of the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, was in the spotlight, as well as the thesis that the culpable party for this pat-position that Bosnia and Herzegovina has found itself in since the last year’s election is “political Sarajevo”.

USA POLITICS: All other instances were just variations of the same topic presented to the viewers on 5 of September. The only news to it was the involvement of the United States into this soap show.  Motive: The appointment of Matthew Palmer for the special representative of the USA for the Western Balkans.  With the following question: “How is the aim of the USA reflected in Palmers’ appointment?”, and the answer that Palmer is appointed in order “to stop the agreement of the leaders of SNSD, HDZ and SDA”.  To this we should also add that the American diplomat, it is alleged, “provoked strong reactions in the RS”. The motive, as it was said, was Palmer’s statement that “the Dayton agreement is not a sealed down act, but a framework act.”

RANDOM INTERPRETATIONS: The very reiteration of Milorad Dodik, who gave up the threats that, unless until the Council of Ministers is not formed by 5 of September, he will promptly demand that the National Assembly of the RS decides on the withdrawal of this entity from the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Office for Indirect Taxes, Intelligence Agency OSA, and national judiciary bodies, has been portrayed to the viewership in a way that it did not make Dodik give up anything, or that he did not even made any threats in the first place.  Whatever one prefers.

AIRPORT IN TREBINJE: Among the things presented to the viewership during the past week, was also a new series of promises about investors that are coming to the Republika Srpska any minute.  The main stars who spread this optimism were Željka Cvijanović, upon her return from the economic forum in Poland, entities’ prime minister who talked with entrepreneurs from Vojvodina, and ofcourse, Milorad Dodik. During his stay in Trebinje, for the who knows which time, he announced the construction of the airport in Trebinje.

Under which function is he travelling across the RS and making a load of promises, under which function is he staying in Serbia (Sunday, 8 of September, tactical military practice of the Serbia’s army forces), it is hard to conclude from the reports.

CRAWLING SHARIA: Branka Kusmuk is simply what she is. And with her untasteful and unprofessional comments she needs to colour every report.  During the reportage about the first Parade held in Bosnia and Herzegovina she made quite a remark. In Sarajevo, as she says, “on the one hand we see the crawling sharia, and on the other we have the first Pride Parade”. Far more from the LGBT population and their public fight, Branka Kusmuk was interested in the attitudes of those who were “just the protectors of the traditional values”.

Vesna Stakic prepared the report from the first Pride Parade. According to her interpretation, less than 800 people came, with the number of police officers outnumbering the very participants of the parade.  A special space was dedicated to the contra-protest, with the allegation that the “appearance of the participants was not in accordance to the traditions of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims.”

Evaluation: 1

BNTV: How do we fare with debts, prime minister?

2. – 8 September 2019.

DEBTS OF THE RS: Although the politics determines the lives of the people, sometimes it turns into pointless discussions that have no outcome. Therefore, the editorial board of the daily newsreel decided to lead up with the economic topics. This was clearly demonstrated on 5 of September, the deadline for the formation of the new Council of Ministers, on which the leaders of SDA, HDZ BIH and SNSD obliged.  Thus, this topic was opened at the very end of the first part of the newsreel.

The spotlight was saved for the new data about the indebtedness of the RS, which went over 5.1 billion KM, and allegations of the prime minister that this entity is “twice times a better copy from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. This allegation was based on the information that the average salary in the RS is higher for one, we will repeat: it is higher for one convertible mark than in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  To support this, viewers were presented with the comparative data regarding the pensions in the RS and respectively in the Federation, as well as indebtedness per entity, and the fact that the Federation has not sold its public companies, in contrast to the RS.

REVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS : The journalists of the newsreel offered a rare example when the persistence of the opposition and the public makes some results.  Namely, after several months of insisting by the representative of the Party of democratic progress in the National Assembly of the RS, Jelena Trivić, the prime minister started the revision process of university diplomas of all employed and appointed individuals in the government.  The first step was the formation of the working group that would be assigned to this task, while citizens can hope that they will perform their duties honestly.

Evaluation: 6

Comparative analysis

One more week which confirmed the differences in the editorial policies between RTRS and BNTV. The public TV service RTRS is not stepping out of the zone in which they protect the political interests of the government, precisely those of the leader of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik, while BNTV continues with their practice of reporting about the topics from the economic and social sphere. Thus, one cannot be amazed by the fact that in August, according to the public statistics of the viewership of TV channels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the daily newsreel of the BNTV had more views from the RTRS and Alternative television together.