SEE Check publishes a second round of country reports, this time giving a comprehensive overview of the disinformation landscape across the region for the year 2024.
Introduction
In a series of country reports, SEE Check network gives a comprehensive overview of the disinformation landscape across the region. For the year 2023, SEE Check has published state of disinformation reports for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, as well as a regional report covering the SEE/WB region, including contributions from Serbia.
This country report is a contribution of Raskrinkavanje.ba, a fact-checking platform from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Raskrinkavanje, founded in 2017 by UG “Zašto ne”, has been a verified signatory of International Fact-Checking network (IFCN) since 2019, European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) since 2023, Meta’s partner in the Third party fact-checking program since 2020 and a founding member of the regional SEE Check network.
This report builds upon the previous one, providing updates from 2024 relevant to the information environment in BiH.
Disinformation Topics and Narratives
As established in the previous, baseline report, ethnonationalist narratives have had a very strong presence in the disinformation sphere in Bosnia and Herzegovina for years. This has continued in 2024, with historical revisionism and ethnonationalism remaining the most prominent frameworks for country-specific disinformation narratives in BiH. Denialist narratives about war crimes committed by Serb forces in the 1990s, including those in Račak, Kosovo and Markale, BiH as well as the Srebrenica genocide, remain a common topic of disinformation (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).
Besides the reuse of past events for the purpose of spreading these narratives, disinformation about several locally relevant topics were used as a tool for sparking inter-ethnic mistrust or fear as well. This includes, for example, disinformation about supposed gathering of chetniks, AI fakes following an attack on a police station in Bosanska Krupa, claims that factory workers in Goražde are being forcibly “deislamized” and similar (1, 2, 3).
Local elections were held in October 2024 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering a surge of disinformation. Monitoring conducted by Zašto ne showed that ethnonationalist narratives were the most commonly employed in disinformation campaigns during the elections (1, 2, 3, 4). Besides discrediting political opponents by fabricating their statements, misuse of real electoral research and public opinion polls as well as fabricating non-existing ones, were also common tools and topics in pre-election campaigns. The campaign was also dominated by cases of instrumentalizing hate speech, homophobia, and misogyny for political purposes, as well as numerous web portals and social media platforms pages that actively conducted a “dirty” campaign of insults, humiliation, and criticism of political opponents.
A significant regionally relevant topic that triggered disinformation during 2024 was the attempt to adopt the “Foreign agents law” in Republika Srpska(RS). This law, inspired by the Russian legislation, was adopted in Georgia in 2024 and went into the parliamentary procedure in Republika Srpska in May 2024. The campaign around the law targeting the civil society and independent media was riddled with disinformation both on the Georgian and local draft law (1, 2, 3), showing significant presence of anti-Western narratives as well.
Very prominent aspects of the anti-Western narratives in 2024, also commonly present in BiH in the past, were related to LGBTIQA+ and gender issues. These topics were used to purvey a narrative of the West being perverted and an “exporter” of values opposed to the traditional ones that need protection. Feminism was presented as a weapon for destruction of the traditional family, while LGBTIQA+ community was portrayed as “sick” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).
The EU elections also saw significant spread of disinformation, particularly targeting EU legislation. Various acts, regulating topics as diverse as EU borders, electric vehicles and freedom of speech, were misrepresented and weaponized to portray the EU as a sinister entity aiming to curb human rights and freedoms (1, 2, 3).
Some of the most persistent disinformation-based narratives in BiH are conspiracy theories that imply the existence of an “elite” controlling the world. In 2024, we have seen many examples of such narratives, including the “New world order” and “depopulation” conspiracy theories (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and other supposed sinister plans of the “elite” to limit human rights globally (1, 2, 3). The World Economic Forum (1, 2), United Nations and its different agencies, such as the World Health Organization (1, 2, 3, 4) and Bill Gates (1, 2, 3, 4) remain common targets of such narratives.
In 2024 a significant specific topic of these conspiracy theories became the digital currency and issues related to cash. Plans to pilot and implement projects related to digital currency in different parts of the world were presented as indicators of plans to limit people’s freedoms and choices (1, 2, 3, 4). Digital currencies are seen in these narratives as means for the governments to survey and control people.
Antiscience narratives also dominated information space in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2024. Similarly to previous years, climate change denial was very prominent, mostly on social media, but also in some media outlets (1, 2, 3).
Anti-vaccination narratives were one of the most common disinformation narratives in BiH in the past years and remained that during 2024. Claims about supposed connection between childhood vaccinations and autism resurfaced (1, 2, 3, 4). Although a common target of these conspiracies remains the Covid-19 vaccines (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), in 2024 we have seen disinformation about most of the commonly administered vaccines, including MMR, HPV and others (1, 2, 3, 4).
Another persistent antiscience conspiracy theory, about “Big Pharma” withholding information about easily accessible medication in order to profit off of conventional medicine treatments, remained popular in 2024 (1, 2, 3, 4). Similar to previous years, different herbs and produce were touted as “cure” for different diseases (1, 2, 3, 4), while evidence-based medicine was targeted with disinformation (1, 2, 3).
Flat Earth conspiracy theories also “bloomed” during 2024, with different “proofs” that the Earth is not a sphere being published on a regular basis (1, 2, 3, 4).
A common topic of disinformation in 2024 were also natural disasters from around the world (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Bosnia and Herzegovina and Spain experienced devastating floods, while the USA experienced multiple hurricanes. All these tragic events were used to spread disinformation fitted into existing antiscience narratives and global-scale conspiracy theories. The role of climate change was denied, while the blame for the events was put on the imagined “elites” who, according to conspiracy theories, use HAARP other imaginary weapons to start natural disasters.
Actors Contributing to the Spread of Disinformation
Raskrinkavanje has a live database of almost 3,500 media and social media sources whose claims were fact-checked on the website at least once since 2017. These are news media, anonymous websites, as well as social media accounts, channels and pages that publish in the Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian language.
During 2024, Raskrinkavanje rated and stored in its database 3,793 articles and social media posts that contained disinformation or other types of information manipulation described by the methodology. Those articles and social media posts were published by 966 different sources.
When it comes to the news websites, every individual website is registered as an individual source in the Raskrinkavanje database. But for social media accounts, Raskrinkavanje uses a different approach: not every single social media user is registered as a source, but rather an entire social media platform is registered as one source. In conclusion, out of 966 rated sources, seven are Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Telegram, Youtube, X and vKontakte, while the other 959 are individual websites.
Social media accounts were the most proliferant creators of disinformation in BiH during 2024. That is due to the fact that most disinformation rated by Raskrinkavanje in 2024 were related to conspiracy theories, anti-science, anti-vaccination and climate change denial narratives, as well as various types of online scams, which are mostly distributed through social media platforms. Facebook accounts remained a top source of such disinformation, as it was in 2023. One of the biggest changes that happened during 2024 is that Telegram accounts became the second most rated source of disinformation, compared to 2023, when this platform was in the 20th place. X also progressed on the list of most rated sources and from 9th place X accounts progressed to 4th place.
But the biggest change in this order was made by TikTok: from 51st place in 2023, TikTok accounts jumped to 10th position during 2024. This way TikTok established itself as the fastest growing social media platform by number of posts rated for disinformation.
The same “disinformation hub” that was detected in the research from 2019 published by UG “Zašto ne”, is still the most prominent source of political disinformation in BiH. As observed in 2019, these 30 interconnected media outlets that regularly use each other as sources and/or redistributors of disinformation, serve as the main collective source of disinformation narratives belonging to the ethnonationalist paradigm dominant in Republika Srpska entity and the neighboring Serbia. The most prominent sources among that group from Republika Srpska, such as RTRS, Srna, Nezavisne, Glas Srpske, Srpska info and Alternativna Televizija, were among the top rated sources in 2024 as well. The same goes with the most prominent ones based in Serbia like Informer, Alo, Srbin info, Novosti, Sputnik, Republika, Kurir, Webstribune, Srbija danas and Pravda. All of them were among the top 50 sources of disinformation in BiH in 2024. Besides the sources identified as part of the “disinformation hub”, B92, RTV BN, Politika, Banjaluka net, Večernje novosti, Mondo and Russia Today Balkan are also media based in Serbia and Republika Srpska which are on the top 50 list. IN4S is the only source based in Montenegro that was among the most rated ones by Raskrinkavanje. All of these sources are publishing disinformation within the same narrative frame, mostly connected to political and historical issues and etno-nationalist paradigms.
Other common sources of such disinformation were usual political commentators that support and amplify them. Some of the new names that appeared in Raskrinkavanje’a analyses during 2024 were the Director of the Institute of Historical Sciences of University of East Sarajevo Drago Mastilović and the Director of the Center for International and Security Studies Banja Luka, Bojan Šolaja. Both of them have spread narratives that deny the Srebrenica genocide at the time of the adoption of the Srebrenica resolution at the UN. At the same time, the views of the Israeli historian Gideon Greif, who headed the Commission for the Investigation of the suffering of all people in the Srebrenica region from 1992 to 1995, which was formed by the Government of Republika Srpska, also resurfaced in the media. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who has been presented in these media as “one of the world’s leading experts on the Holocaust”, has also received significant media attention for statements denying the Srebrenica genocide.
When it comes to mainstream media from the Federation of BiH, Avaz was the one with the most rated articles by Raskrinkavanje.ba during 2024. It is followed by Radio Sarajevo, Slobodna Bosna, Klix, N1 BiH, Tuzlanski, Haber, Hayat and Raport.
Other sources that were among top 50 rated by Raskrinkavanje in 2024 were websites that usually publish “for profit” disinformation which include conspiracy theories, clickbait and anti-science disinformation narratives: Nulta tačka, Novi, Epoha, Lijek iz prirode, Provjeri, Priroda i lijekovi, Lajk, Portal zdravog života, Logično, Kuharski recepti and Dnevno. Most of them are anonymous websites mostly copy-pasting mentioned narratives from foreign sources and/or sources from social media platforms.
Some of the “experts” and commentators that appeared as sources of such conspiracy theories during 2024 were public figures with significant recognizability like director Emir Kusturica and actor Dragan Marinković.
Besides the ones from BiH, actors from Serbia also continued to be a significant source of such conspiracy narratives that reached users in BiH. Some examples of such disinformation sources that occurred during 2024 in BiH information landscape were doctor Milovan Milošević, historian Milan Brdar, as well as lawyer Milan Bosika.
In general, most of the other individual sources of similar conspiracy theories and anti-science narratives were as well foreign ones, but this time mostly right-wing sources from the United States.
Tactics and Techniques Used to Spread Disinformation
Local elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2024 were in focus of some of the tactics used to spread political disinformation and information manipulation. Anonymous websites, including those that appear right before the elections, remain one of the most prominent tactics to manipulate information and affect elections. These sources not only reported on the campaign despite effectively being forbidden to do so by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) (see Legislation Overview section below), but participated in it, openly promoting some candidates and trying to discredit others (1, 2, 3, 4). Some social media accounts did the same, usually also using hate speech in such content.
Raskrinkavanje.ba has also identified social media accounts that are dormant outside of election times, but become active during the campaign, clearly showing that their only purpose is influencing the voters decisions, commonly through disinformation and hate speech.
Another common tactic used for the creation and spread of political disinformation in BiH was the fabrication of statements made by politicians. Several social media accounts became known for the employment of this tactic, often publishing made up claims supposedly stated by certain politicians (1, 2, 3). The aim of these posts is to discredit the individuals to whom these statements are attributed.
As in the previous years, one of the most common tactics used by disinformation sources to attract more readers was publishing articles with clickbait and sensationalistic headlines, including those that exploit tragic and disturbing current events, or bait readers with false accounts of death and disease of public figures (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).
Social media scams are one of the most common disinformation and manipulation forms in BiH, leading to real-life consequences for the users. Most notably, these scams are aimed at obtaining financial gain for the perpetrators, through various tactics. As noted in the previous report, these scammers employ various tactics in order to “organically” increase the visibility of their content.
Identity abuses for fake endorsements described in the previous report continued in 2024. This abuse also usually involved some well-established media outlets in BiH, with webpages where these “recommendations” are published being created as duplicates of these media (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). The number of deepfake videos of doctors or celebrities promoting supplements increased in 2024 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Platforms for supposed cryptocurrency investments were also promoted more than before. Identities of celebrities and politicians have commonly been abused for these purposes (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). These fakes all follow the same pattern, where a public figure supposedly accidentally admits to using such platforms on a live TV show, followed by a claim that the show was abruptly cut and removed from the internet to keep the alleged investment secret. By signing up for these platforms, users can lose large amounts of money. In order to sign up, users must put a deposit on their account, but as those platforms commonly disappear and/or change names, that deposit could be lost.
Another financial scam present on social media in Bosnia and Herzegovina are fake giveaways or sales, ultimately resulting in a subscription to online platforms (1, 2, 3). These subscriptions possibly result in significant financial losses.
Backlash against fact-checkers
In 2024, the Press and Online Media Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Press Council) introduced a new form for the media to report “violations of media freedoms on social media platforms” (1, 2).
On their website, the Press Council explains that the form is intended to be “used to report cases that editors and journalists consider to be violations of media freedom, because their content has been unduly labeled as disinformation or has been removed or otherwise damaged by social media”.
The announcement reads that “Journalistic texts are often marked as disinformation and are thus removed or their reach on social media is reduced, while, on the other hand, they do not violate any of the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Print and Online Media of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All of this, as a consequence, has a negative impact on visibility of the media on social networks and directly on their revenues.” In the form itself, there is a field for a link to “a social network where the attack occured”.
Although it is not specified which platforms the initiative refers to, one of the articles states that “certain social media platforms such as Facebook, which serve as an indispensable channel for content distribution, without meaningful explanations and logic, mark certain content as unwanted, thereby reducing the reach of posts, but also the visibility of media on social networks, which ultimately causes economic damage to the media” (link).
Based on this explanation and the fact that the disinformation labels are mentioned, it can be concluded that the initiative primarily refers to the Meta’s Third Party Fact-Checking program (TPFC), which is the only mechanism that allows for disinformation labels to appear on content posted on Facebook (or, for that matter, any other social network in use in BiH). The labels appear either as a result of direct rating of the content done by fact-checkers, or through automated “matching”, when labels are added to content that is identical as that rated by fact-checkers.
Some of the media in BiH and the region, particularly those prone to publishing false or misleading claims, have repeatedly made false accusations about fact-checkers as “censors” or “mercenaries” who intentionally “target” them by fact-checking the content they publish and rating it within the TPFC program, claimed that labels on Meta’s platforms appear for no reason, or that fact-checkers work by an “unknown methodology”, etc. These accusations have mostly been made against Raskrinkavanje.ba, but also others working in the BCS language area and have often been used to exert public pressure or instigate harassment campaigns against fact-checking newsrooms, as detailed in last year’s regional report and other accounts (1, 2). This initiative of the Press Council can be seen as a self-regulatory body of Bosnia and Herzegovina publicly siding with such claims and campaigns, thus aiding the backlash against fact checkers.
Since the Press Code of BiH specifically recognizes disinformation as a violation, the Council’s false claims that media content is “marked as disinformation” when it does not violate any of the Press Code’s provisions, as well as the claim that their content is “removed” as a result of such labelling are highly concerning given that they come from a self-regulatory body that should be upholding journalistic standards, particularly when paired with language that indirectly describes fact-checking ratings as “attacks” on social networks.
Additionally, the form has been developed witih the project “Building Trust in Media in South-East Europe: Support to Journalism as a Public Good”, a partnership of UNESCO and the European Commission, that specifically emphasises media integrity, fact-based reporting and fight against disinformation among its goals (link). Both of these facts make this action more concerning in a media environment where information integrity is already highly jeopardized – among other things, by low professional standards of online and other media.
Events Instigating the Spread of Disinformation
Historical events have remained a common instigator of disinformation in 2024. Every year, commemorations of certain events from the 1990s wars trigger disinformation in the region. In 2024, BiH public seen disinformation about Srebrenica genocide, Markale and Račak crimes, as well as NATO bombing of FRY in 1999 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
The adoption of the Resolution on the Srebrenica genocide by the United Nations General Assembly, besides the anniversary which is a “traditional” disinformation trigger, prompted a new wave of disinformation about the genocide based in the historical revisionism narratives about the events from the 1990s (1, 2). The resolution itself was also targeted by disinformation, with a narrative about it supposedly declaring Serbs as a “genocidal nation” being commonly spread (1, 2).
2024 has been a year of elections across the world. The European elections as well as elections in the USA have both triggered disinformation in the SEE region (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). The local elections held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October were also a significant instigator of disinformation (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Several “news events” were targeted by disinformation in 2024 as well. The opening of the Olympic games in Paris was one of them, prompting a surge of disinformation (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). The opening ceremony was misrepresented as being full of satanic symbolism, with homophobic narratives being utilized in disinformation campaigns as well. The disappearance of a 2 year old girl Danka Ilić in Serbia, triggered various disinformation, conspiracy theories and sensationalist clickbait across the region, once again displaying low professional, particularly ethical standards in many media in the region (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
As before, several natural disasters were used for the spread of disinformation. This includes Jablanica floods, DANA in Spain and hurricanes in the USA (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Outbreaks of monkeypox have also inspired disinformation in 2024 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).
Antidisinformation Update
Raskrinkavanje has participated in several new anti-disinformation initiatives and collaborations in the region and in Europe.
Raskrinkavanje and Fake news tragač from Serbia implemented a joint project regarding AI generated disinformation during 2024. Both newsrooms focused one part of their work in 2024 on AI generated disinformation, working on a joint study on the spread of AI disinformation and ethics of AI usage in journalism set for publishing in 2025.
Raskrinkavanje also participated in several projects initiated by EFCSN in 2024.
Election24Check was a collaborative fact-checking of disinformation on EU parliamentary elections held in 2024. A joint European database of debunks, prebunks and narrative analyses regarding disinformation around the EU election was created as part of the project, which is still publicly available as an archive.
AI@Election was a project where training sessions were conducted to help train fact-checkers across Europe, including BiH, on best practices, new techniques and essential tools for identifying AI generated and digitally altered content. The project also included a media literacy campaign in Bosnian with the goal of raising public awareness of how to spot this type of content.
Climate Facts Europe aimed to facilitate collaboration between fact-checkers for work related to climate disinformation. The project resulted in the publication of several in-depth reports about disinformation on climate change, analysing data collected by participating members to provide a wider picture of trends observed.
When it comes to local initiatives, Raskrinkavanje and Istinomjer launched a prebunking video campaign regarding disinformation related to local elections held in October in BiH with the goal of building resilience and media and information literacy prior to elections.
Raskrinkavanje also continued with an already existing practice of prebunking campaigns related to dates that trigger disinformation, such as July 11, usually a trigger for Srebrenica genocide denial; the celebration of January 9 as the Day of Republika Srpska that often triggers disinformation narratives arround the Dayton agreement and the statehood of BiH; March 24, the anniversary of NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia and similar. These events trigger more or less the same disinformation campaigns every year, mostly based on historical revisionism and etno-nationalist paradigm. Raskrinkavanje created prebunking campaigns which alert the public and provide the facts before the disinformation appears, which can be re-used every year prior to the events they target.
At the same time, Raskrinkavanje and Istinomjer, a political fact-checking platform run by Zašto ne, jointly implemented a monitoring project around local elections in BiH. These two newsrooms put special focus on accountability of social media platforms in the light of the Digital Services Act adopted by the EU and the new election law imposed by the High Representative in BiH in the beginning of 2024. The goal of the project was to monitor and report disinformation and other prohibited harmful content defined by the policies of social media platforms, and analyze how such policies are actually implemented and how effective they are. The study with the findings will be published in 2025.
Zašto ne has continued and strengthened its focus on advocacy efforts regarding the information integrity during 2024. The organisation initiated and participated in various efforts and collaborations advocating for region-wide alignment with the European Union Digital Services Act. Contacts with the relevant national institutions in BiH and other countries in the region, as well as with other CSOs dealing with the same matter were established. We also established contacts with some EU-based CSOs and initiatives that are dealing with digital policy and digital rights, and became a member of the DSA Human Rights Alliance.
Several regional studies and analyses were published on this topic:
- A study published by Partners Serbia, Towards a Feasible Implementation of the Digital Services Act in the Western Balkans: Study of the regulatory and institutional preparedness for harmonization with DSA in the Western Balkans, with a contribution from Zašto ne’s policy expert Maida Ćulahović.
- SHARE Foundation from Serbia published a study DSA, DMA, AIA AND WESTERN BALKANS: Normative Foundation Enforcement Mechanisms and Institutional Framework, in which Zašto ne participated as well.
In March 2024, Maida Salkanović and Nerma Šehović from Raskrinkavanje.ba published a study Gender and Identity Based Disinformation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Marija Ćosić and Darko Brkan from Zašto ne also contributed to the study Digitalization and Democracy in the Western Balkans, published by the Aspen Institute Germany.
Zašto ne participated in the Civil Society & Think Tank Forum 2024 in the framework of the Berlin Process, and has actively contributed to the Policy Recommendations of the Working Group on Disinformation and Cyber Threats.
There have also been several events taking place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2024 that were significant for the topics of the information environment.
“Disinformation and Foreign Malign Influence” was a conference organized by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Sarajevo on February 23, 2024. The event mainly focused on Russian influence in BiH. Member of Zašto ne Marija Ćosić participated as a speaker on a panel discussion titled “Tackling Russian disinformation”.
Training for journalists and lawyers on defending against SLAPP lawsuits organized by the Council of Europe was held in April in Neum. Amar Karađuz from Raskrinkanje presented experiences of Raskrinkavanje in dealing with SLAPP lawsuits.
“Point 12” conference organized by Zašto ne was held in Sarajevo on 24-25 June 2024. Apart from organizing the conference and curating the program, members of Zašto ne Tijana Cvjetićanin, Darko Brkan, Marija Ćosić, Maida Ćulahović, Emir Zulejhić took active part in the panel discussions, both as speakers and moderators. Some of the topics addressed during the Point conference include the state of journalism in Palestine, elections in the USA and European Union, the state of fact-checking worldwide, undemocratic tendencies shown through the adoption of “foreign agent laws” in various countries, European media and social media regulations (DSA/DMA/CoP/AI Act), the use of artificial intelligence, and many more.
“Global Fact 11”, world’s largest global gathering of fact-checkers with over 500 media professionals and participants from more than 80 countries, was organized in Sarajevo on 26-28 June 2024. The 11th edition of this annual event was organized by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute in partnership with Zašto ne, whose
members besides co-organizing the event also took part in the opening ceremony, as well as several panel discussions. Several days of discussions, presentations, workshops and meetings covered many globally and regionally relevant issues, with Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa delivering a keynote address.
“The Internet Governance Forum” was co-organized by Zašto ne and BIRN BiH in Sarajevo on November 28, 2024. Several members of Zašto ne participated in the program. Tijana Cvjetićanin moderated the panel discussion “Why has BiH not made progress on a systematic approach to IG”, while Maida Ćulahović spoke on a panel “How do big platforms approach content moderation in small countries like BiH?”.
Legislation Overview
There have been several legislation changes relevant for the information integrity imposed in BiH during 2024.
In March 2024, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina introduced amendments to the Election Law. Among these changes was a revision of Article 16.1. which now requires online media outlets “that choose to report on the election campaign” to provide public and transparent information about their ownership. The amendments also mandate that online media covering the election campaign adhere to the principles of “balance, equal access, fairness, and impartiality,” as outlined in Article 16.2. of the law. These changes were significant as online media outlets were not covered by the previous version of the law. However, the amendments do not assign any specific institution the authority to enforce these new provisions, nor do they impose penalties for non-compliance.
The imposed amendments to the Election Law also prohibit political entities from spreading false information through the media that could undermine the integrity of the electoral process and mislead voters. The Central Election Commission BiH has been authorized to act in cases of such violations.
The Draft law on the special register and publicity of the work of non-profit organizations of Republika Srpska was on the agenda of the 9th regular session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, which was held in May 2024. It was withdrawn from that agenda due to negative reactions from the public, with the explanation that it would be additionally aligned with the legislation and practice of other European countries. This draft caused numerous reactions because it labels non-profit organizations established in the RS that are financially or otherwise helped by foreign entities as “agents of foreign influence”.
(Marija Ćosić and Emir Zulejhić, Raskrinkavanje.ba)
