THE PRESS COUNCIL IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
PRESS RELEASE
ATTEMPT OF BREAKING AND ENTERING INTO THE PREMISES OF THE PRESS COUNCIL IN BIH
The premises of the Press Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the self-regulatory body for print and online media, were targeted by burglars during the June 21-22, 2014 weekend. Employees of the Press Council in BiH discovered that someone attempted to break into the front door of the premises, upon their arrival to work, Monday morning of the 23rd of June 2014. Fortunately, the burglars did not succeed in breaking all the locks on the door and entering the premise. The burglary attempt was reported to the Sarajevo Center Police Department, which investigated the scene at the Council and registered the burglary attempt.
This is not the first attack and attempt of preventing the free operations of the self- regulatory body for print and online media in BiH, the Press Council, which took place this year.
During the months of May and June, the Press Council received several serious threats through e-mail, from persons whose requests to “sanction” certain media or editors, or to “forbid” media coverage of certain topics, have not been met.
Furthermore, since February of this year, continuous hacker attacks have been registered against the server of the Press Council in BiH’s official web site - www.vzs.ba. According to the report of the web site administrator, registered were “simultaneous targeted DDoS, Surge Bot and Brute Force attacks”, with the goal of crashing and completely disabling the availability of the archive of the Press Council in BiH, which is public.
The Press Council in BiH is the self-regulatory body that protects free and professional media coverage, providing citizens with the opportunity to submit complaints and reactions when this professionalism is breached. Its free and independent work is the basis for the development of free media, and for the protection of the citizens’ human rights to accurate and current information.
Board of Directors of
The Press Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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