SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), April 26 (SeeNews) – Bosnia and Herzegovina has climbed three spots to 65th position in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) latest global report on press freedom, the non-governmental organisation said on Wednesday.
In regional comparison, Bosnia was better ranked in media freedom than Serbia (66th), Croatia (74th), Albania (76nd), Kosovo (82nd), Montenegro (106th), Bulgaria (109th) and Macedonia (111th), but worse than Romania (46th), and Slovenia (37th), the World Press Freedom Index 2017 showed.
Bosnia has the world’s most liberal media freedom laws but their implementation is held back by a saturated judicial system, Reporters Without Borders said in the report.
"Journalists are often the targets of threats and political pressure. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the pro-government media continue to enjoy direct and indirect state subsidies", RSF said.
Defamation was decriminalized in 2003 but lawsuits are still possible.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.