Milkica Milojević: Republika Srpska is slipping into a dictatorship

Violence, especially systemic violence, is ubiquitous and it is becoming increasingly difficult to combat criminals.

Milkica Milojević, journalist and activist from Banjaluka, political scientist by profession, has been in journalism for 35 years, of which at least 33 have been spent actively working on-site. She graduated from FPN in Belgrade in 1987. She is a declared feminist. She is also the co-author of "Handbook for responsible reporting on marginalized social groups". From 2009 to 2016, she was the president of the "BH Journalists" Association. She is the winner of the Srđan Aleksić journalistic award and the BiH Parliament and OSCE awards for contribution to gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In an interview for Politički.ba, she talks about journalistic freedoms, government pressures and other topics.

At the beginning of the conversation, Milojević draws a parallel between journalism today and journalism from the end of the 80s, when she started working in this profession.

"From the time I started working as a journalist, things have changed radically about the world we live in, as well as our environment and our profession. I've been in this business for 35 years. When I started doing journalism professionally in socialist Yugoslavia, in the one-party system, The Berlin Wall was still there, and the USSR...” Milojević begins her interview with Politički.ba.

Circumstances and working conditions were different.

"We typed articles out on mechanical typewriters, smoking was done in the newsrooms, and by God alcohol was also drunk there too. There was no Internet; anyone who wanted to seriously work in journalism had piles of paper personal archives under their desks, dug through old newspapers in libraries, official gazettes and documents in public archives. There was no Google search! So it was a completely different world," Milojević continues.

In that period, she adds, at the end of the eighties of the last century, there was a "golden age" of journalism in Yugoslavia: "one system was dying; the other was not yet established, and there was plenty of freedom for those who knew how to take it for themselves. It is true that there was Article 133 of the Criminal Law, the famous "verbal delict", but it was rarely applied and was already the object of resistance, even ridicule."

Decades have passed since then, but being a journalist in today's circumstances is not easier; on the contrary.

"Today, it is much more difficult to work in journalism, not only because of pressure from those who lead the country and hold all the power, but also because of pressure from employers to produce as many texts, stories, and media content as possible, with as few "costs" as possible, in every sense. "Almost four decades ago, journalism was more serious, and everyone took journalists more seriously and appreciated them more," says Milojević.

When asked how such an atmosphere and pressures affect the mental health of journalists, Milojević replied that it is a question for professionals of a different kind: psychologists, social psychologists and psychiatrists.

"What I can notice as a layman is that all of us, not only journalists, are quite helpless. From climate change to other world events and domestic political and economic circumstances, nothing offers us hope that tomorrow will be better. Journalists are in an even worse situation than so-called "ordinary people", because we have access to more information that does not bode well. In particular, the atmosphere in the Republika Srpska is even gloomier, because we are slipping into a dictatorship. Violence, especially systemic violence, is ubiquitous and it is becoming increasingly difficult to fight against criminals", Milojević opined.

The biggest threat to free journalism in Banja Luka, in the Republika Srpska, in the opinion of our interlocutor, is the government led by SNSD and Milorad Dodik, including the tycoons associated with them.

"Tomorrow it may be another party and its leader and their tycoons. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the eventual change of government in the Republika Srpska will change the model of governance, which is based on brute force and injustice. For something like that, much more radical changes are needed, and for now I don't see the bearers of such changes."

The ways of fighting against the obstacles of impartial journalism have been known for a long time: knowledge, professional and civil courage and solidarity.

"The fact that the situation is so somber, as I described it in previous answers, does not mean that we should give up the fight. On the contrary. And we should not expect any heroic endeavors here. The time of heroism is over. But every book or law read, every meaningful question at a press conference, every act of solidarity towards a colleague, or citizen whose human rights have been violated, every serious honest text... all this, bit by bit, undermines their fortress of brute force and injustice", adds Milojević.

In her decades-long career, she faced numerous pressures and threats. She had to leave Banjaluka because of death threats. Milojević was not a general after the battle has already been won, but rather during it. Even in the most difficult of moments, she had the courage to write what many were not allowed to, but had to - the truth.

"Let's say, during the war, at the end of 1993, I was very seriously threatened with liquidation, because, I guess, my articles were not "patriotic" enough. Once, also in the war, I was brutally beaten. The perpetrator was a man from the "state security". Later, I was a victim of mobbing, pressure from my employer to "adjust" what I call my personal editorial policy to the editorial policy of the media where I worked," Milojević remembers.

During her career, her labor rights were also violated. She quit her job seven times.

"During one period, after I quit my job, I was unemployed for two years, and I supported my family by working as a freelancer. A few years ago, due to constant mobbing, from which neither my colleagues nor the company protected me, my health was at risk. There were also attacks on social networks: I responded to some of them, to others I didn't, so as not to give importance to the attacker. There were also offers "under the table" along the lines of “why should I continue to write, when I could be a director or a minister". And that's violence," Milojević remembers.

After one threat sent by phone in 2019, with the support of the newsroom, the Helpline for journalists and its editor-in-chief, she reported the attacker and he was criminally sentenced to paying a fine. But that is not enough.

"The court rejected my request for a public apology, not to me personally, but to the entire journalist community. It is interesting that at that time many colleagues looked at me sideways, because I was reporting a "simple little thing". They believed that threats are "part of the journalist's job" and that it happens every day, so there is no need to make a "big story" out of it. Well, I don't think it's normal for me, or any other citizen, to be threatened by some hooligan, who is surrounded by the violence of politicians and tycoons, that they will find out where I live and they will kill me and my family. I don't want to live in that kind of society," concludes Milojević.

The article was realized as part of the Transition program of the Government of the Czech Republic and with the financial assistance of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina @CzechiainBiH. The content reflects the views of the interlocutors who are the choice of the editorial staff of Politicki.ba and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Czech government.