Milan Filipović, Research Director at YUCOM, participated in the Regional Conference on Media Freedom, Access to Information and Safety of Journalists, which took place on September 15 in the UN building, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conference brought together distinguished experts, journalists, and civil society representatives to discuss key issues concerning media freedom, the protection of journalists, the suppression of hate speech on the Internet, and the improvement of the safety of female journalists.
Among the speakers at the opening of the conference were Mrs. Ingrid Macdonald, resident coordinator of the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Edin Forto, Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mrs. Duška Jurišić, Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mrs. Borka Rudić, general secretary of the association of BH journalists.
After the introductory speeches, the panel was held under “How to protect journalists and other actors of civil society from abuse of defamation and similar practices.” The panel was moderated by Mrs. Agnes Picod, adviser for human rights at the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, the conference included two more panels: Panel II on protection against hate speech on the Internet was moderated by Ana Janković-Jovanović, human rights advisor at the United Nations in Serbia, while Panel III on the challenges faced by female journalists and how to improve their safety was moderated by Anjet Lanting, human rights advisor at the United Nations in Montenegro.
Milan Filipović contributed to the discussion on key topics related to media freedom and the safety of journalists, sharing YUCOM’s experiences in representing activists in SLAPP lawsuits and researching