International Justice/ICTY: Jun/Jul ‘10

Dozens of Bosnian television stations have screened IWPR features on transitional justice, with one senior official in Belgrade saying his government may be interested in helping to arrange public screenings of the films in Serbia’s schools.

The series, made in cooperation with Sarajevo-based production company Mebius Film and Radio Free Europe, RFE, consisted of four reports for RFE’s television programme TV Liberty. They focused on people who had returned to their homes after fleeing or being expelled from them during the Bosnian war.

All stories had a positive, optimistic tone, conveying a strong message that returning and living alongside one’s former enemies was possible if the returnees received support from their communities and local governments.

These half-hour TV features, which the RFE management said were superbly directed, shot and edited, were produced in June and broadcast the following month. In addition, they were shown on Bosnian state TV and on 30 local TV stations throughout Bosnia.

Following the screenings, IWPR received much positive feedback from journalists, NGOs and government officials.

“Stories on transitional justice presented in this manner are absolutely necessary,” said Vladimir Minic, a journalist with Belgrade TV Studio B. “This format is the most effective way of reaching a wider audience and getting them interested in these issues. The quality of IWPR TV reports and their content is superb. There should be more of them in the future and they should deal with various issues related to transitional justice.”

Marko Karadzic, state secretary at the ministry of human and minority rights in Serbia, was also impressed.

“I’ve seen all four features and I think they are really good,” he said. “In my view, speaking about transitional justice through personal stories of individuals is very important because viewers can easily identify themselves with these people. The four IWPR reports I’ve seen promote tolerance and increase the awareness of problems returnees are faced with.

“It would be great if IWPR could continue with this project and even arranged public screenings in schools in Serbia. Maybe our ministry could help with that. It is very important to inform the public about the issues related to transitional justice because that could help prevent... horrible crimes from being repeated in the future.”

Saliha Djuderija, from the Bosnian ministry for human rights and refugees, agreed that broadcast media could be a powerful tool in making people aware of issues and challenges related to transitional justice.

“It is very important that people who were not direct participants in terrible events that occurred during the recent wars in the region get an accurate picture of what happened,” she said. “This also helps people who did take part in such events, because it makes them realise they were not the only ones who suffered - there were others who suffered, too. Ultimately, that can help victims deal with their trauma and encourage the healing of the whole society.”

One of the reports told the story of Serbs who returned to the village of Nisici, near Sarajevo, from where they had fled during the 1992-95 war.

The village is now in the Bosniak-Croat federation and very few Serbs have returned to it, although it was once predominantly Serb. The IWPR report featured not only the everyday struggles of Serb returnees, but also their cooperation with Bosniak neighbours.

Amir Suzanj, a radio and TV journalist from Sarajevo, said he was particularly moved by a part of the report which featured a Bosniak former soldier helping local Serbs repair a church which had been damaged during the war.

“The story on Nisici was completely different from anything I’ve seen before,” said Suzanj. “The usual problems that returnees have are only one aspect of the story. The fact that Bosniaks and Serbs have turned to each other again and rely on each other is the most interesting facet of the story. It was brilliantly made, without a trace of a pathos – which is often present in local media reports on these issues.”

All the features were told in the form of first-person accounts. Suzanj said that he had been trying for a while to introduce this format, in which people present their stories themselves without interruptions from journalists, which he described as something new, positive and effective.

“The way IWPR’s stories were told is remarkable. It enabled people to, at least for a moment, feel the problems, hopes and expectations of returnees, as if they were right there with them,” he said.

“A man standing in the darkness, with a candle in his hand, in a wooden cottage somewhere in eastern Bosnia makes a much stronger impression on a viewer than hundreds of statistics on what returnees are facing with or what they need.”

Anamari Repic, an editor at Radio TV Kosovo, said it was essential that such stories reached a wide audience and that television, the most popular media in the former Yugoslavia, was the best vehicle for this.

“These are high quality stories, focused on returnees’ everyday lives,” she said. “They are full of colourful details, close-ups that show people’s faces and their emotions while they tell their stories. That enables the audience to easily identify with them and to understand them better.

“IWPR should continue to make such TV features. Reporting that connects people in the region is highly desirable, especially if it reaches audiences across the former Yugoslavia.”