A Lawsuit has been Filed against the Author and the Publisher of the Book ‘The Destruction of the Republic of Srpska’

Banja Luka 22nd April 2014 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI B&H), the Center for Informative Decontaminationa of Youth (Buka) Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka (HCA), and Ms. Svetlana Cenić and Ms. Tanja Topić, have filed a lawsuit to the Basic Court in Banja Luka against Mr. Sefan Karaganović, Mr. Nenad Novaković and the publishing house ’Besjeda’ for slander.

Namely, in the book The Destruction of the Republic of Srpska: Theory and technology of upheaval,  these organizations and individuals have been placed on ‘’the black list’’ and were accused of overthrowing of constitutional order and inciting to riot. It is particularly worrying that these serious allegations have been published as a part of edition of the SNSD, and can be found on the official website of this ruling party in the RS, which further heats the lynch atmosphere, threatens the freedom of speech and places the Republic of Srpska on par with dictatorships.

Therefore, the TI B&H, ‘’Buka’’, Ms. Cenić and Topić, invoking the Law on Protection against Defamation filed a lawsuit against the author of the controversial book Mr. Sefan Karaganović, the publishing house ‘Besjeda’ and its editor-in-chief Mr. Nenad Novaković. The lawsuits clearly state evidence against the claim that those are ’fake organizations’ and points to the lack of any arguments. Publishing these very serious allegations without any evidences and arguments and without citing of any sources, indicates that the sole objective of these articles is to discredit and call for the lynching of these organizations and individuals, which sends a very dangerous message to the whole civil society in the Republic of Srpska.

Having in mind that these allegations are damaging the reputation of given organizations and individuals and endanger their performance and safety, the main goal of the lawsuit is to condemn such behaviour and to stop the practice of creating any black lists and calling for the lynching of those who point out to irregularities in the society. TI B&H hopes that the Court will stand for the protection of the civil society organizations and individuals, and thereby make its contribution to preventing the practice of regime writers to fight against the media and civil society organizations with attacks, allegations and attempts to criminalize organizations and individuals.