BH Judiciary Increasingly Closed to the Public: Courts and Prosecutor’s Offices Selectively Share Information, Ignore Citizens and Media

Banja Luka, April 23, 2025 – The Cantonal Court in Zenica, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Brčko District of BiH, the Municipal Court in Tuzla, and the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska are among the highest-rated judicial institutions in BiH according to the Judiciary Transparency Index. In contrast, the lowest-rated institutions show a worrying unwillingness to seriously address corruption.

The highest transparency index scores were recorded by the Cantonal Court in Zenica (87), the Prosecutor’s Office of the Brčko District of BiH (85), and the Municipal Court in Tuzla (82). Also ranking in the top five are the Zenica-Doboj Canton Prosecutor’s Office (81) and the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska (80). On the other hand, the lowest-rated institutions include the Municipal Courts in Kalesija and Sarajevo and the Basic Court in Doboj (30), the Basic Court in Zvornik (29), and the Municipal Court in Srebrenik (26), marking them as the least open judicial institutions in BiH (full results at the end of the release).

The Judiciary Transparency Index, which measures the level of proactive, reactive, and media transparency, shows that one-third of all 94 courts and prosecutor’s offices at all levels in BiH do not respond to media inquiries about their cases. Additionally, 50% of prosecutor’s offices ignored media requests regarding the content of appeals, while 62% of courts refused to provide or completely ignored inquiries about the verdicts they issued.

Media requests for audiovisual materials and access to indictments are most frequently rejected. This obstructive attitude further hampers public oversight of the judiciary.

The index evaluates the availability of information on websites, responses to access to information requests, and cooperation with the media. Each of the three components carries a specific number of points (52, 30, and 18), which together form a total score on a 0–100 scale.

Overall, the analysis shows slight improvement compared to 2022 – more than half of all access to information requests were resolved within legal deadlines with complete responses, and the number of ignored requests dropped from 16% to 12.8%. However, the growing number of rejected requests is concerning, as it may signal increasingly closed institutions.

A further concern is the unequal treatment of requesters – TI BiH received full responses within legal deadlines in over 70% of cases, while citizens received the same information in only 35% of cases. A third of citizens’ requests go unanswered, and every tenth is rejected, indicating systemic discrimination and denial of the public’s right to information.

Proactive transparency has further declined – the number of courts publishing annual plans fell from 61 to only 23, while most courts and prosecutor’s offices still do not publish their budgets online. Although significant progress has been made in regularly publishing hearing schedules (71 of 74 courts), there is still a serious lack of access to court decisions – decisions from 34 courts remain unavailable to the public.

The availability of information on confirmed indictments has significantly improved – the number of prosecutor’s offices publishing full indictments rose from 3 in 2022 to 11 last year. However, six prosecutor’s offices in BiH did not publish information on proposed custody measures in 2024, compared to only one in 2022.

Judicial transparency is crucial for institutional accountability, public trust, and the fight against corruption. However, the analysis by TI BiH and BIRN BiH shows that courts and prosecutor’s offices in BiH still fall short of basic openness standards. Research points to arbitrary application of freedom of information laws, frequent delays, incomplete responses, and violations of legal procedures. These results reflect a broader trend of restricting access to information, a trend TI BiH had already highlighted in 2023 when criticizing a draft law that diminishes existing rights and fails to align with international standards.

TI BiH therefore reminds all institutional representatives, especially in the judiciary, of the importance of the right to freedom of access to information and the significance of proactive transparency as key mechanisms for ensuring citizens’ rights and improving access to justice, thereby strengthening accountability and integrity in the public sector – essential conditions for effective anti-corruption efforts.

Press rls_23_4_2025

Transparentnost pravosuđa (infografike)