STEVANDIĆ: COURTS HARASSING RTRS EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 17 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska National Assembly Speaker Nenad Stevandić says that the blocking of the account of Radio-Television of Republika Srpska /RTRS/, and everything happening in connection with it, is the harassment of employees of the public broadcaster and their families, noting that the Republika Srpska institutions would seek ways to resolve the problem.

“I do not know whether the aim is to force us into adopting some lex specialis, whereby we would create a special law regulating all rights and which would, in some way, burden the entire broadcasting system in BiH. But what they are doing now is harassment of employees and their families,” Stevandić said. Stevandić stressed that this was pure Serbophobia, adding that there would be more understanding if some animals were being endangered somewhere. “The problem is that the public broadcaster is called Radio-Television of Republika Srpska, that it represents interests established by decisions of the National Assembly and the Government of Republika Srpska, and that someone is constantly trying to completely discredit all our institutions,” Stevandić pointed out. He said that this was a form of spite that had crossed every possible boundary. “They will force us to react in a way they certainly will not like. I do not know, nor do I want to be someone who lectures judges and courts. However, anywhere in the world, if people were prevented from feeding their families and paying their loans, justifying it by political grounds, it would everywhere be called torture and would be considered inhumane,” Stevandić told RTRS. Stevandić said that only such a distorted system in BiH, founded on violating the rights of the Serb people and undermining their institutions and what those institutions have established, including RTRS, could lead to such an absurd. “But whoever believes that we do not have the courage and strength to take decisive steps will be seriously mistaken. I alone cannot take concrete measures, but there is cooperation between the president of the Republic, the National Assembly and the Government, and we, as responsible people, together with the people from RTRS, will have to seek other possibilities,” Stevandić stressed.