Report on media freedom in BiH in 2023

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the BH Journalists Association conducted a joint survey examining media freedom and the trust of Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens in the media. According to the report, in 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens trust, in descending order, the media (67%) and religious organisations (53%), followed by the non-governmental sector (43%), the international community (45%) and government institutions in general (40%). Political parties and politicians were the least trusted among the public. The media has the highest credibility in both entities, followed by religious groups. Interestingly, trust in political parties and politicians is significantly higher in the Republika Srpska than in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the latter also trust in the media has decreased from last year. Half of the respondents believe that political parties and politicians have the most influence over the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina, down about 10% from 2022. In 2022, 66.9% of RS residents believed that political parties and politicians have influence over the media, and by 2023 the figure had fallen to 34.6%. Two-thirds of Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens believe that politicians and political parties are the main infringers of journalistic rights and freedoms, but this opinion is polarised as it is more valid for FBiH respondents (83.7%) rather than for RS ones (37%). In Bosnia and Herzegovina, citizens’ choice of information are, in descending order: television, Internet, and social networks. However, in the RS, television is the second choice for information, being surpassed by the Internet. Moreover, daily while the number of weekly newspapers’ readers are dropping constantly.