In relevant studies, BiH is characterized as a hybrid regime, a regime that on an imaginary scale of democracy is stuck between liberal democracy and an authoritarian regime, persistently leaning towards the latter, with only formal outlines of democratic procedures, which mainly serve as a cloak hiding the dark face of an increasingly authoritarian government.
The phenomenon of state capture has also become commonly used almost as a synonym for BiH, indicating a situation in the country that boils down to the fact that political and economic processes, public institutions, and public policies that these institutions should create are put in the service of narrow particular interests of the ruling oligarchy, with the aim of ensuring the continuation of their unrestricted enrichment and retention of power positions.
In such a situation, the unscrupulous regime in RS, after almost two decades of rule that left behind an institutional desert, a meaningless concept of separation of powers, abolished opposition, and completely suppressed media freedoms, decides to introduce the criminalization of defamation. In a procedure that resembles a farce and can be characterized as legal violence in every respect.
From the position of the ruling regime, this is a logical next step. Therefore, any argumentative and rational discussion with the leaders of the ruling regime is completely pointless. Referring to the existence of defamation as a criminal offense in other countries, even those that are EU members, is a completely meaningless argument. Anyone who knows anything about creating laws and public policies knows that the context in which policies and laws intervene is crucially important.
In no way can BiH, completely institutionally devastated and paralyzed by corruption and rule by fear, be compared to any EU member. It can be compared to some other countries in Europe, Russia and Belarus.
So, this is about something entirely different, it’s about the criminalization of common sense and the courage to attribute blame for the aforementioned problems to the real culprits. You will easily recognize them, they are the ones behind this initiative or simply support it.
