15 Years of Walking but How Many Steps? Transitional Justice and the Role of the Print Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina
15 Years of Walking but How Many Steps? Transitional Justice and the Role of the Print Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Despite 15 years of major domestic and international peacekeeping and stabilization efforts, there are still major obstacles to state building in BiH. One of the clear signs of the internal divisions and tensions has been the recent alarming trend of efforts to curtail the development of free and independent media in the country to support the process of reconciliation with the past and the growth of a strong civil society. What has been the role of the media in BiH in the process of transitional justice? Have the print media encouraged a constructive social dialogue about the past or they have contributed to further divisions among BiH citizens? This paper looks at the role of print media in the process of transitional justice in BiH. The study investigates the role of the media as a unifying or dividing factor in the process of transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper then looks more in depth into the case of BiH and the print media‘s role for transitional justice‘s successes and failures so far. It argues that the print media have had a more negative impact on the processes of transitional justice in BiH because of the persistent nationalistic rhetoric creating a divided image of Bosnian society.

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