BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (BiH)
Introduction
Bosnia and Herzegovina (henceforth: BiH) is a partly free decentralized parliamentary republic
characterized by a fragmented constitutional regime and partisan gridlock among nationalist
Bosniak, Serb and Croat communities. The country is split into two entities Serb-majority
Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH, whose residents are mainly Bosniak and Croats
(Freedom House, 2020). Sensationalist and clickbait content, oftentimes fabricated and
completely fake, is frequently shared on social media to incite hostility between the different
nationalities and Serbia. For instance, in December 2017, one story by the title “After Bakir
defended Bosnia today in front of Vučić and Čović: See what the minister of Serbia has said...”
covered fabricated hostilities and confrontations between the Serbian Minister of Defense
Aleksander Vulin and Bakir Izetbegović, the BiH politician and member of the tripartite
Presidency (CIK Media, 2017). Additionally, much of the national news media landscape is
hyper-partisan in nature, and journalists who try to work independently often face political
pressure, harassment, and other threats (Freedom House, 2020). At the same time there is no
legislation or other non-governmental initiatives to regulate online content, which makes any
or all information spread online, particularly on social media, somewhat unreliable
(Cvjetićanin et al., 2019).
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic the Bosnian administration has started imposing new
limitations on freedom of speech in order to limit the spread of fake news and conspiracies
about the virus. There are concerns over these new restrictions as they appear to be abused in
order to target opposition representatives and citizens critical of pandemic-related measures
(Kovačević, 2020). Additionally, restrictions vary between entities and districts, making the
situation somewhat unclear and confusing for citizens (Kovačevic, 2020; RFE/RL, 2020).
Additionally, Balkan Insights collected a total of 163 cases of digital rights being breached
during the virus pandemic across several countries in Eastern Europe, including BiH (Ristic,
2020).
An Overview of Cyber Troop Activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Organizational Form
The stopfake.org website, an initiative to monitor and report fake news in the Ukraine and
surrounding countries, reports that most disinformation in BiH is disseminated through local
media; however, foreign media, notably the Serbian edition of Sputnik, Sputnik Srbija, is
increasingly active in spreading disinformation through local language radio broadcasts and
social media which predominantly disseminates anti-West rhetoric (EU vs Disinfo, 2020).
According to an EU-backed report by the citizens’ association Zašto Ne? (Why Not?), foreign
influence is most strongly exerted through connections with BiH-based media outlets, which
use each other as sources and redistributors of disinformation, forming a disinformation hub
used by local and possibly foreign actors to influence public opinion. The hub contains twentynine media outlets in total, fifteen of which are located in Serbia and fourteen in BiH (twelve
of the latter in Republika Srpska) (Cvjetićanin et al., 2019). According to local journalists the
media outlet Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS) as well as the News Agency of Republika
Srpska (SRNA) are the main two sources of misinformation in the entity of Republika Srpska
(European Western Balkans, 2019).
Disinformation stems from two major categories of actors: ‘opportunistic disinformers’
operating mostly through anonymous websites and social media accounts with financial gain
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