A seminar dubbed “Modalities of overcoming ethnic, religious and inter-state divisions – the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina” was held in Sarajevo on June 7-10 and fifteen journalists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia participated. The participants were acquainted with the specifics of the political and media landscape in BiH, they received current information on regional cooperation in South East Europe, visited the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, and attended the presentation of a media content analysis on the theme of coverage of religious issues, which showed the main trends in the strongest media in BiH with regard to religious diversity. What stirred special interest among participants is the presentation of three editors of a debate religious show on Radio BH1, Ekrem Tucakovic, Bosko Tosovic and Marko Antonio Brkic. They presented a number of examples of points in common to monotheistic religions and positive examples of religious tolerance in BiH, which is often in the background in this country, still torn apart by ethnic, political and religious disagreements.

The seminar in Sarajevo was organized in the framework of a broader project, “Ethnic minorities serving to strengthen cross-border cooperation and stabilization in the region,” implemented by Media Plan Institute together with its partners, Stina Institute from Split, Croatia, and Novi Sad Journalism School, Serbia, with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation and Government of France. The first seminar on the theme of Croatia was held in April in Vukovar and another seminar will be held in fall in Novi Sad, in Serbia’s province of Vojvodina, which is characterized by ethnic and custom diversity. The seminars will provide specific know-how to journalists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia who want to focus professionally on the theme of ethnic minorities and inter-ethnic relations.