Relying on the long-standing archival cooperation between the ICTY Court Records archive and INFOBIRO digital arhive, Foundation Mediacentar Sarajevo and archive INFOBIRO are implementing project “Journalism as first draft of history”. This project will offer comprehensive analysis of under-researched role of journalists in ICTY court proceedings, as well as the analysis of usage of media material in the ICTY court proceedings. 

 

The overall approach to project implementation is based on the need to rethink, examine and document the role of media in processing war crimes before ICTY focusing on multiple time frames: period of production of media material, period of usage of media material in war crime cases under ICTY and in the context of contemporary challenges and limitations of professional journalism. 

 

This research endeavour is accompanied by a series of advocacy activities and includes the following components:

 

- Documenting: exploring the ICTY archive in order to preserve archive legacy and put in use materials relevant for understanding broad context of role of media during and after conflict

- Field research: conducting interviews with journalists who testified before ICTY

- Publishing: production and publication of articles written by prominent authors, scholars, media and law experts that will seek to reflect upon variety of topics on role of media in determining responsibilities for crimes committed during the 90-ies, politics of memory, rights of war crimes victims.

- Moderated discussions: engaging broad expert community in constructive dialogue about the contribution of media and journalists to transitional justice and memory politics. 

 

Finally, this project will contribute to strengthening standards of professional journalism against inflammatory speech, fake news and populist rhetoric. 

 

Project is financed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands through MATRA programme.