They may file complaints against me with domestic and international organizations, brand me a threat and an aggressor, and claim that I am exerting pressure simply because I publish documents and evidence and bring legal proceedings before the courts.
They may attempt to discredit me and anyone else who refuses to remain silent.
But they will have to understand this: I will not remain silent, and I do not know how to back down, bow my head, surrender, or give up.
By Mirnes Ajanović, PhD, Attorney-at-Law
There are still those who are waiting for me to grow tired.
They expect that, after enough complaints, public statements, labels, international appeals, threats, and attempts at public discrediting, I will eventually conclude that remaining silent would be easier.
That I will stop publishing documents and evidence.
That I will withdraw my lawsuits.
That I will stop fighting for truth and justice.
That I will give up defending my own reputation and honor.
That I will stop defending the people I represent.
That I will stop defending both myself and ordinary citizens against the abuses of those who hold political power.
That I will bow my head before political, regime-aligned, and media centers of power and accept a system in which they are permitted to do anything they please, while I am not even permitted to respond—let alone seek protection before a court of law.
They are mistaken—or they have been misled.
I will not back down.
I will not remain silent.
I will not accept a situation in which issuing a rebuttal is portrayed as exerting pressure, publishing documents and evidence is branded as targeting, and filing a lawsuit is characterized as intimidation or violence.
I will not accept a system in which some are allowed to make defamatory public accusations, discredit others, and pronounce judgment upon them, while anyone who publishes a rebuttal and seeks judicial protection is threatened with further complaints, organized campaigns, and public character assassination.
WHAT TROUBLES THEM IS THE TRUTH AND THE EVIDENCE
The essence of their defamatory campaign is not that I am too harsh.
They are not troubled by my direct manner of expression.
What troubles them is the truth—and the documents that prove it.
They are troubled by the fact that I refuse to allow their defamatory accusations to go unanswered.
They are troubled because I publicly demonstrated that a statement made by an SDA associate, in the course of serious proceedings before a state institution, was false—and because I supported that conclusion with concrete evidence: a court judgment.
Instead of responding to that evidence, the attacks began the very next day.
First, they came from individuals.
Then they became organized.
What followed were public statements, complaints, labels, and accusations that I was intimidating, harassing, and targeting others.
When I responded, they accused me of exerting pressure.
When I published documents, they accused me of conducting a smear campaign, targeting others, and engaging in harassment.
When I filed a lawsuit and asked the court to determine who was telling the truth, they branded it intimidation and “legal violence.”
The problem, therefore, is not any alleged violation of the law.
The problem is that I dared to use the law.
I HAVE ALREADY FACED A TIME WHEN EVERYONE REMAINED SILENT
This is not a new situation for me.
During one of the most difficult periods for modern society—the period of restrictive anti-COVID measures—when many were afraid to speak publicly, I was the first person anywhere in the world to openly draw attention to violations of human rights, democratic principles, and the rule of law.
While the decisions of governments and crisis-management authorities were being presented as untouchable, I maintained that neither a so-called epidemic, nor a crisis, nor fear could release the authorities from their obligation to respect the Constitution and the rights of citizens.
For months, together with courageous colleagues, journalists, and media outlets from Bosnia and Herzegovina and numerous other countries, I fought a public and legal battle every day for our right to think, to speak, to move freely, and to work—in other words, for our right to live.
I was fully aware of all the possible consequences.
I knew that proceedings could be initiated against me.
I knew that attempts could be made to portray my actions as a threat to public safety or public health.
I knew that the system could resort to repression against a person who dared to challenge its decisions publicly.
I did not stop—and I prevailed.
Following the appeals I submitted in case no. AP-3932/21, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a decision confirming precisely what I had been warning about: neither crisis-management authorities nor governments are above the Constitution.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled that, through their anti-COVID measures, the authorities and crisis-management bodies had violated the rule of law, democratic principles, and the democratic order, and had seriously infringed fundamental human rights.
https://www.ustavnisud.ba/uploads/odluke/_hr/AP-3932-21-1315006.pdf
When I began fighting for the rights of all people and against a global political, media, and pharmaceutical establishment generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue, I did not know what the final outcome would be.
I knew only one thing:
I cannot remain silent while people’s rights, health, and lives are being endangered—regardless of the fact that everyone else may bow their heads, remain silent, and even lend their support to what is being done.
FOUR DECADES OF POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT, TWO DECADES OF LEGAL PRACTICE, AND FIVE YEARS OF JOURNALISTIC EXPERIENCE
I have been actively engaged in politics for almost forty years.
I have practiced law for twenty years.
For five years, I worked as a journalist for several newspapers—during the war for Dnevni avaz, and after the war for Walter, Ljiljan, Bošnjak, and other publications.
For me, that experience is not a privilege.
It is a responsibility.
Over all those years, I have come to understand how political, judicial, administrative, and media systems operate.
I know how defamatory accusations are manufactured and placed before the public.
I know how falsehoods are repeated over and over again in an attempt to turn them into “generally accepted facts.”
I know how institutions can be used to exhaust and wear down those who stand up to political or financial power.
I know that abuses, corrupt influences, and networks of vested interests can exist even where there should be nothing but the law, impartiality, and professional ethics.
That is precisely why I use my political, legal, and journalistic experience as a means of defense.
To defend myself.
To defend everyone I represent.
To defend those who lack the political, financial, or media power to stand up to the system on their own.
My means are not threats.
My means are not violence.
My means are the European Convention on Human Rights, the law, documents, evidence, arguments, the public word, prosecutors’ offices, and courts of law.
A DANGEROUS PSEUDO-JOURNALISTIC MODEL: FIRST THEY FALSELY ACCUSE YOU, THEN BRAND YOU AN AGGRESSOR WHEN YOU DEFEND YOURSELF
After all these years, is there really anyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina who believes that I will not defend myself—using every lawful legal remedy available to me?
This is no longer merely my personal struggle.
If, through society’s general silence, a model is allowed to take hold in which individuals or certain groups may publicly make serious defamatory accusations, refuse to substantiate them, ignore every rebuttal, and then brand a person who files a lawsuit to protect their reputation and honor as an aggressor and an enemy of media freedom—then no one is safe.
Today, they are doing it to me.
Tomorrow, they may do it to a prosecutor who crosses a criminal, a criminal organization, a tycoon, or a politician in power—or, heaven forbid, some self-proclaimed “media professional.”
To a judge who refuses to carry out a political order.
To an attorney who vigorously defends a client.
To a journalist investigating corruption.
To a businessperson who stands up to a tycoon.
To a citizen who publicly states that the authorities are lying and acting against the interests of the people.
All it takes is for a political, financial, or criminal center of power to have access to compliant media outlets—and it is evident that some openly place themselves at the disposal of such centers of power.
First, they will make a defamatory accusation.
Then, they will refuse to publish or acknowledge the rebuttal.
If you publish documents and evidence, they will brand you a manipulator.
If you file a lawsuit, they will brand you an aggressor.
If you continue to speak, they will enlist domestic and international organizations in an attempt to create the appearance that the truth has already been established.
That is not the protection of journalism.
It is an attempt to create a system in which a regime-aligned journalist or journalists’ association may make false accusations without accountability, while the person demanding evidence is deprived of the right to reply and to defend themselves.
INTERNATIONAL AUTHORITY CANNOT SUBSTITUTE FOR EVIDENCE
European journalists’ organizations aligned with them have also become involved in this defamatory campaign.
They appear to forget that they, too, have a responsibility not to allow their authority to be used for political purposes as a substitute for facts and evidence.
There is nothing fair or humane about accepting a one-sided statement and then, in a scandalous manner, calling on a court to dismiss a lawsuit before it has heard the parties and examined the evidence.
Nor is it consistent with the standards of a civilized society to brand someone a threat to journalists merely because that person has filed a lawsuit asking a court to establish the truth.
It is particularly paradoxical that such organizations now display such determination in advancing defamatory accusations, when, during the most severe anti-COVID restrictions, they showed virtually no public opposition to violations of human rights—even though those measures affected journalists, their families, and all citizens alike.
They should understand this clearly: neither a domestic nor an international statement, nor any position they may adopt, will stop me from defending my honor and reputation.
I will not be stopped by the threat of yet another complaint.
I will not be stopped by attempts to portray me as an enemy of media freedom.
I do not threaten media freedom.
I am exercising my freedom of expression, as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as my right to protect my honor, reputation, and dignity before a court of law.
I THREATEN NO ONE—BUT I WILL ALLOW NO ONE TO SILENCE ME
I am fully aware of the situation in which I now find myself.
I know that this politically orchestrated, regime-driven war waged against me by the SDA may continue for some time, but I am prepared for it. Such struggles are part of my professional routine and daily work, as court proceedings often last for months, and sometimes for years.
I am aware that the media, institutions, complaints, and other mechanisms of pressure are being used against me.
I am also aware that, within every system, there are people who understand what is being done but remain silent because they fear the consequences.
I know that people can become afraid.
I know that some may act wrongly out of fear for their jobs, their families, their freedom, or their very livelihood.
But I will not remain silent.
WE WILL PUT AN END TO THIS PSEUDO-JOURNALISTIC DICTATORSHIP
It has also become clear that there are people who understand that THEY will turn against anyone tomorrow if they are allowed to do whatever they please—in this particular case, if they succeed in establishing a pseudo-journalistic dictatorship.
That is precisely why I will not stop.
I do not claim to be fearless because I fail to understand the danger.
I refuse to give up precisely because I understand the danger.
I will not respond to a threat with another threat.
I will not respond to falsehood with violence.
I will respond with a document.
With evidence.
With the law.
With a lawsuit before a court.
With a criminal complaint.
With a public question and a clearly stated position.
And every time they attempt to silence me, I will speak even more forcefully—and with even more documentary evidence.
CAN THIS POLITICALLY ORCHESTRATED, REGIME-DRIVEN MEDIA WAR BE STOPPED?
I have been asked whether this politically orchestrated, regime-driven media campaign against me can be stopped.
It can.
But that does not depend on me.
It is up to those who launched it whether they will cease their defamatory accusations, complaints, labeling, and attempts at public discrediting.
What depends on me is this:
Will I back down?
No.
Will I bow my head?
No.
Will I remain silent?
No.
Will I abandon the evidence, the lawsuits filed before the courts, the criminal complaints, the protection of my reputation, the defense of everyone I represent, and the defense of citizens whose rights have been denied?
No.
For as long as they continue, I will respond with facts, lawfully, publicly, and with documentary evidence—with even greater force.
I will not decide how far THEY will go.
But they certainly will not decide how far I will go in defending the truth, honor, the law, justice, and freedom of expression.
THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THEIR PROBLEM IS NOT THAT I REFUSE TO GIVE UP—IT IS THAT I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO
They are still wondering why I have not stopped.
Why I did not fall silent and give up after their first public statement.
The first complaint.
The first condemnation—even from a European association.
The first attempt to discredit me.
The answer is simple.
When I am fighting in the public interest, I do not care what those who oppose the publication of evidence and the establishment of the truth may think of me.
They do not understand that their problem is not merely that I refuse to give up.
Their problem is that I will not remain silent—and that I do not know how to back down, bow my head, surrender, or give up when I know that I stand on the side of truth, the law, and justice.
I will defend my reputation and honor.
I will defend everyone I represent.
I will defend citizens against arbitrary rule and abuses of power.
I will defend every person’s right to respond to an accusation, publish evidence, and seek protection before a court of law.
Without hatred.
Without violence.
Without fear.
Through the law, documents, and the truth.
WE MOVE FORWARD.