Balkan Legal News

Weekly update: 5 May – 11 May 2023 The following media round up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 5 May to 11 May 2023.

Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia . Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.

Bosnia and Herzegovina – 11 May 2023

The separatist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has called on Turkish citizens to vote for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in next Sunday’s election, saying his persistence and patriotism have turned Turkey into ‘a progressive and modern country’. The full article can be found here.

Slovakia – 11 May 2023

Slovakia is set for its third government in as many years after Eduard Heger stepped down as prime minister. There is the real prospect of the pro-Russian nationalist-populist Robert Fico returning to power after the September election. The full article can be found here.

Croatia – 10 May 2023

The Croatian broadcaster RTL Hrvatska has been fined by the country’s Council for Electronic Media (VEM) for showing insufficient European works in 2022 on its RTL 2 channel. The full article can be found here.

Montenegro – 10 May 2023

Montenegrin rights activists said that new amendments to the law providing compensation to civilian war victims do nothing for families of some of those killed in the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The full article can be found here.

North Macedonia – 10 May 2023

North Macedonia’s potential Judges and Prosecutors find Secret Tests suspicious. The full article can be found here.

Montenegro – 9 May 2023

Months after government servers were hit by sophisticated cyber-attacks, questions remain over Montenegro’s readiness to confront the next inevitable assault, experts say. The full article can be found here.

Kosovo – 8 May 2023

Kosovo law ensures legal and financial support for defendants in war crimes trials at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, and now the court wants Kosovo to ensure that the victims are compensated too. The full article can be found here.

Kosovo- 5 May 2023

Two protected witnesses testified this week at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, recalling the grim conditions at the Kosovo Guerrillas Detention Sites in Kukes Metal Factory in Albania back in 1999. The full article can be found here.