The Turkish embassy in Sarajevo said the possible reason why BIRN and other journalists were not accredited for the Turkish president’s showpiece Bosnian campaign event was that the media area was too small.
The Turkish embassy in Bosnia said on Monday that the possible reason why BIRN and other journalists were denied entry to cover the election campaign rally held in Sarajevo by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the weekend was “a small area dedicated to media”.
“Even though we technically do not know the development of the situation in relation to the granting of media accreditation by the NGO Union of European Turkish Democrats – which organised the event – it is possible that, due to insufficient space dedicated to media, more room was allocated to local media,” said the Turkish embassy.
BIRN first contacted the organisers seeking accreditation on May 7, the same day the Union of European Turkish Democrats said that press accreditation would be needed.
After receiving additional information on the documents journalists must submit, BIRN sent accreditation requests using the email address provided by the UETD for three of its journalists on May 8, and an additional request for one more of its reporters six days later.
BIRN delivered the complete documentation for all four journalists to the organisers by May 14.
The UETD confirmed on the same day that it had received all the documentation needed and would inform BIRN about the next steps.
However, no further email with information about where or how to get accreditation was ever received.
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