Four years ago, just days after the last general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, several directors of marketing agencies, media and companies were arrested in Sarajevo by the order of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So started the Gibraltar affair, which would supposedly prove theft of millions of BAM of public money, Media Marketing reports.

These days, two weeks before the new elections, the Gibraltar case has been put to rest (or has it, since now follow lawsuits for compensation of damages). That’s the way the cookie crumbles in BiH from one election to another. People are arrested, affairs are fabricated, roads repaired, parks arranged, political opponents are called “assholes”, former High Representative of the international community is called “an idiot” and so on.

From the very first day it was clear that this was a political set-up. SDA (Party of Democratic Action) controls BH Telecom, SNSD (Alliance of Independent Social Democrats) controls m:tel, and Dragan Čović (HDZ – Croatian Democratic Party) had struggled for years to get his own milking cow in the form of the telecom operator Eronet. As he had constantly failed in gaining control over it, the Gibraltar affair was created. Stipe Prlić, Managing Director of Eronet, and Zoran Bakula, Marketing Director at the same company, were arrested. At the same time, Neven, Belma and Sanjin Kulenović (S.V.R.S), Darko Aleksić, Director of Program Plus, Lajla Torlak, Director of Pink TV, Senad Zaimović, CEO of Fabrika agency, and Ejub Kučuk, CEO of MITA, were also arrested.

48 hours later they were all released from custody pending trial, without having a single idea what they were defending from. The fact that everything had been well planned in advance is illustrated by the fact that immediately a search was conducted at all offices and homes of the accused, and the very next day the Ministry of Interior sent an order to all their clients to submit all the financial documentation on cooperation with the agencies and the media whose senior people were in custody. The entire thing was done immediately. Prlić was removed from the position of General Manager of Eronet, and Čović’s guy was installed in his place. Agencies have lost their clients because no one wants to deal with someone under investigation. All of their computers and mobile phones were seized, and haven’t been returned to this day. Some agencies were closed, some suffered a great deal of damage, the arrested people suffered a psychological shock because they did not belong to the milieu in which arrests are something ordinary. In addition to the dismissals in Eronet, another goal was achieved, namely that the media market thus fell under the rule of those who were not capable to conquer it in normal market competition.

A media fuss followed the whole thing, spearheaded by the media dissatisfied with the distribution of advertising cake. That’s why most of the media industry will have to live with the shame of that part of its history.

And what now? Nothing? Ejub Kučuk on his Facebook account announced the launch of a lawsuit against the state due to the large financial loss of MITA Group. Other members of the Gibraltar team will probably do the same. For years we have witnessed fabricated affairs in which people are arrested, with their business careers and family lives being left in rubble, and never, against anyone, a crime has been proven (or at least in most cases).