Istinomjer is an online platform for monitoring and evaluation of accountability of public office holders, political parties in power and political actors in general. Istinomjer is the project developed and edited by the Civic Association "Why not?".

http://zastone.ba/en/programs/responsible-government/istinomjer/

CA “Why Not” is a legal entity registered in the register of civic associations within the Ministry of Justice of FBiH on January 9th 2001 under No. 56, Book 1 of the register, with registration number 03-054-992/97-2. Scanned copy of the Decision on the Registration, along with the Statute of the organization will be sent separately through the email.

Istinomjer (http://istinomjer.ba/) started its work in August 2010, when the results of the fulfillment of the pre-election promises for the mandate of 2006-2010 were presented.

The applicant does produce fact-checks and is tied to Why Not CA. However, I haven't received documents they've mentioned, such as the Decision on the Registration and the Statute of the organization. Please send forward them to me.

Main page

http://istinomjer.ba/ 

Articles rating the fulfillment of promises*

http://istinomjer.ba/obecanja-page/ - 140 articles in the previous three months.

* In the time since the last evaluation, we have added a new rating in this section, which indicates that we have recorded some activity in the promises we track, but that the promise is not yet fulfilled. The rating is “In the works” and it has been added to the methodology as well.

Articles rating the consistency of public officials’ statements

http://istinomjer.ba/dosljednost-page/ - 13 articles in the previous three months.

Articles rating the truthfulness of public officials’ statements

http://istinomjer.ba/istinitost-page/ - 19 articles in the previous three months.

Analysis

http://istinomjer.ba/analize/ - 20 articles in the previous three months.

Videos

http://istinomjer.ba/tv-istinomjer/ - 28 videos in the previous three months.

Monitoring of pre-election promises (General elections and Local elections)

Last update and progress report on fulfillment of pre-election promises of town/municipal mayors was done in November 2018. After that we did 100 days of Government of Republika Srpska and 100 days of Government of Kanton Sarajevo in April 2019.

The applicant has published more than one article per week, covering different categories within their categories. 

Istinomjer treats every political party and political option in BiH alike and applies the same standards and methodology when fact-checking accuracy of claims made by all sides of political spectrum.

BiH’s is a very complex political system, where numerous parties and candidates compete in general elections (on cantonal, entity and state level) and local elections (municipal level and Brčko District). This administrative division, paired with ethnic divide (both inherent to the constitutive system and practiced in everyday politics) produces a divided media sphere, where political actors usually receive different treatment based on their relation to these factors (administrative level and ethnic group).

Istinomjer, however, fact-checks statements from across the political spectrum in BiH, applying the same standards and methodology to claims made by all political actors. We also track campaign promises of all the political parties in ruling coalitions on the two top administrative levels (12 parties in the previous term, 5 in the term before that and 9 in the current term) and promises of mayors of several municipalities from both entities and from 4 different cantons. These are all competing (and often belligerent) political actors, coming from different ethnopolitical and ideological backgrounds and all are tracked and rated in the same way.

Considering that we can not fact-check all of the statements and promises, we choose those that are newsworthy in terms of dealing with current “hot topics” and issues that affect people’s lives, or those that have weight for citizens as voters (particularly when following pre-election campaigns).

We are nonpartisan and strive to be impartial when drawing attention to the inaccurate statements of all political actors. However, as our work is centered around promotion of political accountability, it is inevitably focused more on some political actors than the others. Specifically, we put stronger focus on the parties and political figures who hold executive power, particularly since we also track these parties’ pre-election promises. We also encourage the readers to point us to the possible false statements, unfulfilled promises, or any other relevant “fact-checking material” that we might have missed.

Links to examples of our fact checks, proving the scope and consistency of our work, can be found below:

Examples of statements rated for truthfulness:

https://istinomjer.ba/rezolucija-o-vojnoj-neutralnosti-rs-nije-obavezujuca/

https://istinomjer.ba/prosjecne-plate-i-penzije-u-fbih-nisu-vece-za-20-u-odnosu-na-rs/

https://istinomjer.ba/dodik-o-popularnosti-donalda-trumpa/

https://istinomjer.ba/zdk-nije-prvi-po-izvozu-iz-bih/

https://istinomjer.ba/podrska-gradjana-zenice-na-lokalnim-i-opstim-izborima-demantuje-kasumovica/ 

Examples of statements rated for consistency:

https://istinomjer.ba/magazinovic-odlucan-u-borbi-protiv-odlaganja-nuklearnog-otpada-na-trgovskoj-gori/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/protiv-sda-pa-sa-sda/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/radoncicev-skok-u-vlast/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/dodik-se-pitao-zasto-armija-ne-moze-stati-na-granicu/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/promjena-prioriteta-sda-u-kantonu-sarajevo/ 

Examples of ratings for promise fulfillment:

https://istinomjer.ba/jos-uvijek-nista-od-preispitivanja-naziva-entiteta-republika-srpska/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/pravilnik-o-vodjenju-registra-samostalnih-umjetnika-i-strucnjaka-iz-oblasti-kulture-u-rs-stupio-na-snagu/

https://istinomjer.ba/izgradnja-termobloka-7-u-te-tuzla-nije-zapocela-u-prvobitno-najavljenom-roku/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/prosjecna-plata-u-republici-srpskoj-iznosice-500-eura/

Examples of analysis:

https://istinomjer.ba/sta-nakon-odustajanja-mup-a-rs-od-formiranja-rezervnog-sastava/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/hoce-li-se-pristup-problemu-odlaganja-otpada-u-bih-promijeniti-nakon-slucaja-deponije-uborak/ 

https://istinomjer.ba/ustav-bih-i-konvencije-o-ljudskim-pravima-na-strani-prve-bh-povorke-ponosa/

https://istinomjer.ba/hoce-li-bih-zastiti-svoje-gradjane-slucaj-trgovska-gora/

https://istinomjer.ba/u-nestasici-citostatika-ulogu-ima-i-vlada-fbih/

Istinomjer fact-checks tackle many different topics and politicians'/officials' claims giving the audience an objective insight on the accuracy of their statements.

We have a strict employment policy, where we check background of employees during job application, so no one working within our organization, especially Istinomjer cannot engage in partisan political activity or make contributions to candidates or advocacy organizations.

Our previous and current activities, performed both within the Istinomjer and the entire organization, have always been independent from any political influence, as well as from our own personal political and other beliefs. Our work is solely funded by international organizations and embassies, who share our belief in the objectivity, impartiality and influence on public opinion.

As an organization, we engage in promoting government transparency and political accountability, so we always did and will always support policies and legislation that helps Bosnian society move towards more transparent and accountable governance, regardless of which political party or person introduces these policies or legislation.

Istinomjer has strict policies, at least according to what they claimed in their application when it comes to hiring people and their engagement in political parties. They have not endorsed any candidate so far, and a simple overlook of their website proves they pick various topics regardless of political parties and politicians.

All our articles contain hyperlinks to source material used for evaluation of statements or promises, making them available for the readers to check. Istinomjer has a regular practice of archiving all used sources and using links to archived material in our articles, to keep them permanently available.

We will try to contact the person or institution whose statement we value in order to get their comment on the topic in question, except in cases where the truthfulness and consistency of statements, or fulfillment of promises that we assess, are beyond doubt. We also seek expert opinions when educated insight is required for more precise assessments.

We continuously track and collect: reports on government and parliamentary sessions; reports on activities of Ministers and various government agencies; laws and regulations which are proposed and passed in Parliaments; official strategies and plans; media reports on government activities; statistical data; public budgets; reports by reputable CSOs or international organizations (watchdogs, think-thanks, international bodies which research and monitor different processes in BiH, etc.). This helps us trace the progress (or stagnation) on various processes in the country and allows us to quickly and efficiently evaluate given statement or promise.

Our policy is publicly available on our website, on the link below:

http://istinomjer.ba/o-istinomjeru/ 

Istinomjer has a clear methodology on linking sources and it is available on their website on a separate page, but also in all the articles, there are links provided.

The required information can be found on the link below: http://istinomjer.ba/o-istinomjeru/

Istinomjer has a separate page where it's available for the public to get to know more about their ownership and funding. Also, their donor is listed, as well as an overview of spendings in the last 3 years.

The required information can be found on the link below: http://istinomjer.ba/istinomjer-tim/ 

There is a separate page with the list of Istinomjer's team, their roles and biographies. 

The required information can be found on these links: http://istinomjer.ba/kontakt/ http://istinomjer.ba/istinomjer-tim/ http://istinomjer.ba/pitajte-istinomjer/ 

There is a contact form on a separate page with a clear instructions, as well as their email on other pages related to the team.

The link below provides detailed methodology of our fact-checking work. If necessary, methodology can be translated into English and provided to you. http://istinomjer.ba/metodologija/ 

Istinomjer's methodology is clear and available to the public.

Readers can submit requests for fact-checks of claims made by political actors by filling the form that is especially prepared for these purposes, which is easily accessible and visible on the main page of our website. Please see link below: http://istinomjer.ba/pitajte-istinomjer/ Readers can also submit requests for fact-checks of claims made by political actors by sending us an email with the claim, which is stated on the main page of our website. Also, our readers can contact us through our Facebook page and ask for the specific claim to be checked. Since this channel of communication ha usually been used the most for such purposes in the past, we have a “pinned” post (always visible on top of the page) encouraging readers to contact us with questions and suggestions. Please see link below: https://www.facebook.com/Istinomjer/posts/2056717004359621 Readers can also participate in the monitoring of the pre-election promises, by sending us their inputs on fulfillment of each individual promise. Every promise has a form which can be used to submit additional data about that promise. Please check the link below for an example: https://istinomjer.ba/predizborna-obecanja/sistematski-skrining-oboljenja/

There is a form on their website where readers can share links, documents and write a description of the claim or promise they would like to be checked or not. However, there are no guidelines of what is consider as a possible material for fact-check and what will be rejected as a proposal.

Our correction policy can be found on the link below: http://istinomjer.ba/o-istinomjeru/

Istinomjer has a correction policy explanation available on their website.

During the previous year, we did not have any corrections.  We are very careful when publishing articled so we 

The organization didn't have corrections last year, however, they haven't provided examples from previous years.