Troll of the Month: Media platforms across Albania
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region. On 6 October 2025, Judge Astrit Kalaja was shot and …
OUTBREAK OF XENOPHOBIA AGAINST TURKISH CITIZENS: A prepared hate campaign
Nothing came as a surprise, the violence against Turkish citizens in Montenegro had been prepared for weeks in the media, on social media, and by certain politicians spreading false claims that more than one hundred thousand Turks are living in Montenegro and are “ready for anything.” “Kill the Turk” echoed through the streets of Podgorica …
ARE WE READY FOR A LEADER WHO DOESN’T LOOK LIKE OUR MAJORITY?
The absence of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in state-building positions. After months of political deadlock, on August 26, Dimal Basha was elected Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly. This followed nearly 60 failed attempts, until a Constitutional Court ruling on August 8 limited Vetëvendosje (VV) to prosposing each candidate only three times. After none of the three ministers proposed …
Monthly Highlights September: glorification of war criminals, ethnic hatred, misinformation and anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric
During the month of September, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by sexism and glorification of war criminals alongside anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric, misinformation and ethnic hate speech. Sexism and glorification of war criminals in Bosnia and Herzegovina The cultural event “Kočićev zbor” (Kočić’s Assembly), held on August 29, 30, …
Breaking Words, Building Bridges: Regional Experts Warn Against Rising Polarisation in the Balkans
Hate speech in the Western Balkans is becoming more complex, layered, and increasingly used as a political weapon, according to new media monitoring reports presented at the regional conference Breaking Words, Building Bridges: Responses to Polarisation in the Western Balkans held in Belgrade, Serbia. The Reporting Diversity Network (RDN) showcased its third set of reports …
Words that kill: Why “crime of passion” must disappear
“Crime of passion” sounds almost romantic. In reality, it means femicide. The phrase is not a legal term, but it regularly appears in tabloid headlines when reporting on men killing their wives or girlfriends. It usually suggests that the crime was unplanned, committed under “emotional distress,” which is a framing that shifts focus away from …
TROLL OF THE MONTH – SELECTION CRITERIA
The goal of the Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 monitoring is to identify and document the most significant cases (‘incidents’) of hate speech and divisive discourses in the Western Balkans media. Incidents are defined by the speaker regardless of where they occurred, but monitoring refers to their media coverage. They can originate in the Parliament, party …
Troll of the Month: Instagram Page Deportacija
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region. An anti-migrant Instagram page Deportacija (translated as deportation), gained significant …
Monthly Highlights August: Ethnic discrimination, religious hate and hatred towards politicians and journalists
During the month of August, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by religious hate, ethical tensions and hatred towards politicians and journalists. Religious hate in Bosnia and Herzegovina Sanin Musa, leader of the “Faith. People. State.” movement and president of the Bosnian People’s Party, announced the arrival of …
Trolls of the Month: TV Informer and editor Dragan J. Vučićević
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region. In Serbia, August was marked by violent protests. Supporters of …
30 years since the Srebrenica genocide: Genocide denial persists in regional media
8372 Bosniak men and boys were killed by the Army of the Republika Srpska on July 11, 1995, in what is widely recognised as the largest massacre in Europe since the Second World War. This year marked three decades since the genocide. Here is how the media in the region reported before, during, and after …
