Monthly Highlights December
During December, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by anti-LGBTQI+ discourse, sexism alongside the glorification of war criminals, the publication of unverified information and the normalisation of gender-basedviolence. Anti-LGBTQI+ discourse in Albania In two separate television appearances in December, lawyer Zace Islami made a series of extreme anti-LGBTQ+ statements on national broadcasters …
Words don’t leave bruises, but they can hurt more than punches
When we talk about violence in general, we can agree that it has been omnipresent in today’s media. Every day we watch different types of physical violence happening abroad, but also domestically, and very consciously we condemn and judge what we see. However, a form of violence which is frequently, almost always disregarded, we can …
RTRS on the old propaganda track: Fighting manipulation is not censorship
RTRS has once again confirmed that there are no limits to the violation of professional and ethical standards in its reporting. The news programme of Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS), the public broadcaster of that Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, has for the umpteenth time demonstrated that there are no boundaries when it comes to …
Troll of the Month: Dario Vraneš – President of the Municipality of Pljevlja
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.da On December 6, 2025, Milka Tadić Mijović, an investigative journalist …
From Belgrade to Prishtina: Women Who Refused to Be Silent
On August 14, 2025, after one of many student protests in Belgrade, a group of students was attacked by the police while heading home and taken to a nearby garage. Among them was Nikolina Sinđelić, a survivor of police brutality. “As we were walking down Nemanjina Street, we encountered members of the JZO (Unit for …
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 …
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 …
Monthly Highlights November: Hate speech, Threats and Sensationalism
During November, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by hateful and harmful political speech, hate speech against journalists and sensationalistic reporting. Hateful and harmful speech in Albanian parliament During the parliamentary session debating the newly adopted Gender Equality Law, opposition leader Sali Berisha made a series of homophobic …
The daughter belongs to someone else’s family
Stories behind the disparity in property ownership at the expense of women Inheritance of property by women in North Macedonia is so rare that over time it has become a customary practice that is seldom questioned. Like many traditions, this one too is rooted in inequality, upheld only by our socially constrained perceptions of what …
Troll of the Month: TV Klan Kosova
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 the evening of November 5, 25-year-old Daorsa Spahija from …
The State(s), the Church(es), and the Nationalism
In the Western Balkans, the line between political power and religious authority is increasingly blurred. From Belgrade to Ppogorica to Skopje, churches do more than tend to faith. Religious leaders preserve historical narratives, shape national identity, and legitimise state power. Whether by glorifying convicted war criminals or framing geopolitical struggles as spiritual battles, religious leaders …
