Author: Ivana Jelača
THE PASSIVITY OF THE INSTITUTIONS TOWARDS THE (RESURRECTION OF) THE PUBLIC ROOMS
November 8, 2021
It looks like the Macedonian society as a whole has been turned into a large public room, into a voyeuristic chamber in which everyone caresses to peek into the intimacy of a stranger and to appropriate a part of the privacy of the other. This, coupled with the slow or non-existent reaction and the absence of public prosecution actions and forensic investigations, inevitably leads and have already led to new virtual rooms in which the malicious curiosity of some of our fellow citizens creates new victims and a real psychological terror.
In October, new and disturbing news echoed in the storm of information in the public, which was notified by the association of citizens “Initiative for Rights of Women from Shuto Orizari”. The civil activists said that many of our fellow citizens, mostly of Roma ethnicity, are subject to humiliation on Facebook with the sharing of their explicit photos on a FB fan page. The idea through such attempts to compromise, and even blackmail the victims, to present them as the so-called “dishonest women” follows after months of silence and the prior existence of several groups on similar social media, where the reaction of the society was strong but the reaction of the relevant institutions was weak.
The demoralization and devaluation of our fellow citizens is least what they deserve, and witnesses for that are we, as a public, and them, as victims. It is not only impermissible, but also punishable behavior. However, all those sanctions that we as a country have foreseen in our legislation and for which, undoubtedly, we stand well declaratively, require vigilance and agility in order to be put into use – the Ministry of Interior and its Department of Cybercrime and Digital Forensics and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. We have read enough about the responses from those in charge – that action is being taken, actions are being taken and other expressions that the public, justifiably, is beginning to perceive as “phrases”. Specific sanctions continue to be missing, and the victims are left to fend for themselves.
As I was already alarming in one of my previous blogs, we must put an end to this institutional anemia. The reactions of the prosecution authorities are continuously missing and this openly raises the question what is the level of awareness of the police and of the public prosecutors, who obviously do think that these criminal acts should get the attention they deserve. The discrediting of individuals whose intimate photo is shared in various groups on the social media with many members, including the inadmissible actions, results in a series of other criminal acts, including hate speech. Again, even this is not enough for the public to hear about some more relevant activity implemented by the basic public prosecutors on this topic. On the contrary – all we hear are situations of additional harassment and abuse of the situation of the victims where photos are published even about those activities who will raise their voice, in order to blackmail and silence them.
On the other hand, the incrimination of one of the most recently introduced acts, such as stalking, which is to be welcomed, but which, as is well known, is stuck in the legislative labyrinths, is not and will not be enough in itself. The criminal experts in charge of enforcement and prosecution now have all the necessary tools to reach out and prosecute the perpetrators involved in the last of our series of “public rooms”. The revelation of these previous virtual spaces remained somewhere in the weak cooperation on the social media at which the groups were created and the quiet passivity of the Macedonian institutions. Disturbing comments about the nudity of the victims continue to the point that even women who do not live in the country are commented on, and even photos of the minor children of the victims are also shared.
We know to say that the community in which we in our daily life is becoming difficult to live in. Talking about this, we often forget how difficult this environment is for the victims of such acts, who have to live with double victimization, with the silence of the competent institutions that they finance through their taxes, and even with their “tacit consent” with the acts.
Both the theory and practice show that the passive attitude of the prosecutors can be also interpreted as a kind of encouragement of the stalkers, and that this is the message that we as citizens should stop. And the scanty information that “action and investigation is being carried out” and like that indefinitely, for many, is exactly that – support for new and new public rooms.
The culture of impunity for non-compliance with the norms, which has persisted through all the past years and in almost every possible field, from traffic to education and even the election process, in these cases is even more frightening, knowing what kind of intrusion into someone else’s privacy is this. As if that were not enough, these public rooms first end up in a “public court” of the public, and much later and always the question remains whether those who are members will face the real court, as perpetrators, and end up with any responsibility for their conduct.
The pornographic content and the significant number of sex voyeurs present in our environment is a phenomenon that must worry us as individuals. The games with the privacy of the individual, know how to knock relentlessly on everyone’s door and hence, the constant pressure to act on the authorities must be our guiding thought.
The periodic news about new public rooms that we are shocked by only confirms the fact that the public room did not happen to us again, but it actually never closed. The main trump card that the institutions have – acting after the voice is heard – it is like it does not exist in the Macedonian gray milieu, and that must be the number one step that will be taken first. The other thing that remains available from the spectrum of measures – supplementing with new crimes and legal changes, educational campaign and regional action – is only an additional part of the toolkit that will not come to life if the former continues to evade. The Ministry of Interior must start to deal more seriously with the “interior” in the frequently present predatory groups on the social media, because otherwise it is only a matter of time before the public will again be intrigued by news about new public rooms.
Author: Ivan Durgutov MA
The article was first published in ResPublica, where you can read it in Albanian and Macedonian.
Foto: SB Arts Media / Shutterstock
TROLL OF THE MONTH: A private group on Facebook who shared inappropriate photos of underage Roma girls
November 2, 2021
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate on the internet based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkans region.
Our October Troll of the Month is a private group on Facebook who shared inappropriate photos of underage Roma girls without consent which is both illegal and goes against all ethical guidelines promoting further gender-based violence.
It recently became known to the Northern Macedonian public that a private group on Facebook with over 2000 members was sharing nude photos of young Roma girls without their consent or approval. Indeed, the users themselves were encouraged to share photos from their private messages and public social media profiles of these young Roma girls after which, users would comment under the photos with hate speech and inflammatory comments including negative labelling of the girls being ‘indecent’. This incident further created a dynamic of hatred and shaming against an already highly marginalised social group.
The group was allegedly created by a Roma citizen and most of the users who had joined it where from the Roma community. However, the exact profiles of the members themselves are not entirely known due to the private nature of the Facebook group.
This is not the first case of social media groups sharing explicit photos of girls, following what was known as the ‘Public Room’ scandal earlier this year. The Public Room affair included some ‘7,000 users, who shared explicit pornographic content’ on the messaging system Telegram – the first instance of its shutdown was back in January 2020 following public outcry, however, the same case re-emerged one year later before being closed down again on the 29 January. In both instances explicit content of often under-age, young girls was shared illegally and without consent on social media platforms.
According to North Macedonian police, it has been confirmed that since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been an increase in ‘instances of online sexual abuse’. This emphasises the seriousness of this case and the need for mechanisms in place to prevent, react and respond to online sexual harassment and violence against women and girls.
The group that was sharing nude photos of Roma girls has since been deleted from Facebook following public outcry after its discovery and the revelation of its activities. Furthermore, a number of human rights NGOs are pursuing legal action against the users who created the group.
Nevertheless, these legal actions led to a number of hate speech comments and personal attacks towards the president of the most vocal NGO. Presumably, those who are associated with the group shared his family photos in a series of relentless attacks that included a number of hateful comments.
Despite the positive action being made by the civil society who reacted immediately to the authorities and demanded that the group be removed from Facebook, there is a bigger issue at hand.
As this is not the first instance of indecent, illegal photographs of underage girls being shared on private groups on various social media platforms, this case raises the important question of the mechanisms of protection and regulations in place to prevent such events from occurring. Not only is such content extremely harmful and illegal but it also exposes the importance of rigid social media regulation and mechanisms in place to prevent such scandals and inappropriate content from being shared on social media platforms. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of collective action in demanding a reaction from authorities and social media companies in removing such content.
Social media platforms such as Facebook have a moral and legal duty within the public domain to enforce mechanisms of protection to prevent unlawful, inappropriate content from being shared on their platforms. This is an extremely sensitive issue and must be dealt immediately to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
THE BURDEN OF INFORMATION MANIPULATION: WHO SUFFERS THE CONSEQUENCES
November 2, 2021
Evangelical pastor Akil Pano, leader of the Albanian Coalition for the Protection of the Family, in a Facebook post, reported on a form/questionnaire coming from a kindergarten in Tirana, where the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ had been substituted with ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2.’ Pano argued that the “Gay Agenda” has being implemented, stating that “this kind of imposition is violence and is the dictatorship of the minority over the majority,” and calling for the action of the Ministry of Education and other competent institutions to remove this form from circulation. Pano’s post was filled with hateful comments against the LGBT community, who are seen as to blame for the dismantlement of the traditional family.
Changing the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ with ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’ is, nevertheless, against the law as laid out by the current Albanian Family Code, and perpetuates the controversy that has begun earlier this year regarding the proposal to switch to the terms ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’ in school forms in an attempt not to discriminate against those with parents of the same sex. In fact, the dispute led to the LGBT Alliance reporting Pano to the Commissioner for Protection against Discrimination in early September.
Pano’s recent post was quickly picked up by most mainstream media outlets, where hateful comments were in abundance in the comment sections; nevertheless, some outlets themselves used hateful headlines to describe the situation such as calling it a “shameful incident” (Priza). While TemA reported neutrally, its comment section was full of hate speech, and, interestingly, commenters even link these changes with Albania’s EU accession prospects, with a commenter stating that “Albania doesn’t need the EU if such changes have to be made in order to accede.”
In a turn of events, the next day the Municipality of Tirana stated that it “only circulates registration forms with the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ in accordance with the law.”
The LGBT Alliance released a public statement, confirming that they have no information on the form, and adding that they share the same curiosity regarding who has created the form/questionnaire. The LGBT Alliance condemned the media for its lack of professionalism, for fabricating information for public consumption without any filters. “We urge the media and journalists to distance themselves from this unacceptable practice and to play their investigative and informative role, independently and uninfluenced, instead of turning into a source of misinformation and slander, confronting us unfairly and several times with invented waves of hatred,” stated the LGBT Alliance.
In an appearance on the programme “Shqiperia Live” on Top Channel television, where tensions arose, Akil Pano stated that it was a journalist who sent him the form, assuring that other portals reported on the form/questionnaire before him, when, in fact, a simple fact check proves that the news originated from Pano’s Facebook post. Another guest on the programme argued that the form was fabricated to incite hate speech against the LGBT community.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha made a Facebook post accusing current Prime Minister Edi Rama of orchestrating this switch in school forms, thereby undermining the value of family. Berisha stated that “turning parents into numbers is a barbaric, primitive attempt to replace the basic, human and divine values of the family and to destroy and turn it into something worthless.”
While the origin of the form/questionnaire that pastor Pano reported remains unknown, the fact still remains that the debate around the legal change from ‘mother’ and ‘father’ to ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’ has been framed in an inappropriate manner. The information manipulation carried out in this case only serves to further incite division and hatred within society, be it hatred against the LGBT community, against religious figures such as pastor Pano, against political figures who exploit the controversy for their own purposes, or against the media itself for reporting unverified information.
Most importantly, the media should verify the information it has obtained and is reporting on, and “should not mislead the public. They should clearly indicate where manipulated texts, documents, images and sounds have been used” in respect of the Code of Ethics of Albanian Media. Hate speech is further fueled precisely due to a lack of accurate information and transparency on part of the media.
In addition, public figures must be careful regarding what kind of messages they spread, but also how they spread them, as, often, the status of the person who spreads the message has more weight than the message itself. Furthermore, online outlets should adhere to the principles of self-regulation and even employ social media editors to moderate hateful narratives, since, unfortunately, this is a sphere that unfortunately does not enjoy the regulation it should in Albanian legislation.
Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 urges media outlets to act in accordance with the Code of Ethics, to present “truthful, balanced, and verified information,” and calls for the self-regulation of online media and the self-restraint of public figures and private persons in the language used to address such delicate issues. Hate speech and discrimination only serve to undermine the development of our diverse societies.
Author: RDN 2.0 Albanian monitoring team
Photo: KonstantinChristian/ Shutterstock
MATTEL’S GENDER-NEUTRAL DOLLS CREATE STIR IN THE SERBIAN MEDIA
October 27, 2021
In late 2019, Mattel, a USA toy company, launched “world’s first gender-neutral doll”. Recently, the Creatable World doll became available in Serbia and some of the most influential media in the country reported on it. Some also created a platform to discuss the changes gender inclusive toys will bring to our society.
The Serbian media has a long history of allowing and even promoting hate speech against women and the LGBTQ+ community. However, in the past few years topics such as gender equality gained more coverage than ever before, especially this year when the Serbian government adopted the Law on Gender Equality. For the first time in the Serbian justice system sex is defined as “a biological characteristic on the basis of which people are divided into women and men,” and gender as “socially determined roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a particular society deems appropriate for women and men”.
Defining gender as a social construct created a lot of backfire from conservative groups and the national media took the role of a mediator between activists and politicians who were in support of or against the law. In practice, these debates usually involved an activist trying to explain the basics of gender equality and a right-wing politician that usually had statements full of hate speech and insults which journalists often report without critical approach. This picture is quite common in the Serbian media whenever human rights are being discussed. The same thing happened during the Belgrade Pride in September with the Law on Same-Sex Unions, currently being prepared by the Serbian government. It is also happening now with reporting on gender-neutral dolls. The media often fails to educate viewers on the topic they cover and allows hate speech mistakenly depicting it as “freedom of speech”.
During the past week, gender neutral dolls have gained considerable media attention. The gender-neutral doll does not have any specific sex characteristics and basically looks like a child, as opposed to grown-up looking dolls, made to fit societal standards of what a man and a woman should look like. Additionally, each Creatable World doll comes with clothes and wigs that are feminine, masculine and androgynous. With the slogan “a doll line designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in”it seems as the main idea behind the product is to make it inclusive for kids of all genders.
Kids are exposed to gender biases from the time they are born, weather it is through toys, clothes or different sports and activities they are encouraged to engage in. Little girls are given toys such as dolls, kitchen appliances, makeup and motivated to take up dancing or gymnastics classes whereas boys are supposed to like football, play with cars or construction sets. Famous toy manufacturer LEGO recently conducted a research that showed parents and children around the world still have stereotypical thinking on gender roles stating “that girls are typically encouraged into activities that are more cognitive, artistic and related to performance compared to boys who are more likely to be pushed into physical and STEM-like activities”. This research also shows that girls are less supportive of typical gender biases than boys and feel more free to engage in play and activities that are considered to be “meant for boys only”. Keeping in mind how harmful and limiting teaching gender roles to children is for everyone, LEGO committed to remove gender bias from its toys and many toy companies and parents are following.
On Serbian TV Prva this topic was covered in a program called “Same-sex dolls: imposing a trend or accepting diversity”. Even though the overall tone was not negative, throughout the show, the host and some of the guests kept calling the dolls “same-sex” and “sexless”, and neither the host Mira Lekić, nor the psycologist who was invited as expert on the topic made a clear distinction between sex and gender or between sexuality and gender identity. Lack of understanding of the difference between the two is the main trend in digital and print media as well.
It is important to acknowledge that this is one of the rare occasions that gender identity and educating children about it was even talked about in the media. Trans people are usually invisible in the Serbian media, and in rare cases when the media reports on trans stories it is usually through sensational headlines concerning celebrities, often reinforcing stereotypes and using transphobic language. It is seldom that the media reports on stories or problems of trans people in Serbia.
Even though most articles about the new gender-neutral dolls included trans voices and did not encourage transphobia, they were written in a disapproving manner and failed to educate citizens about gender identity and gender equality. The news website Kurir.rs published an article called “CAUTION: GENDER NEUTRAL TOYS CAN BE DANGEROUS TO CHILDREN! Psychologist: The market is forcing us to become HERMAPHRODITES!”. With this headline Kurir.rs is using sensationalism, creating panic based on unbacked claims and using transphobic language. Media reports on this topic are another reminder that education of journalists and media workers on how to report more inclusively is crucial for creating a media space with more diversity. As trans people are often victims of discrimination, violence and very harmful stereotypes, the media plays a very important role in shaping the opinions of their audience. In reporting trans stories ethically the Recommendations To The Media On Reporting On Trans People by organisation GAYTEN can be quite helpful.
Author: Anja Andjušić
Photo: MATTEL website
BEING TRANS IN SERBIA: THE MEDIA’S SILENCE
October 24, 2021
Serbia seems to have built a wall of silence around the trans community. This approach is flawed in many aspects, especially as some from the trans community report it can have detrimental consequences.
“Gender is one aspect of our identity and it is defined as one’s innermost concept of self as a man or a woman. Gender identity is formed in early childhood, about the age of three. One’s gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth. People whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth are called transgender or trans.”, (retrieved from transserbia.org.)
When Ana Brnabic was elected she was the first member of Serbia’s LGBTQ+ community to be elected as the country’s Prime Minister. Although Brnabic election was seen as a step forward for the LGBTQ+ community in Serbia, she has done nothing ever since to promote LGBTQ+ rights in the country. This is especially the case for those who identify as transgender. The lives of people whose biological sex differs from their gender identity in countries of the Western Balkans are in some ways much harder than the lives of transgender people in more socially and economically developed countries, or in those countries which are less patriarchal.
In addition to all the difficulties they have as citizens and members of the LGBTQ+ community, trans people are almost invisible in the society and the media; when they are visible they are usually depicted in a negative way
Serbia seems to have built a wall of silence around the trans community. This approach is flawed in many aspects, especially as some from the trans community report it can have detrimental consequences, including suicide and prostitution.
“The biggest problem in understanding the trans community in our country and in neighboring Hungary is the same, and that is a lack of information. People have no idea who trans people are. They know what it means to be a gay, but for trans people, most people think they are ‘some idiots who wear women’s underwear’,” Zoltan Puskas tells Media Diversity Institute.
Zoltan Puskas is a theatre director born in the small town of Senta in northern Serbia where the Hungarian national minority is located . He describes himself as a double minority; his national and gender identities afforded him minority status. At the age of six he discovered that he was different from other boys. His parents let him dress like a woman, but he never talked to them about his gender identity or sexuality. When he was in school, everybody used to say that ‘it’ was sick, so he was scared and hid his identity. People around him used to say that the traditional way of living should be followed. When he was eleven, he walked in a dress around Senta for the first time. He felt as if he was flying. Today, when he goes to the local market in his hometown dressed as a man, everyone asks him what’s wrong with him. He jokes that it is not easy to be a woman.,
“Those who think that being trans or gay is in fashion these days are also wrong. That is not true. It’s not a choice, that’s how you are born. A transgender person is someone who was born in the wrong body: you were born a man, but everything else is like a woman, your brain works like a woman’s brain, you have a woman’s soul, when it comes to men – you are annoyed by the same things that annoy all other women, and only when hormones overwhelm you,” Puskas continues.
Invisibility is the hardest
“It takes time to understand who you are and accept yourself as such, because nobody talks about it in public. When I was a child you could not even read or hear anything about it, you have no idea what’s going on with you, you think you’re going crazy. This is how your uphill struggle begins and it lasts as long as you live, your life-and-death struggle, because you will never be accepted no matter how you choose to live. There is no normal life for you.
The wall of silence surrounds you – you are ignored by the society, by the media. What is more, when you go to see a doctor because of a common illness, he or she is puzzled and doesn’t know what to do with you. He looks at you frantically and suspiciously. There are constant reminders that you are worth less than other people. Therefore, if you are not strong enough, you sink into depression again and again. Because of that, a lot of trans people end up committing suicide, or they move to the escort zone. These issues are not addressed in patriarchal societies and in countries with social, economic and political problems.” said Puskas.
The way Serbian media treat transgender people is less than ideal. According to Puskas the majority of the population are not aware of the what it means to be a trans person, and that includes journalists as well.
When asked what he thinks how Serbian media understands and portrays transgender people and what issues the media should cover, Puskas says:
“If journalists know nothing about trans people, how can they inform the public?” he says.
In addition Puskas stresses the fact that people simply do not care and even though he partly understands the reasons why it still baffles him as they all live in the same space.
“Of course, I am aware that sexual minorities will never be accepted in this country. Trans people have even experienced rejection and ignorance by the gay community, so, how can I expect someone who does not understand what a trans person is to accept a trans person? A few years ago, the organizer of Belgrade’s Pride Parade did not want to walk side by side with trans people. The gay population does not accept us! So, where are we? The Dark Ages?!” Puskas emphasises.
The director points out that the media in Serbia, and in neighboring Hungary, report on trans people only during the Pride Parade or when trans people are involved in an incident. This exclusionary way of reporting could lead to stereotyping trans people as troublemakers.
Serbian media seem to be interested in ‘trans’ stories that can collect a lot of clicks: stories in which a politician, a sportsman, a public figure is trans, gay or bisexual.. Zoltan Puskas, however, has to deal with two different issues due to his identities: being transgender as well as part of the Hungarian minority. This means that he is concerned both about issues to a personal level.
“I don’t know what is worse: the silence about our existence or the situation in Hungary. A few months ago Orban’s regime in Hungary’s parliament voted to end legal recognition for trans people and they even banned talking about anything connected with ‘sexual minority’ in schools. So we practically don’t exist there. I do not suggest that children should be taught transsexuality or transgenderism, but I think that the society cannot be silent about our presence,” Puskas tells Media Diversity Institute.
In his attempts to bring the life of transgender people closer to the public, theatre director Zoltan Puskas has often dealt with this topic in his work. He has directed two plays with transgender people. Last year he directed Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ in which the three sisters were three transgender individuals who spoke about Orban’s repressive laws in neighbouring Hungary. Apart from dealing with Hungary’s repressive laws the play also dealt with topics of sexuality.
The director says that he wanted to talk about the things the media ignore even though they should not. He wanted to show people what the lives of trans people look like, how trans people think and feel, what problems they have, what they look like when they are unhappy, that they suffer and cry when their love is unrequited or when they are left by their loved ones. Puskas wanted to show that transgender people are just like anyone else.
“I have never had positive or negative media coverage because of my sexuality. It has always been about my work, which is good. I have had negative experiences because I am a trans person in other life situations. That’s why I spend a fortune on taxis in order to avoid unpleasant situations while I walk around the city, because people look at me like I’m a miracle – everybody, men and women, the young, the old, although I never provoke, but you can see my sexuality from the helicopter. On the other hand, wherever I work I am well accepted by the colleagues, in theatres in Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia. I get the respect and love that I do not have in everyday life from them, as well as from my male and female friends,” Puskas tells Media Diversity Institute.
Puskas believes that artists, media and journalists who deal with culture, and even part of the public, accept and understand him better through his art, and it is, according to the director, a matter of talent and ideas, not sexuality. At the same time, Puskas says that his works are differently shaped because he has both a male and female part in himself, that it is something that differs him from those who are only ’men’ or ‘women’. Sometimes, the duality he has in himself is not good for him personally: “But what can I do about it, I am married to myself? You accept it, or you divorce it! ” stresses the director.
Despite the fact the LGBTQ+ community is increasingly thematized in all arts, from film and theatre to dance, fine and visual arts, the trans identity is still a taboo in Serbia. It is not even mentioned for much-needed educational purposes:
“You can’t find it in the media, or only very, very rarely, you can come across a story about people who change their sex. You can’t read what it all means, what kind of process it is, how difficult and dangerous the journey can be. It is not just an operation, but also taking hormones that change the personality, lead to depression, destabilize the personality. You have to go to a psychologist all the time. Most people have no idea what awaits them, because it’s not just – today you are a man, and tomorrow you are a woman, and that’s it. Therapy is never over: you drink hormones till the end of your life. The media should write about it. ” emphasizes Puskas, adding:
“Also, the media should write about the difficulties transgender people have when seeking job. If they are out as transgender at the first job interview, they usually aren’t invited to the second round. They experience various insulting situations, they are made fun of and ridiculed. I know that this is not only a problem of Serbia, but all over the world as well, but in Serbia a trans person can only be an escort, meaning a sexual object in the context of married people. The married, the single, sportsmen, politicians, young and slightly older men, they all flirt with trans people, but only in secret,”says Zoltan Puskas.
Closer to a dignified life
“Senta is the only place where I feel protected, and, although I would say for myself that I am a very brave person, I don’t think I am brave enough to change my gender by surgery. One of the reasons is the fact that in that case, the zone of my work would change, it would be narrowed and shortened. I couldn’t stand it. I love theater, it’s my life, it is my comfort zone. However, with or without the surgery, it is increasingly difficult for me to find the strength for the courage to be my own on a daily basis. However, it is getting more and more difficult for me to find the strength for the courage to be myself on a daily basis, with or without the surgery. Every day you get up and carry your cross. Besides, like any other person, I want a relationship, I want love, I want understanding and mutual respect, but as long as Trans people are kept invisible it is almost impossible to have these things. ” says Puskas, who does not believe that in this environment he will live long enough to see a time when a trans person could have a normal life, life worthy of a human being.
Given the circumstances, it would be normal to expect that Puskas is connected with trans community, but he is an exception:
“I am not connected with any trans community, primarily because 98 percent of trans people in our country are in the escort zone, and I cannot accept that. If you do something for money, it’s business. It is not love. That’s why I’ve been hanging out with heterosexual women for 30 years, my female friends who understand me well, and I understand them. There is no mistake here,” Puskas points out.
The arts and specifically theatre gave Puskas the sanctuary that he needed in order to find himself. Through his work he is able to show the difficulties that the trans community faces in a country that they are visible and in his way he manages to put them in the forefront of society. Although the media in Serbia have failed in every way in their reporting of transgender stories, the arts are providing a safe space and a start to a more visible life.
Note: Zoltan Puskas identifies as transgender and uses both male and female pronouns depending on social situations.
Autor: Snežana MIletić
This article was first published on Media Diversity Institute website.
Photo: nito / Shutterstock
CHILDREN IN TELEVISION PROGRAMS: in between bullying and use for marketing purposes
October 15, 2021
In the programme “T’ka mami yll” (“You’re mom’s star”) a “reality show” dance program for children aged 10-15 years, broadcast on ABC News television, the inappropriate treatment of a child has been identified due to her body weight.
Jury members consistently link the presence of the 8-year-old girl in the program to her excess weight.
Some of the questions addressed to the child are: “Why did you come here?”; “Are you sure [you came to dance]?”; “What do you like better, eating or dancing?”; “Would you give up food to dance?”
Further still, jury members create situations where the child is asked to eat sweets in public, or where they toy with her with eating chips. Her existence in the program is solely reduced to food and eating.
The public has reacted to this treatment of the child by condemning the adults’ behavior, their bullying and psychological violence against her, due to her weight, or nutritional problems.
After the public’s reaction, two members of the jury reacted by explaining that “they had no denigrating or bullying intentions towards the child,” with whose parents they had a close friendship.
“Liana is the daughter of a friend of mine. She has been present at the academy for 6 months, not at all with the aspiration to become a ballerina, but handed over to me by her father for health reasons. This means that the child has nothing to do with ballet, but only to exercise physically, to give up food, because this generation does not eat healthily.”
The actions that adults perform in the program are contradictory to what they express verbally. Giving sweets, canned juices and chips are not equivalent to healthy eating. In addition to being the object of bullying in their eyes, the child is also used for marketing purposes, which affect her psychological, physical, emotional and social well-being.
Treating the child in such a way becomes a trigger and incites social bullying, lowers self-esteem, promotes anxiety, as well as negatively affects the child’s performance in many other areas.
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Albania, the child must be guaranteed protection from any action that affects his social, spiritual and moral well-being, as well as his physical and mental health. Children in the media enjoy special protection, according to Albanian legislation and the “Code of Ethics of Albanian Media.” Under no circumstances should one “benefit” from children, nor should they be asked questions about “personal matters” in the absence or without the consent of their parents.
The State Agency for the Rights and Protection of the Child is one of the public institutions that must ensure the guaranteeing of this protection, together with the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA).
AMA has already made a request to ABC News television to stop practices where the moral and legal requirements for the protection of children’s rights have not been respected, in accordance with law 97/2013, article 4, point 1/c, as well as articles 5.38 and 5.41 of the Broadcasting Code, which specify the special treatment and care that children should enjoy in audiovisual broadcasting.
Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 condemns any behavior or action that promotes bullying and the abuse of children in the media. At the same time, it calls for proactive actions undertaken by accountable institutions in order to improve the situation of child treatment in the media, so that such incidents do not recur.
Autors: Dorentina Hysa and Kristina Lani, Albanian Media Institute
Photo: “T’ka mami yll”, Dance Reality Show, 09 October 2021 (YouTube screenshot)
REPORTING DIVERSITY Training of Trainers – Call for Participants
October 12, 2021
WHEN: 11-13 November 2021
WHERE: Belgrade, Serbia
Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 is inviting CSOs; grass-root activists; human rights defenders; journalists; editors; to attend the Reporting Diversity training of trainers. The training will take place in Belgrade, between 11-13 November and will gather 30 participants from across the Western Balkans.
The organisers will ensure all necessary epidemiological measures are followed.
The participants will gain skills that will help them be more inclusive of minorities’ points of views; recognise hate speech and divisive narratives, its manifestations and be able to counter them. The three-day workshop will focus on three set of skills: campaigning, advocacy, and legal action.
The Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 aims to introduce and establish new practices of counteracting divisive media messages by providing alternative responses, demanding reaction (by the media, civil society, and/or authorities) and publicly exposing perpetrators.
This workshop is designed to equip participants with capacities, channels, resources, and methods to engage more effectively and actively and make countering irresponsible and often illegal behaviour of actors in media sphere part of their regular practice in upholding human rights, rule of law and democracy standards in the region. This entails better-informed and substantiated CSO advocacy actions aimed at achieving policy influence, but also at alternating public perceptions of irresponsible media behaviour through effective campaigns. For these reasons exactly, the Reporting Diversity ToT will focus on increasing participant’s traditional and social media campaigning skills as well as advocacy skills.
All travel and accommodation costs will be covered by organisers. In case you have some specific requests related to travel and/or accommodation please let us know in advance in the comments section.
Please note that, in order to secure safe environment, each participant will be required to have proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test no older than 48 hours.
To apply, please fill in this form before October 24. Selected participants will be notified by October 29.
Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 is established by the Media Diversity Institute, Center for Investigative Journalism Montenegro, Center for Investigative Journalism Bosnia and Herzegovina, South East European Network for Profesionalization of Media, Albanian Media Institute, Institute for Communication Studies, Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans and Kosovo 2.0.
The network is established as part of the 4-year project funded by the European Union. Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade.
BATTLE OVER HEADLINES: The Kosovar and Serbian media are on different planets
October 8, 2021
Another “war” between Kosovo and Serbia has ended. This one was over license plates and brought the north of Kosovo back into the spotlight beyond Prishtina and Belgrade. The scenario of this “war” was similar to others in the north. Kosovo used its most serious police force, the Kosovo Police Special Unit, while Kosovo Serbs again erected barricades in the north, in opposition to the government’s decision to enforce reciprocity on license plates.
Eventually, after almost two weeks of tensions, both sides saw the need to reduce tensions, and they reached an agreement in Brussels that was more or less similar to one signed in 2016. Of course, both governments present the final result as a victory for their own side.
With the end of this “war,” the media war between publications in Kosovo and Serbia also came to a cease fire. The uneven way the media reports on the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia, as in the case of the license plates, is a tradition of the dialogue that has lasted over ten years. Most media in Serbia follow the official state policy, and those in Kosovo largely conform to public opinion. Conflicting public statements about the agreements and the lack of transparency in the dialogue leads to a conducive atmosphere for tensions.
Since the beginning, the dialogue has been derailed by the deliberate misinterpretation of the agreements reached between both sides. Both parties to the dialogue use these interpretations to present certain agreements as historic victories and to hide aspects of agreements at moments when they must compromise.
WHEN THE MEDIA ONLY WORKS TO SERVE THOSE IN POWER, OR TO AGREE WITH THE MAJORITY PUBLIC OPINION, THE FLAMES OF TENSION WILL ONLY BE FANNED.
The media in such cases follows the official line of the state, presenting events how the state sees them rather than how they are in reality. The other side is always to blame. When the media only works to serve those in power, or to agree with the majority public opinion, the flames of tension will only be fanned.
Subtle bits of misinformation guide readers on how they’re supposed to feel. For example, the headlines of most media in Belgrade on September 20 were about ROSU’s seizure of the Brnjak and Jarinje border posts, despite the fact that the ROSU unit of the Kosovo Police has not existed for years. But for most of the press in Belgrade this does not matter. ROSU is conveniently linked to previous conflicts in northern Kosovo and helps the media call back on those events.
Few people in Serbia believe that the epilogue of such conflicts could be war. Many others think that incidents are created for political needs. In fact, the two-to-three day conflicts between Kosovo and Serbia used to be called “weekend wars,” although this time it lasted almost two weeks.
“It seems to us that it was the first time that we came a millimeter away from another armed conflict and, I say without modesty, this was prevented thanks to Aleksandar Vučić. And well done for that, hats off to him,” said Prime Minister Ana Brnabić a few days after the interim agreement in Brussel was reached.
What Prime Minister Brnabić is right about is the fact that Serbia had several times put its army on alert, or at least a part of the army. But since 1999 it had not put these tanks out on the streets, or flown their jets and helicopters in the border area. Serbia can not fly over Kosovo airspace as it is under NATO protection.
Tensions rose on the ground alongside the rising tensions in the media. “HELLISH PLAN REVEALED: Kurti wants a war to create Greater Albania,” was just one of the headlines in the Belgrade tabloids.
Serbia mobilized the entire pro-government media apparatus to react harshly to the Kosovo government’s decision to impose reciprocal measures on license plates. As in previous cases when the National Security Council of Serbia has met, President Vučić again gave the speech he always gives, saying he will not allow “the humiliation of Serbia or unilateral decisions.”
WHILE THE ALBANIAN MEDIA DIDN’T DIRECTLY PROVOKE THE SITUATION, THEY MORE THAN DID THEIR PART IN BROADCASTING THE PROVOCATIONS OF OTHERS.
There was some uncertainty as the tensions rose. Serbian-language media reported that three Serb citizens were beaten and Belgrade hastily accused Kosovo police. Kosovo Police denied that such an event took place. Serbian media then covered the story from the hospital where they interviewed men who gave accounts of being beaten by the police. Petar Petković, head of the office for Kosovo, cast blame on Prime Minister Kurti.
“Albin Kurti is directly to blame for this. Now it is more than clear that he is not interested in dialogue or the resolution of the crisis, but only in trying to occupy the north of Kosovo and Metohija by force,” said Petković.
Serbian media also questioned whether the Kosovo Security Force, Kosovo’s army, had infiltrated the ranks of the police operating in the north.
While the Albanian media didn’t directly provoke the situation, they more than did their part in broadcasting the provocations of others. In addition, the lack of access to the Serb community meant that there was no insightful treatment of the situation.
One of the events that was reported in Kosovo, but hardly at all in Serbia, was the news about the presence of four Russians, supposed infiltrators among the Serbs who were passing themselves off as protesters.
“The Russians brought with them three bags, which they opened only when it was dark,” as one article cryptically put it. The article noted that the Russians’ arrival caused concern among local Serbs, but specified some lines later that the “Serbs had come from Montenegro.”
Prime Minister Kurti was also eager to point out the presence of non-Kosovo Serbs at the barricades. He posted images and biographical details of two men on his Facebook page, describing them as Montenegrin and Serbian extremists with criminal backgrounds and links to the Serbian government. The Serbian media did not report on this.
Crossing the border
Free movement has been a topic of discussion since the beginning of the technical dialogue and the basis of the first Brussels agreement, which included the initial license plate agreement. But even after reaching the agreement ten years ago it was unclear what was actually agreed upon.
At first, Kosovo license plates were not allowed to enter Serbia at all, despite the fact that they did not include the acronym of the republic and were still only “KS.” At one point, drivers with Kosovo plates entering Serbia had to pay around 30 euros for a three-day provisional license and over 100 euros for a month-long license. Later cars with “KS” license plates were allowed entry into Serbia free of charge, but not “RKS” plates.
Soon Serbia was accepting Kosovo identity cards, but no one could explain what the agreement had to say about Kosovo passports. This may not have been a problem for people traveling back and forth between Kosovo and Serbia, but for holders of Kosovo documents traveling by plane through Belgrade, it was a major issue.
THE AMBIGUITY OF AGREEMENTS REACHED IN BRUSSELS IS REINFORCED BY A LACK IN THE MEDIA SPACE.
Serbia now allows travelers with Kosovo ID cards to fly out of the Belgrade airport if they have a valid visa and a temporary document issued by the Serbian police. So two documents and a letter are needed. This has left many travelers confused. Sometimes even the Serbian police do not know the details of the agreement and will say something like, “with these documents you can only travel by land, but not by air.”
The ambiguity of these agreements is reinforced by a lack in the media space. Most Albanian-language media do not have correspondents in Belgrade or Brussels, and few Serbian journalists working in Kosovo speak any Albanian and when reporting tend to show Kosovo exclusively through the official lens of the state. All this does not leave much room for balanced information on such a sensitive issue as the relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
The phenomenon of Kosovar and Serbian media reporting entirely different things has been a part of the dialogue from the beginning. The lack of information about the agreements leaves citizens to figure out the details on their own, without proper guidance. Above all, it hinders the normalization of relations between the two peoples.
This article was originally produced for and published by Kosovo 2.0 within the framework of RDN 2.0 project. It has been re-published here with permission.
Feature image: Atdhe Mulla / K2.0.
HATE SPEECH IN THE WESTERN BALKANS: September Monthly Highlights
October 7, 2021
Throughout the month of September, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. During this month there has been a rise in hate speech including ethnic discrimination and xenophobia towards various ethnic communities as well as instances of homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric across all six Western Balkan states.
Ethnic discrimination in the Western Balkan
For the past five years, the Agreement of Freedom of Movement created between Kosovo and Serbia, demanded that vehicles with licence plates of “KS” could enter Serbia from Kosovo, however, licence plates “RKS” had to be replaced with temporary plates at the border. Cars with Serbian licence plates on the other hand, could enter Kosovo without any problems. Nevertheless, recently, after the Agreement expired on 15 September, the Government of Kosovo decided to introduce reciprocal measures which made crossing borders between both countries more complicated. Most notably, cars with Serbian licence plates would be required to take temporary licence plates when entering Kosovo too.
Following these recent political tensions between both Serbia and Kosovo, there has been a rise in ethnic discrimination and hate speech on both sides. Kosovo Online recently published a post with the title “Drama at Brljak: Special forces tried to get a Serb out of the car, KFOR prevented the incident”. KFOR is a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. According to the post, the “police demanded that a citizen of Serbian nationality get out of the car and remove the KM license plate, which he refused, so they started to pull him out of the car. Who knows how everything would have ended if KFOR members had not come along and calmed down the whole situation, Serbs who were protesting gathered there, and the driver managed to get to safety”. This was not confirmed by Kosovo police, KFOR, on any relevant authority in Kosovo.
As a reaction and protest to the recent reciprocal measures undertaken by the Kurti government in Kosovo, Kosovo Serbs have been blocking two border crossings in northern Kosovo for the past three days. Within the previously mentioned article, Kosovo Online has been sharing and spreading fake news which can only lead to negative consequences. Given the historical and prior interethnic relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo, the spread of harmful disinformation and inaccurate news leads to misinforming the public of actual events taking place thereby creating insecurity and fear.
At the other side of the border, Serbia’s newspaper Informer published an article on their website titled “Shiptars in a panic! America informed them that Vucic is not bluffing- the Serbian army will, in case of an attack, protect the people in Kosovo!”. The article claimed that “Albin Kurti and his extremists do not know what to do! The day after the Croatian and German NATO instructors at the ‘Vrelo’ base near Vučitrna trained them how to break the Serbian blockades ‘in an hour’ and take full control over the north of Kosovo, the Shiptars received a serious warning from the USA”.
The media, especially tabloids have been feeding sensationalist reports on the Belgrade-Pristina happenings, which contribute to raising ethnic tension and division between Albanians and Serbs that can have negative consequences. In addition to using derogatory names when reporting on Albanians, Informer continues to contribute to the spread of disinformation and fear when reporting on the situation at hand. By publishing such sensationalist headlines, the rise in tension and fear amongst the public creates false impressions of conflict which can further spark violence and hatred on both sides. By using such derogatory names and terminology when reporting on Albanians, this runs the risk of fostering hatred especially as Informer has such a large readership and reach.
In Albania, ethnic tension and fear of conflict continues as JOQ Albania, recently posted an image depicting three women in army uniform with the title “Would you join the Kosovo Security Force against Serbia if war erupts in the north of Kosovo?”. This was followed with a ‘poll’ on JOQ Albania’s Instagram page in relation to the growing tensions in the region and fear of conflict. The comments underneath the post were overwhelmingly in support of joining Kosovo against Serbia if war were to erupt, with many comments calling for “joining our brothers”.
The post – which received over 32,000 likes and over 2,000 comments – contributes to the rise of ethnic tensions in the region and spreads misinformation and feeds the public’s fear of the possibility of war and conflict. This also creates a further wedge and divide between the two ethnic communities on the basis of misleading narratives.
Homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric
At the Demographic Summit in Hungary, Milorad Dodik, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s member of the presidency and president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) spread strong anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and homophobic remarks.
During his speech, he made specific references to the traditional role of mother and father within family settings and posed strong opposition and disapproval for same sex couples and families. He said “they want to impose their values on me and I run away from that. Don’t touch me you sick person. Get away from me, do what you want but don’t touch me. And now I am incorrect, but they are correct. There is parent 1 and parent 2. I have not yet said that parent number 1 and number 2 gave birth to a child”.
He furthermore, expressed his frustration towards his right to voice his opinion but arguing that “how is it possible that I cannot speak and that it is politically incorrect to say that the mother is a woman and the father a man. Sorry, I can’t learn that. It doesn’t make logical sense in my head”.
Using such insulting and misleading language when referring to the LGBTQ+ community, can marginalise groups which are already excluded and face unequal treatment within society. Such homophobic comments by someone such as Dodik, who has a large political and public platform, spread anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and hate speech and continue to justify and maintain homophobia in society. Such narratives could lead to acts of hatred and violence. Politicians, who are supposed to represent society and their interests, should be held accountable and responsible for spreading this form of hate speech.
In Montenegro, Vijesti.me published an article in relation to a recent incident of homophobic speech from a member of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS). In that article there was a video which included a highly derogative and homophobic word to describe Dritan Abazović , leader of the United Reform Action (URA) and Aleksa Bečić, the President of Democratic Montenegro. Furthermore, when asked to apologise for using such terminology, the DPS party accused the URA movement of downloading footage from private Viber groups thereby, justifying such inflammatory speech as ‘private footage’. The URA search committee argued that they do not expect “sanctions for this member of the DPS from its main parts, because that is what is characteristic of their political activities”.
Such statements excuse and downplay the use of homophobic hate speech by justifying its use and thereby allowing such terminology to be upheld and accepted within society especially from political parties and individuals.
Hate speech in North Macedonia
Petrit Saracini is a well-known, outspoken civil activist and a former employee of the Government who now works for the CSO ‘Civil Media’ where he regularly comments on various political happenings. Recently, on one of his posts on Facebook, a member of the political party ‘Levica’ published a video comment in which he insinuated that Petrit has ‘little time left’ and even though the exact intentions were not clear, it leaves the doubt whether or not the comments are indeed a threat to the life of Saracini. In his video he said “Petrit you black hold, where are you heading you rat, little bit more, do you know that you won’t have a hole to hide in. Let it out, just a little bit more”.
It is possible that the comment could be interpreted as referring to the period after the local elections which are scheduled for October in which ‘Levica’ expect to receive a high number of votes and gain more political power and influence. The post itself received around 888 views at the time of writing and runs the risk of inciting false information and hate speech towards Sarancini which could further promote and spark violence.