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 July Troll of the Month is T7 TV Channel from Kosovo which displayed strong homophobic narratives and hate speech directed towards the LGBTQ+ community.

T7 is a TV channel located in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina – it has a widespread audience and is both aired live and recorded on social media platforms including Facebook. This homophobic incident took place during a live debate on T7 surrounding the Pride Parade taking place in the city. This year’s fifth Pride Parade in Kosovo was part of the culmination of Pride Week activities held across Kosovo’s capital.

As a television company with national coverage and a source of information to the public, T7 has both a responsibility and duty  to censor and monitor the information which they air.

On the show, Gezim Kelmendi who is the leader of the political party “Fjala”  , was one of the  many of the guests taking part in the debate .  The debate which was dedicated to the Pride March in Pristina, lasted for over an hour and a half. During that time, Kelmendi claimed that the LGBTQ+ community is very dangerous for both society and the county’s birth rate as non-heterosexual partners cannot give birth naturally.

Kelmendi even went as far as to compare homosexual couples to animals by claiming that “not even animals have sex with the same gender” which is extremely degrading and humiliating, as well as an unsubstantiated claim. By making such demeaning and dehumanising comparisons between people and animals, it can lead to the exclusion and marginalisation of the LGBTQ+ community from society.

He furthermore went on to add that in addition to being a threat to humans and being a threat to Kosovo’s birth rate leading to a reduction in the population, they carry two other ‘great dangers’. First, that “they are the main carriers of sexually transmitted diseases” – as he claimed that the “the main carriers of AIDS are the LGBT community”. Secondly, Kelmendi went on to add that due to their activities, their partnerships and life choices, they are unable to donate blood. He chose to back this claim by adding that according to the legislation of the European Union, the LGBTQ+ community is forbidden to donate blood. He went on to say that “imagine how dangerous they are for society when they are not allowed to donate blood” creating a false narrative regarding the ‘dangers’ posed by the LGBTQ+ community.

These dehumanising narratives are extremely harmful, because taking away one’s humanity leads to members of the LGBTQ+ community becoming easy targets of hate crime.

Changing the civil code that would allow for same-sex marriage was one of the main demands of the LGBTQ+ community at this years’ Pride Parade. Lendi Mustafa, an LGBTQ+ activist in Kosovo further highlighted this during this year’s Pride Parade as he addressed ongoing efforts to ensure that same sex marriage is permitted in Kosovo by amending the civil code. Kelmendi took to the importance of the issue and claimed that he believes that Kosovo is currently facing more important issues  than the fight for same-sex marriage. Indeed, these narratives are dangerous as they run the risk of undermining the significance of Pride as all individuals deserve to be treated equally.

It seems that the biggest opponents to the LGBTQ+ community, despite many conservative Kosovans being against people of different sexual orientation, are indeed members of religious communities who invoke alleged moral aspects of religious rules. By using homophobic and derogatory terminology including terms and expressions like “patients, directly endangering the human beings” and homosexuals being “the main carriers of sexual diseases” on live TV, this merely spreads homophobia and hate speech against LGBTQ+ community amongst viewers and members of society.

Harmful disinformation and homophobia

A large number of media outlets reported on the Pride Parade in Pristina this year, which led to hundreds of insulting comments on their social networks in regards to the LGBTQ+ community.

Not only are such comments promoting homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ narratives, but by making such comments on live TV, they are undermining the LGBTQ+ cause and diminishing the real significance of Pride Month and marches that take place to promote equality amongst homosexuals.

Overall, by allowing guests such as Kelmendi to make such comments which promote homophobia and hate towards the LGBTQ+ community, T7 has an obligation to react. 

If such comments are allowed to be made on TV without repercussions this can lead to a very toxic environment and further spur on negative attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community on the basis of opinion rather than fact.

Throughout the month of June, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. As June was Pride Month, homophobia continued to be present within traditional and social media alongside a large range of hate speech including sexist narratives and ethnic discrimination across all six Western Balkan countries.

Ethnic Discrimination between Albanians and Serbs

RDN recently explored the role of the media in creating ethnic tensions and hatred between the Serbian and Albanian population.

Albanian-Serbian relations have been a consistent topic throughout history in which negative stereotypes, prejudice and discriminatory headlines seem to drive a wedge between both populations and fuel ethnic hatred and distrust between both countries.

Recently, in Serbia, Informer.rs published an article titled ‘Arnautovic angry like a lynx! A Serb cursed Shiptar after he tried to hurt him!’. The national football player Marko Arnautovic, who had Serbian roots, cursed racist tones to the player of North Macedonia who has Albanian heritage by using a stereotypically racist terminology ‘Shiptar’. This negative group labelling and inflammatory speech is typically used as a personal insult to humiliate and denigrate people of Albanian ethnic heritage.

Similarly, Albanian news platforms often use derogatory terms such as ‘Shkja’ when referring to Serbs which only supports the notion of the role of media in driving a wedge between Albanians and Serbs leading to ethnic hatred and tension amongst both nations.

Ethnic Discrimination towards the Roma community in North Macedonia

On Facebook, a private user posted a video titled “Roma people are complaining that a genocide is being committed against them, similar to the fascists that built 3-meter walls”. The video which spread on Facebook showed the foundation of what seems to be a wall that was being planned to be built. The social media user published this video with the description that it was believed that the municipality of Gjorche Petrov plans to build a 3-meter wall around a Roma populated area. There was indeed a protest against the building of this wall, but under the video comments there was also a large number of negative stereotypes, hate speech and insults directed to the Roma population.

Roma people are often stereotyped as being “dirty” and “annoying” and indeed the comments below the video seemed to reinforce such sentiments. The supposed wall would block out the Roma populated area from the neighbouring areas populated by non-Roma population. This would only further reinforce the division within the society and the marginalisation of the Roma community.

RDN 2.0 used the occasion to pose a question to its social media users ‘Do you think social media platforms should moderate hate speech more carefully?’, as although some of the commentators may have protested against the building of the wall, ‘for others this was a trigger for numerous hateful comments which perpetuate negative stereotypes and insults directed at Roma community’.

Political Hate Speech in Montenegro

In Montenegro, an article came out on RTCG after a video showing an unknown male person urinating on the monument of the national hero Ljubo Cupic in the city of Niksic was circulating on social media networks. This led to a number of reactions on many social media platforms and included the condemnation from politicians including  Montenegro’s President Milo Djukanovic. President Djukanovic claimed that “this is the most obvious expression of the vampirization of the chetnik ideology that the new parliamentary majority encourages by its inaction”, adding that he expects the competent state bodies to react decisively and adequately. “Otherwise, we will know what to do and how to defend our revolutionary heritage and the most valuable historical values of modern Montenegrin society,” the President of Montenegro concluded.

 When such inflammatory terminology is used, including by powerful and influential members of society such as the President of Montenegro, merely spreads and upholds ethnic divisions and hateful narratives within the region.

Homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ narratives in Kosovo and Albania

In Kosovo the online newspaper Insajderi published an article titled ‘LGBT community seeking to remove the term ‘mother’. The article reported on recent articles published by some British media (such as the Daily Mail and The Sun) which report that LGBTQ+ charities such as Stonewall sought to changing the term ‘mother’ from work documents and replace it with the term ‘the parent who gave birth’. They furthermore, claimed that the community was seeking to avoid using the term ‘father’ as part of their encouragement towards the use of gender-neutral language.

This article was then posted on Facebook in which it received many hateful comments aimed towards the LGBTQ+ community, going as far as calling to “kill those idiots”. This is highly problematic as such headlines and articles run the risk of spreading hateful comments and narratives which contribute to the negative labelling and strong anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric within society.

In recent years there have been several attempts by various organisations to change the Family Code in order to allow for LGBTQ+ families to adopt children and thereby, gain legal recognition of their relationships. Nevertheless, Kosovo’s traditional society seems rigid about changing their attitudes towards this as they do not seem yet ‘ready’ to accept such demands, including the Government (s) who are expected to address the issue themselves.

In Albania, on the online news portal exit.al, a headline read:  “Albanian Journalist Uses Homophobic Slurs on Live Television” whereby the article discussed how on national TV, Blerta Tafani used negative hate speech and inflammatory speech aimed towards the LGBTQ+ community in conversation with LGBTQ+ activist Xheni Karaj. The debate surrounded the topic of introducing the term ‘parent’ rather than the traditional ‘mother’ and ‘father’ in order to allow legal recognition and acceptance of same sex families and couples. Blerta Tafani went on to negatively label same sex couples as part of a “degenerate society’ in which she added that “it’s a great misfortune [that an LGBTQ+ person] gives birth to a child”. She furthermore, went on to compare same sex couples to traditional heterosexual couples by adding that “same sex couples should not start a family” and indeed “cannot start a family” as a “life with two fathers doesn’t work, like with a gay family ends, this is offensive”.

Such inflammatory hate speech aimed at the LGBTQ+ community can be seen to spread hate and negative stereotypes within society who may become opposed to same-sex couples and families on the basis of misinformation and negative labelling.

Sexism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the European Championship, the women’s basketball team achieved significant success. In an article on archive.vn, the basketball player Irena Vrancic, who missed two games after her injury but nevertheless, appeared in a warm-up session with her colleague was applauded on her perseverance by making a direct comparison to other male players. The title read “in the 1^st round she was taken off the field, and what she did today many men would not even think about” – this was a clear example of the success of a women being spoken about exclusively in comparison to the success of men. By positioning women’s success on a scale of comparison to that of their male counterparts, this only further reproduces sexist connotations and discourse whereby a woman is not given a platform of her own on which her success can be judged upon.

Another similar situation occurred when B&H Sports posted a picture on Facebook of one of the female basketball matches against France with the title ‘pure craftmanship that many NBA players would envy..’ This was another example of the success of women being compared to that of men as the NBA League is exclusively played by men.

Such titles and headlines uphold sexism within society.

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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 June Troll of the Month was TV Happy which displayed misinformation, strong sexist narratives and misogyny against women and victims of domestic violence.

The incident occurred on Nacionalna Televizija Happy (National TV Happy), a privately owned Serbian TV channel with a national frequency, during the morning show ‘Dobro jutro, Srbijo’ (Good morning, Serbia). This TV show is broadcast both on TV Happy and uploaded on YouTube in which it has received over 8, 421 views.

During the morning show, Vladimir Djukanovic a politician of the Serbian Progressive Party spoke about gender-sensitive language and the issues surrounding this topic. He went on to say that gender-sensitive language was what he classified as ‘language rape’.

He also added  that quotas in parliament aimed at promoting equality amongst both sexes were unnecessary as according to him, “we gave women a chance everywhere” suggesting that enough efforts from both society and parliament have been taken to promote gender equality.  

Djukanovic also talked about women’s inequality and argued that job interview questions deemed sexist and unfair such as asking a women if she plans to have children which could potentially affect their employment is evidence of inequality in certain fields of society. However, according to him “it does not mean that you should now rape the laws in place and make up that there is some inequality..”

As a conclusion on the adoption of such laws, he commented that “this was an absolute rape of society and the rape of language itself”. He furthermore, went on to accuse many women who reported their husbands for violence as merely doing so to have the weekend free to go out with their female friends. He went on to say that “domestic violence is most often reported in police stations on Thursdays. And do you know why? Because when she reports him, there are 48 hours of detention and he can’t go out until Monday and during that time she goes out and spends time with her friends”. In addition to this comment, the host went on to agree and add “or male friends”.

Spread of harmful lies and misinformation

Regardless of Vladimir Djukanovic’s statement regarding women’s position within society and the steps taken towards gender equality, recent studies have shown to disprove such statements, highlighting the continuing gender gap within Serbia.

According to UN Women, “despite laws and policies promoting gender equality, women are under-represented in decision-making in all spheres of Serbia’s social, economic, and political life. Studies have found that half of women in Serbia have experienced domestic violence, and women and Roma are considered the groups most subject to discrimination”.

Furthermore, despite the Serbian governments promise to take greater efforts towards gender equality and fight against sexism within the workplace, “the growing number of femicide, the gender pay gap, and sexual harassment in the workplace (even by government coalition officials), there are many examples of discrepancies between what the Serbian Progressive Party claims to stand for in terms of women’ rights, and what it actually practices”. This further highlights the gap between what the level of gender equality and women’s rights that is promoted versus its actual implementation within society.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) emphasizes that focusing on ending domestic violence and discrimination is crucial in fighting for women’s rights in Serbia. Therefore, by making such statements on a TV shows that is being broadcast nationally, it runs the risk of downplaying the significance of gender equality and the level of discrimination within both the workplace and private sphere in respects to women’s rights and equality to their male counterparts.

Harmful disinformation and misogyny

These statements and comments regarding domestic violence and abuse including political leaders’ casual remarks of them being a tool for women to get ‘free time in the weekend’ with friends or other men, seriously undermines the importance and seriousness of domestic violence as a topic of issue.

Furthermore, such comments contribute to the spread of sexism and misogyny within society with the spread of harmful misinformation and disinformation surrounding domestic violence and gender equality whilst furthermore, downplaying the significant and seriousness of violence towards women by their partners. By making such harmful comments, the politician as well as TV show undermine the experience of these women and their status as victims of domestic violence whilst ignoring the sense of urgency required in tackling these issues to promote equal rights and women’s safety.

Indeed, it is the responsibility and duty of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media in Serbia (REM) to react to such sensitive issues discussed on programmes such as TV Happy, especially as this is not the first instance of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation aired on this channel. Unfortunately, REM did not reacted to this one and many other problematic content that undermines some important processes within society, such as work on gender equality and diminishing gender based violence.

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Throughout May, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives. Due to June being the month that several events take place globally to recognise the impact of the LGBTQ+ community we will have a country spotlight that focuses on homophobia. During our monitoring activities we have also encountered incidents relating to hate speech based on gender and religion within the Western Balkan media.

Homophobia in the Western Balkans

Around the world, LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated in June as a way of raising awareness for the LGBTQ+ community, promoting equal rights and treatment. Throughout the Western Balkans, Pride parades take place in pursuit of celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and raising awareness to the fair and equal treatment of these individuals within society. Despite this, there have been various incidents of homophobia and hate speech directed towards the LGBTQ+ community throughout the month of May.

Homophobia in Kosovo: Threats and assault against LGBT activist

At 12pm, in the middle of Pristina’s main square, Lend Mustafa, an LGBTQ+ rights activist, received death threats and was publicly assaulted by an individual who approached him shouting “I will kill you” and then spat in his ear.

Even though the LGBTQ+ community in Kosovo is protected by law, they are nevertheless subjected to daily assault, threats and hate directed towards them on the basis of their sexual orientation. Such hate speech and negative homophobic labelling is usually directed through comments on social networks; however, they also occur in daily circumstances.

In an interview with ATV after the attack, Lend Mustafa spoke about the problems faced by the LGBTQ+ community in Kosovo, primarily criticising the Prime Minister Kurti, arguing that his  government was characterised by resistance and tension on the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Homophobia in Serbia: Homophobia towards the adoption of the Law on Same-Sex Unions, the Law on Gender Equality and the Law Amendments to the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination

Since the recent discussions around the adoption of the Law on Same Sex Unions which allows for the legally recognised unions of two people of the same sex or gender to be entered into a civil ceremony, there has been a rise in homophobic hate speech and campaigns opposing such laws.

On a Facebook post, Boško Obradović, the political leader of the political party Dveri, started a campaign called “from family to family” in which he publicly opposed the Law on Same Sex Unions and continued to make homophobic statements towards the LGBTQ+ community. The campaign made claims that such laws and rights were “anti-Christian and anti-constitutional”. During the protest on May 15^th, the campaign went as far as to call on the Government of the Republic of Serbia to withdraw all three laws by claiming that they “would not allow the Constitution to be violated in that way and the definition of marriage and family to be changed”.

This was a clear indication of homophobia and hate speech directed to the LGBTQ+ community against the equal treatment and rights of such individuals within Serbia.

Another incident of homophobic hate speech within Serbia involved the leader of the Narodna Patrola (the People’s Patrol), Damjan Knežević claiming that LGBTQ+ rights were ‘propaganda’. Narodna Patrola is an informal group which, according to their Facebook page, are openly opposed to migrants inhabiting Serbia and spreading discriminatory hate speech. In a speech given in front of the National Assembly, which was broadcast on Facebook, Damjan Knežević made homophobic claims and directed hate towards the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality, claiming it to be “an attack on our culture and family and all our traditional values” adding that the state “talk a lot about the spread of LGBT propaganda”. This hate speech and misinformation directed towards the LGBTQ+ community leads to negative group labelling and the spread of harmful lies surrounding the community’s attempt at raising awareness and fighting for equal rights surrounding family values, same sex unions and equal treatment within society. Such homophobia merely spreads hate and fear amongst society.

Homophobia in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Hate speech against LGBTQ+ community and anti-migrant narrative

The website antimigrant.ba is used as a platform to spread hateful, insensitive comments and narratives towards migrants and the refugees within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Recently, they posted an IOM post (International Organisation for Migration) promoting LGBTQ+ rights on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Transphobia and Intersexphobia on the 17^th of May. The headline “No Comment!!!” was placed under the image as a way to undermine the importance of the event and LGBTQ+ rights in general as well as promoting insulting and degrading hate speech and homophobia.

Homophobia in Albania: Hate speech towards the Open Society Foundation

In an article on Frekuenca info portal, the author pointed their finger towards the Open Society Foundation in Albania and FETE as being responsible for destroying democracy in Albania by promoting homosexuals as the highest value of developing societies, amongst others. The author continued to then to direct hate speech towards the Mayor of Tirana, calling him a “mutant” by claiming that he gets support from OSF himself.

Although this incident was not a direct example of homophobia, the article itself had subliminal messages and homophobic tones throughout. By spreading misinformation and disinformation surrounding the Open Society Foundation and the LGBTQ+ community, this article further promotes homophobia and negative group labelling.

Hate speech against individuals in Northern Macedonia: negative group labelling of civil activist Mersiha Smailovic

In an article in MK Denes, civil activist Mersiha Smailovic was referred to as a jihadist as the title read: ‘Scandal: Terrorist – jihadist criminal cell in SDSM’.

The president of the Union of European Federalists of Macedonia and the leader of the political party Macedonian Concept, Petar Bogojeski shared the article which contained claims relating to the activist Mersiha Smailovic in which she was said to be one of the leaders of an ISIS terrorist cell in Macedonia. This claim was not backed up with any facts or evidence and therefore, was a clear example of misinformation and disinformation. It furthermore made allegations that both her and her family were tied up with jihadist terrorist groups in the region – as this was not backed with any evidence it gives impression it is intended to cause harm and another example of hate speech and disinformation in the media.

Additionally, Petar Bogojeski, in several posts on Facebook, continues to claim that Mersiha Smailovic is tied up with jihadist groups and posts information about imminent attacks to be organized on Macedonian soil by such groups.

This raised concerns around the level of professionality amongst journalists and posts published on the basis of assumption and false allegations rather than claims backed up by research and facts.

Sexism and misogyny in Montenegro: Sex selective abortion  

During the debate on child allowances in the Parliament of Montenegro, the MP of the Socialist People’s Party (SNP), Dragan Ivanovic, came out and said that every citizen has the right to influence the gender of his/her child. Despite condemning selective abortions, Ivanovic argued that everyone had the right to influence and decide on the gender of their future child. This dangerous narrative encourages negative social behaviour including selective sex abortions and can be seen as further perpetuating existing sexism within the country by creating a hierarchical division among genders.

Ivanovic’s comment led to much public anger and frustration including many individuals calling Ivanovic out for his opinion and statements leading to him making a public apology aimed at mothers and women within Montenegro. He went on to argue that his words were misconstrued and that those were not his intentions or meaning however, he failed to clarify his true intentions. Nevertheless, despite his public apology, the incident itself was highly problematic and such sexist narratives can be seen as encouraging and promoting dangerous behaviour.

Montenegro has a history and ongoing problem surrounding the abortion of girls and selective sex abortion. Indeed, a campaign called #nezeljena (#notwanted) was created in order to oppose the abortion of girls and raise awareness of these issues within Montenegro. According to them, there are already around 3000 less women in Montenegro then there should be as a result of selective sex abortion.

Furthermore, according to an article in Radio Slobodna Europa, the aftermath and effect of selective sex abortion has taken a toll on the demographic environment within Montenegro whereby today there is a lack of more than a thousand women in their reproductive age due to selective abortion.

Therefore, such comments and statements made my members of parliament and political leaders alike leads to the spread of hateful behaviour and upholds sexism within the region rather than tackling the issue at hand.

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 May Troll is Fax.al news which displayed Islamophobic, sensationalist headlines falsely linking a violent attack in the Dine Hoxha mosque in Tirana to extremism.

The incident occurred on the online news portal of Fax.al where the sensationalist headline read: “The attack on the mosque in Tirana can be launched by extremism”.

The story covered an attack by a 31-year-old with a history of mental health issues. He was arrested by the police after stabbing five people who were in the middle of their prayer inside the ‘Dine Hoxha’ mosque. Prior to the attack, he had also injured a person on a bus.

Despite the suspect being brought up in a Christian family, the fact that he had recently converted to Islam was picked up by the media outlet who then went on to label him a “terrorist”, emphasizing that he “committed the attack in the holy month for Muslims”. They furthermore, labelled him as a “Christian terrorist” then progressing to claim that the suspect said that “Muslims must be punished”, and the he should be “investigated for terrorism” by creating claims that the “event might be related to violent extremism”.

This case is an example of hate speech towards religious communities. It specifically includes Islamophobic comments and unfounded claims relating the young man’s actions to the religion of Islam and extremism. The media headlines highlighted the man’s religious background and need for “Muslims must be punished” whilst disregarding the fact that the individual had a history of mental illnesses. By making a casual relation between the man’s actions and Islam, the newspapers were quick to publish Islamophobic and stereotyped headlines which spread misinformation and disinformation regarding the version of events. Additionally, the spreading of harmful lies and negative group labelling increases hostility and hatred towards individuals on the basis of false allegations.

Albania is a country characterised by its peaceful, multi-ethnic and religious diversity. Such Islamophobic headlines and false allegations run the risk of creating hatred and tension between these communities and can almost be seen as an attempt to drive a wedge between such religious groups, increasing fear and hatred towards one another on the basis of false claims and misinformation.

Harmful taboos

Another important issue raised within the article is the taboo around mental health. Within the article there were many references made to the individual being described as a “psychopath”, “crazy” and “mentally sick” – furthermore highlighting the importance around the need of awareness-raising and education when reporting on such sensitive issues whilst minimising the risk of creating negative labels and hate speech.

According to psychiatry.org media outlets should report sensitively around the topic of mental health by paying close attention to their use of phrasing and language in which the mental health condition “is only one aspect of a persons life, not the defining character”.

Furthermore, they should try to avoid and stay away from derogatory language which was evident in this case through the use of terms like “crazy” and “psychopath”. Media outlets should choose their words carefully when reporting on mental health.

Indeed, according to the Albanian Code of Journalistic Ethics, journalists “must avoid, by all means, the discrimination based on race, sex, language, religion, political views, physical handicap, social or national origins”. This article can be seen as an example of a violation of such codes by linking the individuals religion to their mental health.

According to Mohit Varshney et al. in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health:

“In public perception, mental illness and violence remain inextricably intertwined, and much of the stigma associated with mental illness may be due to a tendency to conflate mental illness with the concept of dangerousness. This perception is further augmented by the media which sensationalises violent crimes committed by persons with mental illness, particularly mass shootings, and focuses on mental illness in such reports, ignoring the fact that most of the violence in society is caused by people without mental illness. This societal bias contributes to the stigma faced by those with a psychiatric diagnosis, which in turn contributes to non-disclosure of the mental illness and decreased treatment seeking, and also leads to discrimination against them.”

Harmful false narratives and misinformation

Despite further investigation being carried out into the case following both attacks that the Albanian media described as “acts of terrorism”, it soon became clear that the media made several false allegations and some journalists did not fact check their information before publishing their article.  

This highlights the importance of unbiased and professional journalism as well as the significance of fact checking. News stories should be backed up by evidence, facts, and truth. This was a clear example of misinformation and disinformation in which the journalists rushed into reporting and publishing a version of events, falsely labelling it as a ‘terrorist attack’, without waiting for the incident to be investigated by the police and justice system alike.

Hate speech is commonplace in public discourse in the Balkans

Offensive language, insinuations, labelling, presenting false information about people in public discourse with no holds barred, whether it is the media or the assembly i.e., in public debates, or in messages on social media and other public platforms, has become more the norm than an exception in the Western. Balkans.

Despite the existence of both codes of ethics and legal protection, hate speech is a part of everyday life, it is shared in public without a second thought. This blog is dedicated to our “non-accountability” to what is said in public discourse. “Got killed by the harshest of words” (Ubi me prejaka reč) was a line in a song sung a long time ago by Branko Miljković, as well as many others who became victims of “hate speech” in public communication and never managed to get rid of the burden of the spoken insults, lies, labelling. Even when they would prove that they are right in court, as a rule, public opinion never stands to correct them. So, it is not a matter of penalizing “hate speech” but preventing it. This is one of the very important tasks of media literacy of young people and the citizen at large.

Code(s) of Journalists

The first level of protection against hate speech when it comes to the media, be it traditional or digital media, are the so-called professional codes of ethics. In the Code of Journalists of Serbia, hate speech is mentioned only in Chapter IV “Accountability of Journalists”:

“1. The journalist is, above all, accountable to his readers, listeners and viewers. That accountability must not be subordinated to the interests of others, and especially to the interests of publicists, the government and other state bodies. A journalist must oppose anyone who violates human rights or advocates any kind of discrimination, hate speech and incitement to violence.” Guideline 3 adds “Colloquial, derogatory and imprecise naming of a certain group is inadmissible.”

The Code of Journalists of Montenegro defines “hate speech” in much more detail on page 13 in the Guidelines for Principle 4 under 1.4 “Hate speech”, stating:

“(a) The media may not publish material intended to spread hostility or hatred towards persons because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental condition or illness, as well as political affiliation. The same is true if there is a high probability that publishing some material would provoke the aforementioned hostility and hatred. (b) The journalist must avoid publishing details and derogatory qualifications about race, colour, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental condition or illness, family status, and political affiliation, except if it is in the public interest. (c) A journalist must take special precautions not to contribute to the spread of hatred when reporting on events and phenomena that contain elements of hatred. It is the journalist’s obligation to respect other states and nations.”

In the Code of Honour of Croatian Journalists, item 13 “Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms” states that,

 “In the line of their work, journalists shall respect, protect and promote fundamental human rights and freedoms, and in particular the principle of equality of all citizens. Special accountability is expected when reporting or providing commentary on the rights, needs, problems and demands of minority societal groups. Information on race, colour, religion or nationality, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, any physical or mental characteristics or disease, marital status, lifestyle, social status, financial standing or level of education shall be provided by the journalist only if it is extremely relevant to the context in which it is presented. It is inadmissible to use stereotypes, pejorative terms, debasing portrayal, as well as any other form of direct or indirect incitement or support of discrimination.”

This is the case in all other professional codes of ethics in the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as in the world, as they are based on the elementary document of this type, the so-called “Munich Declaration” from 1971. Namely, the representatives of the journalists’ trade union of six member states of the European Community adopted the “Declaration on the Rights and Obligations of Journalists of the European Community” (Lorimer, 1998, 156-158) on the basis of which many national associations of journalists and some media houses later on created their own internal codes of behaviour. Of course, the phrase “hate speech” came into public use many decades later, but the model was recognized in this document, made exactly half a century ago.

The legislation of all countries recognizes the concept of “insult” and it is a very controversial and sensitive “tort”. We will therefore quote the explanation of a very famous judge from Serbia, Miša Majić:

“When it comes to the crime of insult, things are not as simple as it may sometimes seem. What constitutes conflicting views in case law is contained in paragraph 4 of Art. 170 of the Criminal Code. Namely, it is stated here, among other things, that the perpetrator shall not be punished for an act of insult if the statement is given as part of serious criticism in a scientific, literary or artistic work, in performing official duties, the journalistic profession, political activity, defending a right or protecting legitimate interests, if it is clear from the manner of expression or from other circumstances that this was not done with the intention of belittling. Thus, the court that would have to assess, taking into consideration all the circumstances of the case, whether the statement, which is purely objectively seen as offensive (the plaintiff is a “liar”), was given in this case in defence of some rights or protection of legitimate interests, and whether the manner of expression and other circumstances indicate that this was not done with the intention of belittling. Therefore, both of these elements (circumstances + intentions) would have to be present.”

Since this “general place” can also be found in all court practices throughout the Balkans, we believe that we have resolved the basic dilemmas about whether hate speech has been “processed” in ethical and legislative practice. Yet, why is “hate speech” still very much present in public discourse and how do we curb it? The answer to these questions is not at all simple. One possible solution was given in an advocacy video of the NGO Buka from Sarajevo, which got millions of views in just a few days.

Creative indication of “excessiveness”

Here is just a part of the dialogue of this video, as an example of general non-accountability in the vocabulary choices we witness every day:

“Give me a veal shank, you fat pig.

 – Will this one-pounder do, or would you like two pounds, you Turkish whore?

– One pound is fine, you Chetnik fagot.”

Marija Janković, a BBC journalist, wrote the article “Hate Slavs and the Balkans: How the Yugoslav Anthem Inspired the Fight Against Hate Speech”, on April 12, 2021. The article quotes Aleksandar Trifunović, director of Buka: “The initial inspiration for the video was the song Hey, Slavs, which was the anthem of former Yugoslavia for almost half a century”, adding: “This time we decided to fight hate speech just like the vaccines fight coronavirus – you have to put a piece of the virus in the vaccine to kill the virus. So, we had to insert a piece of hate speech to fight it.”

It seems that the video really is one of the possible solutions against hate speech, because it was broadcast on the Internet, which is a communication channel that young people prefer, so it is most likely to reach the target group online and try and make them aware and help them learn how to recognize “hate speech” and how to stand up against it. It showed, in a creative and sarcastic way, how we have completely lost our sense of etiquette, decency and communication in public speech, the goal of which should be dialogue and debate, and not insulting and belittling anyone around us who might be different.

This did not happen overnight

In essence, it all started thirty years ago, when newspaper articles in the media on the territory of the entire former Yugoslavia “fired from all available linguistic means” or as our famous sociolinguist Professor Ranko Bugarski PhD said in his book “Language from Peace to War” – it was words that were fired first on the territory of former Yugoslavia, the cannons came after. Let us also recall the war reporting of the 1990s. When the media reported from the battlefield, each side in the conflict called the other in the most derogatory words and expressions, which were dug up from vocabulary used in the past, such as “Ustasha”, “Chetnik”, “Balija” to much more ominous ones, such as “Alija’s rapists and haters”, referring to politician Alija Izetbegovic who was the leader of Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks as they later identified themselves.

So, what the media industry started then continues today and is exacerbated by the potential provided by new digital technologies, allowing users themselves to comment on texts posted in online editions of traditional media or on new media portals, or to speak their mind on social media. The very possibility of being anonymous and the absence of a clear boundary between the private and the public in the online sphere has contributed to the fact that many have forgotten about civility in communication.

“Street slang and curse words have become commonplace in public communication, in parliament, in political life in general. The reason for this is not the lack of linguistic or political culture, but a deliberate policy of verbal violence” (Ranko Bugarski, NIN, 19.11.2020, page 20). It is about exerting power through linguistic choices, which political ruling elites practice on a daily basis in communication with journalists, the public, and politicians.

The model of public communication they have established is also becoming the model of “best” practice for others, a pattern according to which anything goes, regardless of whether it crosses the boundaries of basic decency and enters the area of ​​open verbal violence. If the statements of Members of Parliament are not sanctioned, like the one of Voislav Šešelj, which is one of the countless examples of hate speech spoken behind the rostrum of the most democratic body of every society, then it is impossible to expect different models of communication to be present in public discourse in other spheres: “You know, you have heard of Snezana Chongradin, she is very ugly, uglier even than Stasa Zajovic. Stasa Zajovic is a catch compared to her. She looks like a mongoose. A real mongoose, I swear on my life. Can you imagine that Snezana Chongradin, who looks like a mongoose, wrote…”.

And what does the online community write?

No one gets worked-up anymore about the statements coming from the parliamentary rostrum that insult all those who are not us, because they have become part of the daily “parliamentary repertoire” and the fight “for a better tomorrow”. The online community cares even less about etiquette in public discourse. Such posts on Twitter are part of the daily offer of hate speech and expression of intolerance towards people with different opinions, even when they condemn hate speech:

“There, within his four walls, he’ll be able to take off his mask bearing the Montenegrin Coat of Arms, which really did not help to contain him, for he bit and chewed through it with his retrograde and extremist opinions.”

On April 21 1991, an All-Serb rally was organized in the village of Jagodnjak in Baranja county. The Serbian MP Milan Paroshki spewed terrible hate speech, telling the Serbs who live there: “You can kill whoever says that this is not Serbian, as if they were a dog near the fence”.

Where would Marina use hate speech? Lying dogs! She is known for being a tolerant and peace-loving MP. Until she puts on animal-print high heels and gets her hands on a bottle or a fire cracker!

Is there a pattern that is followed without a second thought?

Hate speech has clear patterns at the explicit and the implicit level i.e., concerning both content and form. The content is easily recognizable, chiefly through the vocabulary that is obscene and obscure and not appropriate for public speech, but it is also easiest to identify and if there is a desire, it can be easily excluded from public communication by simply moderating user comments on a news portal, filtering out such content. Actually, anyone who does not want their “personal space” to be polluted, they can block people who spread hate speech on Twitter or unfriend them on Facebook. For the most part, lexical aggression is absent in traditional media, with the exception of tabloids.

According to the research of CEPROM “Communicative aggression in Serbia 2019”, aggressive communication is six times more present in the online sphere compared to print media, because as many as 86 percent (17,169 texts) of problematic texts containing hate speech, sensationalism and aggression were published on news portals, while 14 percent (2 795 texts) were published in the daily press.”

The situation is much more complicated with narratives and discourse strategies that implicitly spread hatred and intolerance towards those who do not belong in one’s group or have a different opinion, in both traditional and new media. In order to deconstruct discourse strategies, we still need a scientific apparatus, and therefore researchers have a big and serious task to analyse the public speech of “symbolic elites” (a term of Teun A. van Dijk) in the Western Balkans, which have contributed to communicative pollution of public space. Journalists, writers, publicists, directors, actors, and other representatives of the creative industry are considered to be part of the symbolic elites, because they are the ones who can subtly mediate hate speech on behalf of the political ruling power in a way that is not clearly identifiable and therefore the audience’s defence mechanisms are not prepared and often do not react at all.

There are countless examples, especially in the media. It is enough to convey the words of participants in events that spread hate speech without adding any comment, or to publicise an event that does not deserve it, because it is not significant enough to be considered “of public interest” i.e., that certain subjects of social practice are never quoted directly in the media because they do not belong to ruling elites, and others dominate TV air-time with public appearances because they have the power in society to speak whenever and wherever they wish, whatever the occasion and whatever is on their mind. For example, in 14 analysed editions of the prime-time television news of the Serbian public broadcasting service, Aleksandar Vučić was quoted 28 times, on average twice per edition.

If a certain social group is always portrayed in a negative context, regardless of its actual public appearances, actions, or inactions, that also constitutes hate speech, which is always the case when it comes to opposition leaders in the Western Balkans. Contrary to this, the statements of young leaders of the ruling party are ever-so-present in the media, and they use every opportunity in the Assembly to speak negatively about the opposition, which, by the way, is not even present in the national parliament. Whatever the topic, it is only important to mention the opposition in a negative context, because firstly, the sessions are broadcast live, and secondly, the media and social media cite it abundantly later on, making the popularity grow: Luka Kebara “Just look at how former tycoon politicians like Mr. Dragan Đilas or Mrs. Marinika Čobanov-živka-morović Tepić, they were among the first to say that the vaccine was not good, that our state was not able to procure those vaccines, and they were among the first to run and get a jab of that vaccine at the first chance they got. And they received vaccines from various producers, members of their party, that banana-party, freedom, justice, whatever its name is, an irrelevant party”.

Who are the best target practices for hate speech?

In the Western Balkans, they are always the same subjects, those who do not possess any social power, being a convenient group to be subject of attack so as to divert the public’s attention from much more important topics, such as various wrongdoings of those who have that power. So, in addition to the opposition, there are also migrants, journalists who criticise the government, marginalized groups, national minorities, and the LGBT population.

The media have power and use it extensively in the Western Balkans to produce and spread “moral panic” and further marginalize societal groups by condemning them with the abundant use of hate speech, as symptoms and causes of wider social tensions and immorality of all kinds, be it disinformation, manipulative content or fake news.

The patterns are always the same, and these specific examples are only nuances of the manifestation.

Author: Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, PhD

The artickle was first pubnished in ResPublica, where you can read it in Albanian, Macedonian and Bosnian/Montenegrin/Serbian.

Photo credit: Andrii Yalanskyi/ Shutterstock

Throughout April, RDN monitoring team has detected diverse type of hateful narratives. This month we will have a country spotlight including five Western Balkans countries.

Roma in North Macedonia: Hate speech from high school teacher on International Roma Day

A teacher at the economic high school in Tetovo made offensive comments on her Facebook account towards the Roma community during the International Roma Day. In her post, she stated that she does not understand why Roma people are celebrated, and she further humiliated them by saying that they are lazy and that they want everything given to them without investing any effort.

“I do not understand why you feel so sorry for the Roma. There are some of them in my neighborhood and I know them very well. If they had a little more power, they would make us – Albanians – disappear. […] Nobody forbids their education; they do not want to work and they want everything given to them on a plate.”

The fact that a high school teacher and a member of the educational community in North Macedonia made such comments hurts public discourse in the country and encourages hate speech towards the Roma community. Additionally, as an authority figure among the students, the teacher might incite and perpetuate further hate among younger generations of non-Roma students, as well as make Roma students feel even more marginalized than they already are.

In addition to this case, the media in North Macedonia recently highlighted some very stereotypical and dangerous definitions of ‘Roma’ in high school textbooks. Roma people are referred to as “mainly uneducated” and those who “reproduce in old, traditional ways” calling for measures to control birth rates within the Roma community.

Roma in Albania: Derogatory terminology and analogies to chaos and disorganized political and social context

During a prime-time TV show in which COVID-19 vaccines were discussed, journalist Enton Abilekaj, used the pejorative term “gypsies”, which is offensive towards the representatives of the Roma community in the local Albanian context. During this incident, Enton Abilekaj was not targeting Roma people themselves, however, by using the term “gypsies” to refer to chaotic and disorganised practices he perpetuated an offensive stereotype and made harm created bad ideas about the Roma.

Olsi Sherifi, a Roma journalist, reacted to this by drawing attention and writing an informative article about the Roma community in the country in which he also mentioned the legal context. Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 partner in Albania- Albanian Media Institute highlights that it is a good practice that a Roma journalist acted and reacted on this incident. The reaction from a community member is most suitable and, in terms of the media, it is important to give platform to the voices of Roma professionals.

On 8 April 2021, Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 marked the International Roma Day in which the underrepresentation of Roma people in the media was highlighted as a concerning trend in all Western Balkan countries, including Albania. By giving the spotlight to Roma community members and associating them with negative stereotypes only further perpetuates the marginalization of the community in the media and the society.

Sexism in Kosovo: Basketball player, Milica Dabovic, subjected to sexist and nationalist speech for signing a contract with basketball club in Tirana

When basketball player Milica Dabovic announced on her Instagram profile that she had signed an agreement with a basketball team in Tirana, the web portal Kosovo Online which operates in the north of Kosovo, republished the news. Dabovic wrote on Instagram:

 “New life, new goal, what a feeling! Finally my dream come true. I waited for so long. Thank you!”

Kosovo Online’s republication of the news on their portal and later on their social media, caused Facebook users to use hate speech on the Facebook post’s comments. Commenters used the words “bitch”, “cow” and other derogatory names for Milica Dabovic.

Tangible tensions between Serbians and Albanians in Kosovo are obvious in most of the comments. In this particular context, basketball player Dabovic is being attacked for saying that her dream came true by getting a chance to play for a Tirana based club. For this, she faced numerous verbal attacks on social media. Among other names, she was called a traitor of her own nation. 

Homophobia in Serbia: Homophobic hate speech on Serbia’s national broadcaster’s TV show “Happy”

Two guests of TV Happy’s morning show who are public figures in Serbia -Miroljub Petrovic and Dragoslav Bokan – discussed the potential adoption of the Law on Same-Sex partnerships and LGBTQ+ rights. Petrovic and Bokan had several quite problematic statements that are considered hate speech and can even cause harm to the safety of the LGBTQ+ community in Serbia.

In their appearance Petrovic and Bokan also used some conspiracy theories. They said:

“The gay lobby controls finances in the world and the fastest way to get a job is not to finish school or college, but to become part of the LGBT population. And then you get a job fast”.

In addition:  

“The Gay Parade has nothing to do with homosexuals, it has to do only with people who want to destroy Serbia. Homosexuals are victims, they are Trojan horse”.

These narratives that claim that the fight for equality of LGBTQ+ community is driven by an external agenda only removes the focus from the real problems and challenges that these marginalised communities deal with.

Moreover the comment “[a]ccording to the Bible, the death penalty is prescribed for homosexualism” can potentially incite violence.

All this happened on a TV show that was broadcasted on a television with national frequency, it was afterwards shared on TV Happy Morning show YouTube channel and had around 34056 views.

Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans, has had a public reaction that pointed out that this kind of speech is homophobia as well as pointed out at lack of reaction of both hosts and Regulatory Authority.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Hate speech towards journalist Nidzara Ahmetasevic and migrant and refugee communities

In Bosnia and Herzegovina there were several incidents related to anti-migrant narratives which intersect with other incidents towards women and women journalists. The hate speech that comes from the website antimigrant.ba is not new to RDN monitoring team who selected this web platform as Balkan Troll of the Month earlier this year for spreading harmful and hateful rhetoric towards the migrant and refugee communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Namely, this same website used derogatory characterizations towards  journalist Nidzara Ahmetasevic, who was previously targeted by police brutality. The web portal named Ahmetasevic a ‘’pro-migrant mafia’’. They also targeted the Facebook account of a solidarity platform Trans-Balkan solidarity and named them Transsexual solidarity and labeled them as pro-migrant mafia by alleging that they accuse citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina for spreading COVID-19 towards the migrant communities.

The web portal antimigrant.ba has been reported to the local Press Council for numerous incidents related to hate speech.