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 April Troll is Kosovo football coach Tahir Batatini who showcased sexist behavior on national television in Kosovo towards female journalist Qendresa Krelani.

The incident occurred during the TV show “Sport Total“ on TV Koha Vizioni KTV. The journalist Qendresa Krelani asked Tahir Batatini, football coach of the club Lap: “Mr.Batatini, when you have results such as yours all the time, what are your aims? Batatini answered: “In journalism, you can stack newspapers, or clean something, but not analyse football in this way”. Batatini also added: “Your level is not that of a journalist, starting from your appearance”.

Despite the fact that so far there were no statements such as this one, society in Kosovo is still predominantly patriarchal. Although there are women in sport journalism are , it is still perceived mainly as a male profession. Social media comments related to this incident confirm this.

Just few days after the sexist comments by Tahir Batatini, another sexist and homophobic incident happened, involving Kosovo Imam Shefqet Krasniqi who also appeared on national television to share his views on gender role divisions and other patriarchal viewpoints.

Kosovo 2.0 and Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 article “We Are Barely Scratching the Surface of Sexism in the Media“ by Dafina Halili gave an overview of both incidents while challenging sexism in Kosovar media and the lack of reaction by media organisations more generally.

“One has to be a football expert in order to assess the words of the sports journalist, but Batatina didn’t patronize her for her lack of expertise but for her gender, just as Krasniqi does with all women,” writes Halili, and continues: “Furthermore the hegemonic masculinity of sports and religion traditionally sees women sports journalists, or any women, as unwanted newcomers in the male realm who should have stayed in the kitchen. And the media reproduces exactly that deformed reality within a patriarchal ideology. How media organizations participate in the culture of oppression is best seen through the immediate reaction — or lack of it — from journalists, editors and media owners toward the sexism by Batatina and Krasniqi. One might expect their comments to instantly backfire, but there was minimal reaction from journalists in the studio, or their superiors. “

Marking the World Press Freedom Day, Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 put the spotlight on the diverse challenges that women journalists face in the Western Balkans. The campaign shared the daily struggles and efforts of women journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia; from not being treated equally to their male counterparts to being target of sexism comments, threats or brutal campaigns. Women who report on corruption and abuse of power or who try to promote the minority rights tend to face more challenges.

Ahead of World Press Freedom Day, the report “The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists“ was published and revealed striking findings related to online violence and hate directed towards women journalist. The report is based on a global survey of 901 journalists from 125 countries conducted in five languages; long-form interviews with 173 international journalists, editors, and experts in the fields of freedom of expression, human rights law, and digital safety and two big data case studies assessing over 2.5 million posts on Facebook and Twitter.

The research identifies some worrisome trends, reflected in the findings such as that 64% of all white women journalists surveyed said they had experienced online violence, the rates were higher for those identifying as Black (81%), Indigenous (86%), and Jewish (88%). Similar is found for lesbian and bisexual journalists, where 88% and 85%, respectively, have declared they face online abuse compared to 72% of heterosexual women.

Read the full report published by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and under commission from The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) here.

Selma Selman is an artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. She incorporates her creativity, but also identity aspects into her artwork. Being part of a Roma family that earns their living from collecting and selling iron, Selma uses iron and reusable materials in her art. In her show Mercedes Matrix breaks a Mercedes car with the help of her family in front of an audience in order to question labour and capitalism in Roma settings and beyond. The Selman family wrote “Selma Selman is Tito” – referring to the Yugoslav leader – on their family van to point out the solidarity spirit and power she brings to their village. Selma owns Selma Selman studio in Bosnia and helps young Roma girls to obtain necessary education through her foundation.

Selman says that as a Roma woman she has been targeted by a lot of hate speech. Selman’s approach to combating hate is to ignore it to the point when haters become conscious of their own unhappiness.

This episode of the podcast “Young and Diverse” is created in cooperation with the podcast Celebrate Life and local artist from North Macedonia, Goran Kostovski- Indog. You can listen to the full episode here.

This pandemic has changed the world. Marginalized communities have been ignored. Kids were not able to attend school because of the lack of computers. Recently you made your own studio and with your last project “Get the Hack to School“you did a lot for the local community. Can you tell more about this project?

Thinking about the pandemic makes me think about the situation of Roma people, before and now. And the reality is that Roma people were always in a trouble, even before the pandemic, but now it is even worse. There was never a good situation where Roma people could live normally and with the pandemic it is much worse.

And in regards to that I realised that I have to create something; a cultural institution in my village because such a thing doesn’t exist there. I realised that I am going to open and build my studio as a place where everyone, not restricted to Roma, can come, borrow a book, borrow a laptop, ask for information they need. This is a place that serves for education and emancipation.

Talking about this, my project “Get the Hack to School” which started in 2017 is actually funding firstly girls with full scholarships. The reason why I am targeting girls is because I want all of these girls from my village to have elementary school [education]. This is somethings which I think is a human right for every child and for Roma girls. This foundation is not restricted only to Roma girls. I am also giving scholarships to boys. From 2017 to 2020 we were giving out school lunches, but because of the pandemic we had to stop this because it was not safe.

For now I can say that we did a lot of progress with this small help. (…)For example now we have one girl who enrolled into Law school, one girl is studying art school, 2 boys into high school and all other kids to primary school.

As much as this is beautiful to do at the same time is very hard for me. I have to serve as a [role] model. Being a [role] model means that you cannot fail. It means that you always must show them that education is the right way to have a normal and good life. At the same time you always have to have the trust from those girls that you wish the best to them. Since the Roma people were traumatised by the white people, where the white people were using them whether to get funds or some things from them, Roma people started to assume that even someone who is coming from their own community is also trying to abuse them. This is why this is a big challenge for me to gain the trust. I can say that I really have huge respect for my community and family.

In one interview for the Macedonian feminist festival Prvo pa Zensko (First Born Girl), you state that the Roma are the planet’s leading social, ecological and technological futurists. Roma people have been recycling for many years and earned a living from this, while the Western world only a few years ago started to become aware of recycling plastics as a benefit. How to overcome those narratives in the Balkans in which Roma are just perceived as collectors of plastics for their own survival- but often people miss to see the great ecological contribution they have with this job?  

For many years, people who were collecting iron, scrap metal or plastic were perceived as people who were working undervalued labor. It was not interesting 100 years ago to collect this stuff, because people didn’t think about ecology so much. The funny and at the same time beautiful thing is that Roma people were unconscious that they were helping themselves, but also to the world.

You speak in many ways through your art as a Roma woman, you relate to your origins in Bosnia despite being famous worldwide, bringing close connections to how your family lives and works. In your exhibition Mercedes Matrix you question the concepts of labor, survival, economic struggles and daily living of Roma families. Can you elaborate on Mercedes Matrix exhibition?

To be honest my family really loves to participate in my show. They like that they can be paid more. The interesting part for the Mercedes Matrix show in 2019 was that this was the first time I did a public performance with my family.

Mercedes Matrix was the intro into collective performances with my family. They told me that when they do this performances with me it is totally different situation and circumstances in the art world. They said that when they usually do this work at home, breaking cars on a daily basis doesn’t represent anything more than a job that gives you money. And this job does not represent a value. You don’t get any value for this job. You are perceived as an iron picker and nothing else. But when they were transformed into these circumstances in the art world they felt proud of what they do. This was the first time for them that they have been recognized.

You have a picture in your family van that says “Selma Selman is Tito“. What is that about?

People always told me that Tito is not a woman. The fact is that Tito, in the former Yugoslavia, represented someone who had the power- the power to lead the nation. Regardless of the troubles and problems in which Yugoslavia went. I think that Tito represented power and this is what I represent to my village.

For many Balkan countries, the rule of “hate silence“ in the media applies to many community groups including the Roma community. In this case, hate is not expressed through the discourse or reporting, but through ignoring and staying silent. For what problems that concern the Roma community in the Balkans do the media stay silent?

The media has a big role [to play]. Any media, but especially social media. They have to be really conscious of what they do. I know from my personal experience. I get a lot of hate from white people. I am on all social media and all media in Bosnia. People like to interview me. I use the media and interviews in order to say something clever for them. I give interviews to those portals who are read by haters and those who are read by educated people. From those people who read those, I would say, “cheap“ portals and magazines you get a lot of hate. You can see how much time they have to actually share the hate. On one of my interviews I got 300 comments which are all about hate. The hate always existed and stereotypes based on anything. In order to fight that you show them how successful you can be and not react to their stupidity.

It is really easy to hate. Who are those people that decide on what someone else has to do and they instantly hate? Why do people hate?

It is a really great philosophical question. Why [do] people hate? At the same time why people love? It is the same. It is just like yin-yang.   The darkness exists in the happiness and the happiness exists in the darkness. We need to find the balance and the balance is the hardest to achieve. People who hated you that means that they are not satisfied with themselves and the only way to feel a little bit happier is if they make you sad. We live in a world where many people are unhappy, because of the government, because of the salaries, because of the money, the law… I cannot even judge these people. The only way how to fight it is to just let it go. Then, they themselves will maybe die in hate or be unhappy all their life.

What would you recommend to the young people in the Balkans?

Maybe I can say something through me, what I have learned through all this experiences with travelling, working, troubles, living in underprivileged circumstances and making myself visible. The only thing which helped to build myself is that I never perceived myself [as being]different as people would call me. I always perceived [myself] normal and equal to others. I never perceived myself as not being able to do something. I always viewed that if I want something I can really do it regardless of how much time it is going to take, but it is going to happen. For me, I don’t believe in the hard work, but in the clever and smart work, making strategy and thinking about what I really want. Once you realize what you really want, you will realize that being proud on your national identity doesn’t make sense. Being proud of your country doesn’t make sense. Country is an invented terminology. I think that the only tactic for me to succeed is this normalization, that I am normal, no smarter than other, not more stupid than other, just me.

All of us who were born underprivileged, we all went through similar experiences of discrimination. The facts is that these forms of discrimination still exist today.

The only way to fight haters is [not feeling pity for] yourself and not showing them how vulnerable you are. It is the hardest thing to do. How do you stay calm when someone is bullying you? I didn’t have a lot of friends in elementary school. Even though I was white, I was still perceived as dirty and black in the school. Then I realized when I was getting the best grades, people started to perceive me as normal. This was my strategy.

Editor’s note: This is an edited version of Selma Selman’s interview. You can listen to the whole interview on Spotify’s Ancor. Some parts were edited for more clarity.

Photo credit: Selma Selman Instagram Profile

Throughout March, Reporting Diversity Network monitoring team has detected several incidents related to xenophobia and hate speech based on ethnicity in the Western Balkan media. Hate speech was spread by politicians, influential figures, and other public figures. While there is a consistency in spreading hateful rhetoric targeting migrants and refugees, media representation of the Roma community does not exist, which is known  as “hate silence“.

Genocide denial by Montenegro Minister of Justice

The Minister of Justice in Montenegro, Vladimir Leposavic, indirectly denied the genocide in Srebrenica by challenging the legitimacy of the Hague Tribunal, which recognised it as a genocide. “I am ready to admit that the crime of genocide was committed in Srebrenica when it is unequivocally established”, he said. According to Leposavic, the Hague Tribunal has lost its credibility. Leposavic specifically said:  

“The Hague tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in addition to being established by a resolution instead of an international treaty, almost completely lost its legitimacy when it was established that the evidence of the Council of Europe rapporteur on the extraction and trafficking of organs of Serb civilian victims in Kosovo was destroyed in that court.”

The US Embassy in Montenegro, but also domestic representatives of political parties, CSOs and activists urged the government to hold Leposavic accountable for his words. Emir Suljagic, Director of Srebrenica Memorial Center warned of the possible ethnic intolerance and violence inspired by such rhetoric.  He tweeted: “With this government in Montenegro, I cannot exclude organised violence towards Bosnians in Montenegro in the near future. To start with, through ‘paramilitary’ formations. The signal for violence will come from the country”.

Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, however, stated that the government respects the Declaration of Acceptance of the European Parliament resolution adopted by the Parliament of Montenegro in 2009, which condemns the genocide in Srebrenica committed in 1995, and all other war crimes committed during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Part of the public in Montenegro urged Minister Leposavic to resign due to his statements, which he did not do.

Mixed ethnic marriages to discredit political opponents in the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Faruk Kapidzic, former Minister at Sarajevo Canton Government and current Chairman of the National Commission for Monuments, posted a Facebook status in which he aimed to discredit deputy mayor candidate, Ivana Maric. He accused the voters of the opponent parties as responsible for voting Maric. He described all voters as naive.

 “Naive believers and members of the Islamic Community, as well as new businessmen who voted for People and Justice (political party), are also to blame for that. And everyone from working class and mixed marriages and supporters of socialist and realist ideologies who voted for the SDP (political party) are also to blame.“

Kapidzic shared the status on his Facebook profile, but many media outlets shared the status. He was afterwards invited in several media to explain himself why mixed marriages were mentioned in his Facebook status on which he answered that the does not understand why the media found that problematic as he listed all voters.

Ethnicity in ethnically mixed Bosnia and Herzegovina, and ethnically mixed marriages in particular, are a very sensitive topic. This is not something that should be utilised in political purposes and risk adding to an existing divides in the society.

Racist coverage of COVID-19 in Albanian media

Four websites in Albania published a segment of a video that labels COVID-19 as a Chinese virus which brought a lot of hateful comments on the Internet. Articles show a short video with an old patient in hospital who is sharing his experience of hisCOVID-19 battle in an interview. Instead of showing the entire interview, the portals included only the 12-seconds video segment where the racial hate speech is articulated. Headlines on the portals included this one: “Hospital patient Shefqet Ndroqi, shares his battle with COVID-19: “I prefer dying from God rather than those sons of a bitch –  the Chinese”.

Clickbait headlines and mal-intended usage of video interview in this case is very problematic as it is targeting Chinese people (since the virus originated in China) rather than warning of the possible consequences of COVID-19 and the need to respect preventive measures. It also influences public discussion, as evidenced in the readers’ comments, without bringing the needed benefit – care for public health.

Nationalist narratives in a popular Serbian TV talk show

Reporting Diversity Network selected Ivan Ivanovic, host of the TV talk show “Evening with Ivan Ivanovic“ as the Balkan Troll of the Month. Ivanovic used his episode 593 as a space to spread nationalist narratives by calling Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, a Serbian village. Later during the show, he made a sexist comment about women from Montenegrin town Ulcinj.

RDN members, Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans and Center for Investigative Journalism-Montenegro jointly expressed their concerns on the rise of nationalism in Serbian and Montenegrin media. In addition politicians in those two countries, where nationalism is present in the daily life, are creating this atmosphere. At the same time narratives of division, that are fed by nationalism, are very present in the media of both Serbia and Montenegro. Jovana Marovic from Politikon Network and Nikola Burazer from European Western Balkans warn of the rise of nationalism in both countries and that those nationalist narratives complement and strengthen each other. This has a potential to negatively influence good neighborly relations in the Balkans.

Xenophobia and anti-migrant narratives

Xenophobia and narratives that are targeting migrants and refugees are present across the Western Balkans and throughout March, RDN monitoring uncovered problematic narratives in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. These narratives, that predominantly represent refugees and migrants as a security threat, appear in traditional media as well as on social media.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the  antimigrant.ba portal, which was RDN 2.0 February Troll, continues to spread anti-migrant feelings with headlines such as “Take migrant intruders to your countries, don’t feed them in ours”.

In Albania, migrants are depicted as a threat to society. “Stop the migrants that are threatening Albanian families” is just one of the anti-migrant messages in the media.

YouTube and other social media can be a source of problematic discourse about ‘the other’. That is the case in Serbia where the leader of Narodna Patrola (People Patrole), an informal group that is ‘protecting’ people from migrants, gave an interview to the YouTube channel ‘Mario zna’ (Mario knows). In the interview he claimed that some countries have ” “intentionally released prisoners into the migrant crisis” and that “(migrants) are an organised army that came to cause destabilization”.

Many other misleading and unfounded statements were part of the YouTube video which, at the time of the writing, had over 22 thousand views and obvious potential to influence opinion and attitudes of citizens towards the migrant and refugee community.

“Hate silence”

While media outlets give an open platform for spreading divisive narratives, there seems to be no space for the problems of local members of the Roma community. Despite of Roma being large ethnic minority across the Balkans they are rarely portrayed in the media.

RDN members call this hate silence, as in this case, hate is not expressed through the discourse or portrayal, but through ignoring and staying silent. MDI has already raised issue around lack of media discussion on discrimination of Roma people in the media in Serbia, however, the situation is relatively similar in other Western Balkan countries as well.

Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 stresses that the media landscape should be free from the narratives of ethnic divide. Furthermore, we urge the media outlets, journalists and media representatives to break the “hate silence“ for certain ethnic minorities such as the Roma community and contribute towards more frequent and accurate representation of life and challenges of Roma people.

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 March Troll is Ivan Ivanovic, a TV host from Serbia. Ivan Ivanovic hosts the show ‘Evening with Ivan Ivanovic’ which is  one of the most popular TV shows in the country. In episode 593, RDN monitors detected nationalist and sexist narratives towards Montenegrins. The episode was aired on 26 February 2021  on the TV stations Nova S, Nova BH and afterwards published on the TV show’s own Youtube channel. At the time of the writing the episode has a little less than 100,000 views on YouTube only.

In his show, Ivan Ivanovic called Podgorica a Serbian village. Ivanovic joked by saying “Serbian villages have a future. For example, Podgorica.” In the second part of his joke he attempted to explain his joke due to a word play in the Serbian language and he said that he meant the football team Buducnost (translated: future) from Podgorica. Ivanovic ended his joke only by saying “I am kidding. Greetings to our brothers in Podgorica“.

Ivanovic’s statement is offensive for Montenegro and its citizens as it denies the identity of people of Montenegro, their state and nation, by calling them Serbian and furthermore naming their capital  “a village”.

Later during the show, Ivanovic made a joke about women from the Montenegrin town, Ulcinj. He referred to a Danish girl named Eldina who grows her mustache and eyebrows so that men would stop constantly flirting with her. Having said that, he added, “Apparently, she’s never been to Ulcinj”.  This commentary is an obvious sexist remark, directed towards Montenegrin women.

This is not the first time Ivanovic has made problematic statements that were not welcomed by part of his audience. In 2014, one of the jokes  he made was about underage rape victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although he issued an apology in the next episode, this remains a proof that humor in the media requires a lot of thinking and professional and ethical approach. Despite his explanation that he, by no means, had bad intentions, many of his jokes, aired on TV with national coverage, and framed as ‘harmless’ humor, have been bordering with sexism and other types of stereotypes as well as usage of terminology that cannot be considered politically correct.

Humour as a dangerous zone where hateful narratives are widely spread

While humour is welcomed on television talk shows as a powerful tool, the above-mentioned examples are neither humourous nor part of a stand-up comedy performance. Such narratives can be considered offensive, and Ivan Ivanovic gave them a platform and visibility through his very popular TV show. This type of humor does not transform or deconstruct some of the omnipresent divisive narratives in the Balkans, instead, it further perpetuates conflicts in the Balkans and brings those narratives closer to younger generations and those who should be detached from divisions.

Many bloggers and media figures successfully use humor and satire as part of tackling  some of the global problems that the world is facing. However, there is one important question: is the price of making someone laugh worth  using humor that is targeting ‘the other’? By other we mean either a group in the  society (such as  jokes about ‘Cige’ as Ivanovic calls Roma people in some of his jokes) or in the Western Balkan neighborhood (like Montenegro in this case).

Rise of nationalist narratives in Montenegro and Serbia

RDN monitors have detected several incidents related to nationalist narratives in the media in both countries. Many of these examples from both Serbian and Montenegrin media are denying the existence of Montenegro as a state and nation. These narratives are spread by politicians and influential figures as well as media.

“Nationalism in both countries is equally important. They influence and strengthen each other. This is a result of the politics by the political parties that works in their own interests. When they cannot offer sustainable policies and sustainable solutions, they (political parties) still play on the identity card, which is highly problematic”- says Jovana Marovic from Politikon Network. Marovic and Nikola Burazer from European Western Balkans elaborate more on the nationalist discourses in Serbian and Montenegrin society in the video interview made by RDN 2.0 members Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans and Center for Investigative Journalism- Montenegro. The video is available in local languages.

If you want to learn more about how media should report on ethnicity, read more in the “Getting the Facts Right: Reporting Ethnicity and Religion“ case study. The case study and other useful resources are available on RDN website resources page.

Throughout February, Reporting Diversity Network’s monitoring team discovered more than 20 incidents related to sexist and misogynist narratives across Western Balkan media that targeted female politicians, journalists and other public figures, perpetuated rape victim-blaming and placed women on usual margins of media reporting and society. 

Although we looked at other diversity categories as well, sexism has been a cross cutting issue that was detected in all the countries.

Victim-blaming narratives in Serbian media in case of sexual harassment

The confession of actress Milena Radulovic that she was repeatedly raped by her acting teacher, renowned Serbia actor Miroslav Aleksic, divided the region.

Despite the great support Milena Radulovic and other girls that decided to speak out received from some media and particularly civil society (including MDI WB, RDN member), the case also showed that patriarchal norms are still deeply rooted in the society.

There were several incidents in the Serbian media that perpetuated continuous targeting and victimisation of women and further spread of victim blaming narratives.  In the TV show “Posle Rucka“ on the Serbian national television ‘TV Happy’ the audience was asked to comment on Milena Radulovic case and one of the comments was that “there is no rape without panties being ripped off”. The Serbian national daily Alo went even further in involving citizens in sharing their opinion when they published a public poll on their online platform for people to vote if Aleksic was guilty or not, as if the Jurisdiciary is not in charge of deciding about someones responsibility.

Victim blaming narratives came in different forms and from different actors; from citizen’s comments to public figures. They all took part in creating a media space in which sexual predators and aggressors are not held accountable for their actions, but instead the whole burden is placed on victims. Actress Jelena Tinska downplayed rape accusations of actress Milena Radulovic by statements such as “If it is true that he raped her, why did she continue to go in his private school?“ or “Why didn’t she tell her mother?“ that disregard the fact that all of the alledged victims were very young (some of them minor) girls. These problematic statements transform the media into a hostile environment without any red lines. By giving everyone space to debate, harmful speech negatively affects the victims, exemplifies complete lack of recognition for victim support systems and opens new pathways for victim-blaming narratives to be perpetuated further.

Furthermore, the case was, though indirectly, used in case of discrediting a female opposition politician Marinika Tepic, alleging that she might come with accusations that she was raped, as she could be encouraged by the Aleksic case.

Besides the many hateful narratives in the media, women activists created an online support system that has demonstrated empathy, acceptance, normalisation of the rape cases that remain unreported for a number of reasons, including the inability of institutions to appropriately sanction rape. The Facebook page Nisam Trazila (I Didn’t Ask for It) still exists as an online space where thousands of women from all across the Western Balkans share their stories of gender-based violence, rape and trauma, and together create a female unity online.

Online harassment and sexual violence of girls and women in North Macedonia in the “Public Room“ scandal

In North Macedonia around 7,000 male users joined a closed group named “Public Room“ on the communication platform Telegram. The purpose of this group was to share leaked or stolen photographs and contact information from girls and women- including minor girls.

One of the victims whose photos were stolen from her Instagram profile, Ana Koleva has exposed her story in order to further empower victims of online abuse not to blame themselves, but also met Minister of Justice, Bojan Maricik and shared her experience of photographs and information abuse on Telegram as she was haunted with phone calls and messages from unknown men. Ana Koleva was not the only victim whose experience with ‘Public Room’ was totally neglected by the police.

Activists for women’s rights in North Macedonia joined by the general public have been protesting for two months and require the Public Prosecutor to act upon the Public Room case as a criminal offense case that includes several criminal actions: abuse of personal data; facilitating prostitution, threats to women’s personal security, or spread of racist and xenophobic materials, depending on the circumstances of each case within the group.

Female politicians across the Western Balkans target sexist media portrayal and narratives

RDN media monitoring uncovered how women in politics are treaded by the media and public, due to their gender. In Montenegro, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vesna Bratic and Minister of Health Bojane Bojovic Borovinic, both women, were depicted in sexist and vulgar caricatures. RDN partner Center for Investigative Journalism-Montenegro publicly condemned these incidents in which female public figures are targets of sexist portrayal in the media. Slavoljub Scekic, Editor in Chief at the Center for Investigative Journalism- Montenegro in the public reaction reminds journalists of the ethnical codex for journalists in which “media should not publish any material that includes hate based on gender“. 

Similarly, Vjosa Osmani, Kosovo presidential candidate, has faced verbal insults during the electoral campaign, as well as edited pictures of herself, altering her appearance. There was no reaction from the media, her colleagues in politics, or from representatives of women’s rights organizations (see more in this RDN video).

In these caricatures, women were sexualised and even pictured as submissive to men in order to humiliate the targeted Ministers. The media context in which sexist and misogynist narratives operate are completely dismantling the concrete actions or policies that these politicians might stand for or against, but instead they operate only in the domain of their gender and physical appearance, which aims to make any argument against certain political action discredited by default.

Similarly, female figures in public life are also perceived through their gender and are targets of sexism. Journalist Milka Tadic-Mijovic, President of the Center for Investigative Journalism-Montenegro, member in Reporting Diversity Network, was targeted by sexist hate speech for her statement that “lawsuits against the media and journalists, if well-founded, can contribute to raising standards in journalism and media freedoms.” A local media in Montenegro published an article with a headline “Hypocrisy in Practice: Only the Media Gang can Sue“ in which afterwards Tadic-Mijovic was named as “this biological entity with human shape and female attributes“.

Sexism in popular culture

In the Albanian dance show, “Just Dance“, which is broadcast on a national private television a male member of the jury, used sexist language towards a female participant due to her age. She was told to “go and make babies” indicating that she is old to participate in this sort of competitions and it would be better for her to get married have a family.

Similarly, at the Serbian singing competition show named “Zvezde granda“, two members of the jury (male and female) used sexist language towards a female participant. They were commenting on her physical appearance more than her singing skills. This popular TV show is known for such comments and sexism.

Sexism in such popular shows that are watched by a large amount of people can be particularly influential in people’s perception of gender roles and how women (and men) should look like and behave, at a particular age.

Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 reminds of the need to make the media environment free from sexist and misogynist narratives. On International Women’s Day on 8 March it is more relevant than ever to mention that the media in the Western Balkans must comply with ethical standards that include fair representation of all diversity categories, gender included. We urge the media to create a space in which victims of rape, online harassment, and violence are treated with dignity and respect.

In the first podcast produced as part of Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 you can hear Hana Curak talking about patriarchy, sexism, media as well as her activism.  Hana Curak is a feminist meme blogger, creator of the meme page “Sve su to vjestice“ (“It’s all witches“), that uses memes in  her struggles for gender equality. She is currently based in Berlin, Germany, as a sociology researcher, but originally comes from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Feminist activist as a response to the patriarchal setting in the Western Balkans

Hana founded the meme page “Sve su to vjestice“ when she was 19 as a response to living in extremely patriarchal setting in the Western Balkans. She was raised in a feminist family which made her realise how much the patriarchy around her seemed ridiculous at that time.  Hana has a political stance with here meme activism. When asked what witches mean to Hana, she responds:

“In our post-Yugoslav space “vjestice“or witches basically refers to any woman that doesn’t go in line with patriarchal constellations. For me, the term is very political. A witch can mean many things. It can be something that people identify with magic, but for me it is this extremely political, empowering and feminist term.“

When asked what are the biggest problems for women in the Western Balkans regions, Hana replies “Patriarchy, baby“ referring to her meme with Simone de Beauvoir.

“Our culture is based on trauma primarily and there is a lot of what we have to be careful about and we have to address, and systematically we are not addressing it for 20 years. There is also insistence  on tradition, which of course exists elsewhere, but for some reasons here because of (I guess) ethno-national tendencies that are imported and took fertile soil, this became particularly important. From these problems starts violence against women, but other things as well – from small things mentioned in Vjestice memes to really big issues that should be addressed systematically.

Diversifying the male-dominated meme scene

The page “Sve su to vjestice“ and the meme activism started as Hana realised that it was all male humor in the meme scene that developed rapidly around 2010. Her page came as a response to sexism and the memes that, at the time, glorified the male experience, while female experience is left behind. I wanted to make something different.

Hana has her own specific approach when choosing characters for her memes which are both important for her personally but have additional social meaning. Simone de Beauvoir is often featured in her memes, as Hana explains, because of her magnificent facial expression (as well as the fact there is so many images of her) and her historical importance as the most recognised feminist idol.

“In the beginning it all had meaning, there was Marx who represented a specific kind of guy to meet if you are a lefty in Bosnia or Serbia especially. This chauvinist lefty guys. There was Sartre, because of Simon mostly. Virginia Wolf is my favorite character. Reading Virginia’s novels I noticed how funny she was and that resonated with me. I identify with that character the most and I really try to make caricature of myself through that. At some point, I started using other images, but I paid attention to who they were in real life and what I wanted to do with them.“

At the beginning when Hana started with her meme page, she did not have clear idea of who she wanted to target at her specific audience. Later, during her meme activism realised exactly who will be her audience:

“I didn’t knew my page was going to become big. Once it did, I knew I didn’t want to reach the usual suspects. A lot of feminist who were profiling at that point were around me. I always strived to reach people who have no idea what feminism is. Also, people who are against it to a point- but not radically or politically, but just because of ignorance. Most of my audience is young, unemployed moms, a lot of moms in general of all ages, also a lot of girls from Bosnia, Serbia or Croatia who had no idea what I am taking about. This is the most rewarding audience for me.“

Hana believes that the representation of women in media is worrying and that media reflect the patriarchal culture. She recalls the case of Milena Radulovic coming with accusation against her acting teacher who raped her repeatedly which shocked her and reconfirmed the position of women in the media, and in general within societies in the Western Balkans.

Women are still ‘the other’ in the mainstream media and mainstream culture in general, she explains, and when you are regarded as the other there is a number of strategies that people use to persist on you otherness and place you in position of no power.

Listen to the full conversation that Ivana Jovanovic had with Hana Curak on our Young & Diverse podcast.

Photo credit: CROPIX

The podcast, as part of the Reporting Diversity Network 2.0, is funded by the European Union, Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade.

The content of the podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, Royal Norwegian Embassy, the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, or its partners.