‘Angry women are on the streets for the 5th time, and we won’t stop!’ That’s just one of the messages from the series of protests, the latest on November 1st in Belgrade, organised by different feminist groups joined under the name ‘Women’s Solidarity’. They have been protesting in front of the office of the Serbian tabloid newspaper Informer demanding respect for the basic norms of professional journalism.  

Protests were triggered after Informer publicised an hour-long interview with a serial rapist and criminal, who was recently released from prison, titled ‘The first time I raped I was 10′. The interview, published at the end of September, contained gruesome details about his crimes. It was not contextualised or accompanied by comments from psychologists or any other experts, and the journalist did not challenge his interlocutor.   

Feminist groups filed a complaint to the Press Council claiming that this type of reporting is contrary to the public interest and that it is ‘contributing to relativisation and promotion of the crimes’, and as such to intimidation and humiliation of women, especially those who were his victims. Based on the complaint, the Press Council issued the non-obligatory recommendation, stating that this kind of reporting is ‘pure sensationalism’ and as such does not contribute to the public, but is rather ‘directed to people’s emotions, which represents an abuse of the power of media’. It concluded the Informer violated the media code.  
 

Informer has rejected  the criticism, stating that the interview was intended ‘to protect women,’ and that the journalist’s standards of representing both sides of the story were respected. The support for Informer, a tabloid partially funded from public funds, came from the Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić who described protesters as ‘hypocritical’. 

As the public pressure continued, the rapist was rearrested, and Informer handed the recording material to the prosecution. But, the interview remains visible on their website, gaining huge viewership.  

Giving space to people who were sentenced for different types of crimes, from rape, domestic violence, organised crimes, or even war crimes, without context or to be challenged by journalists, is nothing new in the Balkan media. In the same manner, the media give space to people whose expertise has little relevance to the public, especially when it comes to issues related to minority rights, human rights in general, domestic violence, or even covid pandemic. In this way, the issues of migration in the eyes of the public become exclusively security issues, clergy discusses LGBTQ, abortion or women’s rights, and politicians comment on court decisions.  

Discriminating minorities  

Looking at how the media in the region report on the Roma population is one of the illustrative examples. The group is often portrayed as less educated and generally problematic, while reports about discrimination or positive stories – except on World Roma Day – are hard to find, an analysis on Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 points out. Even when positive stories are reported, the media often present them as exceptions in a generally problematic community. At the same time, voices of people from the community are almost non-existent in the mainstream media, including publicly funded media.  

Another marginalised and misrepresented group is the LGBTQ community, which comes into focus before every Pride. The event is often represented as the ‘parade of sexuality’, rather than a protest against discrimination and for basic rights.  

Media reporting about Pride across the region is often about it being a high-security risk event, which contributes to spreading prejudices and fear in the public. The media open the space for politicians and clergy to talk about their attitudes toward the Pride and the LGBTQ in general.  

In October this year, before the Pride in Montenegro, several media in the region gave space to the statement of a priest from Montenegro who said that homosexuality is not natural and called Pride participants ‘a column of citizens who demand that some future, unborn people, without their consent, be left without a mother,’ and Pride as ‘disturbed value system’ which is about ‘perverted values’ and ‘a mockery of religion’. Before Euro Pride in Belgrade in August, a public broadcaster in Serbia included in its coverage virologist Milanko Šekler who stated that the event could become a potential source of spreading the Monkeypox virus’. 

Migrants are another group often misrepresented in the media leading to criminalisation and discrimination, with security often one of the main issues raised. A recent study from Croatia shows the most popular topic in reporting on migration in the country is security. It’s mentioned in 33.87 per cent of all articles. 

Relativisation of crimes 

Reporting about domestic violence or the murder of women by their partners or family members, for the media in the Balkans is often a sensationalist topic. The term ‘femicide’ is rarely used, while psychologists, social workers, and feminists have less space than mostly male police officers or representatives of institutions.  

For the Bosnian media, a recent case of femicide was when a man strangled his wife with an electric cable and days later his body was found hanging in the forest near the city. This was described as a crime of passion. The crime and media reports provoked a wave of protests with messages including ‘femicide is not a crime out of passion but a murder’. Again, the media covered the protests, reporting about the number of people who gathered and talked to those who participated, but with little to no analysis of the situation to show that the number of cases of domestic violence and femicide is on the rise in the country. The public did not hear anything about the measures authorities and relevant institutions are taking to fight the problem, or about the treatment of victims of domestic violence.  

Abortion is another topic often represented in a way that misinforms the public. One example is from the public broadcaster in Montenegro which produced  a show titled ‘Abortion – from the constitutional right to taboo’  that included a representative of the church as its guest in the studio  . Again, the journalists did not challenge his views, but the public reacted with protests.  

Finally, the way that the Balkan media covered the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination programme played a role in spreading anti-vaxxer attitudes and conspiracy theories in the region due to the people they chose to interview. The region remains one of the parts of the world with the lowest vaccination rate, including Bosnia with less than 30 per cent of vaccinated people. Instead of virologists and experts in the field, the media gave space to self-proclaimed experts or famous people who freely expressed their controversial attitudes on COVID-19 and vaccines.  

Many fact-checking organisations in the region often draw attention to this type of reporting, pointing to misrepresentations, false information, and a general lack of professional journalism. However, their reach is much smaller than that of the mainstream media or tabloids. Existing press councils issue warnings, but they are not obligatory in any of the countries.  

The general lack of balanced discussion in the media in the Balkans deprives the public of accurate information and damages professional journalism. Civil society actors are using social networks to send different messages and fight disinformation, but their reach is limited and often includes people who are already aware of the issues. Yet, these voices are important in the struggle for truthful information and a just society.  

Author: Nidžara Ahmetašević

Photo: GoodStudio/ Shutterstock

Throughout the month of October, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month there has been a rise in sexism, misogyny and homophobia, alongside hate speech against political opponents. 

Sexism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Albania 

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a private user on Facebook spread extremely sexist and victim-blaming narratives in reaction to the news of a recent femicide which took place in Bihać, where a husband killed his wife. The comment posted on Facebook, included remarks made about the physical appearance and behaviour of women who smoke, drink and wear artificial nails, in an attempt to justify and explain acts of violence against women. The comment read ‘what do you have to do every weekend in a disco or a café, but to look for those things. First, you separate the husband from the parents, brother, sister, you screw up the whole family. Then you take him to a rented apartment and make a cobbler out of him…in Bihać, surely every third one is a wh***’.  

Comments and ideas like these are not only disrespectful towards victims of gender-based violence, but also extremely dangerous and run the risk of spreading narratives which justify violence against women and femicide on the grounds of the behaviour and physical appearances of women. The fact remains that nothing justifies any forms of violence against women, on any grounds. Sexual harassment and femicide holds no justification and can never be excused, while media should strengthen their role in preventing such narratives to be spread, be it in the media content or comments section.  

Mrika Nikqi, a well-known mountaineer from Kosovo, recently published a video on her Facebook account as proof of the sexual assault she fell victim to. In reaction to this, the president of the Fjala party, Gezim Kelmendi made a post on his own profile in an extremely distasteful and problematic manner. Kelmendi tried to justify and share his opinion regarding the motives behind sexual attacks and violence towards women as one which can be pinned down to the broadcasting of films – in particular, erotic scenes – as well as the tolerance towards the LGBTQ+ community which is taught in schools. He went on to criticise the Prime Minister and the President of Kosovo for working on the adoption of a civil code in which one of the points concerns the coexistence of individuals of the same sex. Amongst all of this, he also highlighted that whilst all these introductions to the education system and society continue, the wearing of the headscarf in schools continues to not be permitted.  

This post spreads intolerance on multiple layers and goes as far as to relativize gender-based violence. Spreading narratives which aim to justify violence and place blame on both individuals and topics within society, hold no tangible place within the topic of sexual violence. No social matter or policy can validate sexual violence towards women. By posting such opinions on social media, an individual of political importance with a large platform, like Kelmendi, runs the risk of strengthening existing prejudices amongst the public, which is extremely harmful in a society where gender-based violence is no rarity. 

In Serbia, there have been several sexist commercials which have emerged over the past month, promoting harmful stereotypes and gender roles. One of these includes the well-known non-governmental organisation, WWF Adria which launched an offensive campaign consisting of three photos posted on Instagram and one on Facebook. The posts itself included no explanation but could be deduced is the campaign seemed to be targeting the protection of wildlife. However, the campaign photos itself insinuated extremely harmful gendered stereotypes including the use of degrading imagery and sexualising language. The captions included “I would rather catch foreign than domestic fish” including images of women representing the idea of a ‘domestic fish’. Similarly, a sexist campaign was launched by a Serbian Rakija company known as Šamar – translating to ‘slap’ – posting a photo on Facebook of a women putting on lipstick, captioned “tonight only Šamar (a slap) takes off the lipstick” – implying violence against women. Shortly after, the company changed their post and corrected the caption to “only a glass of Šamar rakija removes the lipstick”.  

Along these two campaigns, was the dairy company in Serbia known as Imlek, which published a commercial for their Moja kravica yogurt on both Facebook and Instagram captioned “What happens when dad takes over mom’s role?”. The post included three photos, the first captioned “What does dad turn into when mom’s not home?”, the second one showing a dad with two children looking at a laptop and drinking Moja kravica yogurt captioned with “He turns into the person who is there to make breakfast, but also arrives at his Zoom meeting on time.” This commercial sends several harmful messages: that there is a ‘moms’ role’ and a ‘dads’ role’, implying that the mum should be the one to make breakfast for the family with her designated place being in the kitchen. The post is equally offensive to fathers, implying that they are not equal parents to their children when the mother is present.

This series of campaigns which rely on sexism in the promotion of the brand or a cause only further contributes to the spread of gendered norms and sexist narratives within society, while they could use their position and corporative responsibility exactly to challenge these issues.

Out of defence and solidarity, feminist organisation BeFem condemned these commercials through social media posts and all three companies faced public backlash and removed the commercials from their profiles. WWF Adria posted an apology and a replacement campaign, however, Šamar rakija and Moja kravica did not apologise to women or their customers. 

In Albania, a mass murder occurred in the town Klos in mid-October, where a male murdered the alleged boyfriend of his daughter (and his father) and wounded her other alleged lover, after finding out that they were playing her and harassing her online. Following his crimes, the perpetrator killed himself. As usual, the media coverage of the situation focused on the young woman rather than the perpetrator of the crime. The media placed focus on the 17-year-old girl and her role in the murders, with headlines portraying the girl as one “for whom the murders were committed”. Equally, the comment sections were full of hateful and denigrating comments against the girl; a classic example of victim-blaming instigated by the media that provides a platform for such narratives to be spread. One of the comments under the headline read “how many more will be killed for this girl?”. This comment is extremely harmful and disrespectful to the girl who is being attacked and held accountable for the actions of other individuals.  

The media, by focusing on the the 17-year-old girl and her position within the story, glazes over the important and relevant facts of the crime, and provides a platform for the spread of victim-blaming and sexist narratives. The media holds responsibility for the information they publish and share to the public, and by publishing headlines like these will result in victim-blaming narratives and denigrating language, and provide the space for hate to be spread, but furthermore shadow down the actual issue at hand, which is violence. This example exposes how media sensationalistic practices enable the spread of problematic comments, which they should be held accountable for. In reality, the media rarely bear consequences for the comments section.

Homophobia in Montenegro  

This month, Montenegro hosted Pride on the 8^th of October, resulting in a rise in homophobia and hate speech predominantly amongst important religious figures. A day before Pride was set to take place, the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Joanikije, announced a “prayer for the sanctity of marriage and the preservation of the family”. This announcement was made alongside the belief that events such as Pride, according to him, are forms of manifestations that “destroy God-blessed marriage and family and traditional values”; ones which are the result of the “aggressive, violent, imposition of new, perverted value systems with the help of money and power”. Furthermore, Joanikije claimed that society has become witness to the devaluation of the meaning of love as a result of the times we live in, which is characterised by “instinctive totalitarianism, where sin, selfishness, self-love, and personal inclinations of individuals are set as a measure of love, truth, and freedom.” The Metropolitan Joanikije condemned all those taking part in Pride and promoting such values by quoting “Let’s condemn the public preaching of immorality, protect the family and children”. 

The call for prayer by Joanikije was picked up by several online portals. By referring to LGBTQ+ rights and Pride as ‘perverted value systems’ this is extremely harmful and hateful. Individuals from all walks of life should be treated equally, and there should be no segregation or hate directed towards those of different sexual orientations, particularly when coming from such highly ranked individuals.

Hate speech against political opponents in North Macedonia 

In a recent video found on Facebook, Bulgarian member of European Parliament Angel Dzambaski called out and undermined the Macedonian nationality, by calling them ‘Srbomani’ translating to ‘Serbian lovers’. He then went on to call Macedonism a ‘fascist and nazi ideology’ – an extremely derogatory and insulting label to name those who identify themselves as Macedonians. Not to mention, belonging to an ethnic group cannot be labelled as an ideology. Alongside this, Dzambaski insulted the Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, claiming that his name is a Bulgarian one. These comments were all made in reaction to a statement by Kovacevski in which he claimed that he did not know of Dzambaski and who he was. 

Opposition between North Macedonia and Bulgaria have been rising and growing following the recent openings of the Bulgarian clubs in North Macedonia which celebrate historical figures. Moreover, tensions continue to rise as a reaction to Bulgaria’s veto towards EU accession of North Macedonia due to unresolved historical issues. Despite this, spreading hateful narratives within the political environment as a result of historical and present tensions does not justify such rhetoric. Undermining and insulting the Macedonian national identity by individuals of political importance can only further contribute to the existing tensions between two nations.