News
Manosphere in the Balkans: It’s a real thing
Manosphere. Incels. The 80/20 rule. These terms gained broader attention after Netflix aired Adolescence, a show that follows a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a girl at his school. The famous series sparked conversations among women about toxic masculinity and “alfa male” behaviour. But did men have the same discussions? Let’s hope so. …
Monthly Highlights May: Sexism and racism alongside gendered, ethnic and religious hate speech
During the month of May, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by sexism, racism, and Islamophobia alongside ethnic and gendered hate speech. Sexism in Kosovo and Albania Local elections are supposed to be held in Kosovo in September, but political parties have already begun preparations to gain as …
When Grief Becomes Political: How Tragedy is Weaponized Against a Free Press and Youth in North Macedonia and Serbia
Two recent tragedies—one in North Macedonia and one in Serbia—have sparked waves of student-led protests in Skopje and Belgrade, drawing attention to deep-seated political and institutional failures in both countries. In March, a horrific fire tore through the makeshift Pulse nightclub in Kočani, North Macedonia, killing 61 people and injuring hundreds more. Meanwhile, in Novi …
Troll of the Month: Socialist Party (PS) candidate Zegjine Çaushi in Albania
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals, or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region. During a Socialist Party (PS) campaign event in Fier, PS …
Monthly Highlights April: Misogyny, hatred towards people with disabilities, religious discrimination and hatred in the context of student activism and elections
During April, the RDN monitoring team detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse fuelled by misogyny and religious intolerance coupled up with hatred spread in the context of student protests in Serbia and elections in Albania and Montenegro and towards people with disabilities. Misogyny in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina In Kosovo since Leonida …
Open call for project applications
Media Diversity Institute Western Balkans along with the partners in Reporting Diversity Network have opened the call for project proposals aiming to counter hate speech and improve representation of diversity. The call was opened as part of the Reporting Diversity Network, which was established with the objective of effectively influencing media representation of ethnicity, religion, …
REGIONAL MEDIA MONITORING: Ethnicity and gender identity remain the main targets of hate speech as political targeting is on the rise
Reporting Diversity Network has been continuously conducting media monitoring of hate speech on a regional level for almost four years. Our latest set of reports show findings from May 2022 until December 2023. Gender identity and ethnicity remain the most targeted identities, as more than half of all recorded cases across the region referred to …
TROLL OF THE MONTH – SELECTION CRITERIA
The goal of the Reporting Diversity Network 2.0 monitoring is to identify and document the most significant cases (‘incidents’) of hate speech and divisive discourses in the Western Balkans media. Incidents are defined by the speaker regardless of where they occurred, but monitoring refers to their media coverage. They can originate in the Parliament, party …
Troll of the Month: Petar Bogojeski, leader of the Macedonian Concept party
The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region. The appointment of Petar Bogojeski, leader of the Macedonian Concept …
Escaping to the future
“My main motivation for going to study abroad was the desire for change, in the sense that I wanted to experience living somewhere abroad in my twenties,” says one of the Montenegrin students currently studying in Slovenia. The emigration of young people is not just a problem for a society in Montenegro, but also elsewhere …
Aggressors and victims at the same time
Boys are caught between expectations, isolation and violence. Every morning, before he wakes up, I open the door to his room with great care, so as not to disturb his sleep. There is something magical about his face while he’s sleeping — maybe it reminds me of when he was little. I listen carefully to …
Where Journalism Ends and Lynching Begins
Media exploitation of the death of Turkish model Güler Erdoğan “Turkish Model Güler Erdoğan Killed in Traffic Accident – Family Denies Incident Speculations” This is approximately what the headlines about Güler Erdoğan’s death in early April would have looked like if the media had stuck to professional reporting. Instead, we got unprofessional, sensationalist, and misinformative …