RTRS on the old propaganda track: Fighting manipulation is not censorship

RTRS has once again confirmed that there are no limits to the violation of professional and ethical standards in its reporting.

The news programme of Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS), the public broadcaster of that Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, has for the umpteenth time demonstrated that there are no boundaries when it comes to breaching professional and ethical norms in its reporting.

The latest example is a report on Bosniaks purchasing flats in East Sarajevo, broadcast on the political magazine programme Pečat. The editor of Pečat, who is also the editor of the News Programme, Nada Veletić, and journalist Gvozden Šarac, without a shred of restraint, produced a report following the very same propaganda line based on ethnic intolerance that we witnessed on Srpska TV during the war years.

The “occupation of East Sarajevo” as portrayed by Šarac and his carefully selected interviewees, the counting by year of how many Bosniaks have bought flats in the city, and the explicit drawing not only of the inter-entity boundary line but also an ethnic one, provoked strong reactions from the public in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, this is the same public that has, over the years, become so accustomed to breaches of professional standards in RTRS’s work that serious reactions to the conduct of the public broadcaster of the Republika Srpska entity have all but disappeared.

Psychologist and columnist Srđan Puhalo, in bitter satire referring to the way the Bosnian Serb authorities treated non-Serb populations during the war, suggested that “residents of East Sarajevo should demand that Bosniaks and Croats place white sheets on their balconies as a sign of loyalty to Republika Srpska; that Bosniaks and Croats wear white armbands when walking, running or carrying out any activity in East Sarajevo… that Bosniaks and Croats, when travelling from East Sarajevo to Sarajevo, may carry only 300 KM in cash and sign a statement consenting that the flat belongs to Republika Srpska”.

‘RTRS has resorted to the worst kind of chauvinism and open incitement’

The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Mioković, condemned the report, stating that Radio Television of Republika Srpska “has never confronted its own dark legacy from the time of Risto Đogo, but has […] perhaps even surpassed it”.

“By broadcasting a report that generates fear of Bosniaks who are buying flats in East Sarajevo, RTRS has resorted to the worst kind of chauvinism and open incitement,” Mioković emphasised.

“The shameful report is not merely the position of the author and the Public RTV Service of Republika Srpska,” Duška Jurišić, Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, assessed in a post on social media. According to her, it is a “public seal of a policy of incitement against Bosniaks, their dehumanisation and the spreading of inter-ethnic hatred following the absence of a reaction from judicial institutions, among other things, to Milorad Dodik’s pre-election hate speech in East Sarajevo”.

“I remind you that the Central Election Commission reacted at the time by fining the SNSD with the highest monetary penalty prescribed by law. That, of course, is not enough, just as it will not be enough if the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) fines RTRS,” Jurišić stressed.

Her view, albeit unintentionally, was also confirmed by Ljubiša Ćosić, Mayor of East Sarajevo and an SNSD official, one of the interviewees in the controversial report, who stated that he “must first and foremost clearly emphasise that there is no chauvinism in what was said in the RTRS report, nor in the thinking of the people who spoke in it”.

The CRA rarely addresses RTRS ex officio

The Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA) has confirmed that it will act ex officio in accordance with the Rulebook on the Procedure for Resolving Violations of Licence Conditions and CRA regulations, and will examine the allegations related to the report broadcast on RTRS’s programme Pečat.

Without prejudging the CRA’s decision, it should be recalled that the regulator, particularly since Draško Milinović became its head, has rarely addressed RTRS’s programme content ex officio, despite being obliged to do so.

This is hardly surprising given that Milinović was appointed Director of the CRA in 2020 from the position of Director of RTRS. During his tenure, RTRS continuously violated the codes of the Law on Public Broadcasters, as evidenced by numerous complaints submitted to the CRA by individuals, opposition political parties in the Republika Srpska entity, and non-governmental organisations.

Through monitoring of Dnevnik 2, the portal Analiziraj repeatedly warned of violations of professional reporting standards, the use of hate speech, the incitement of religious and national intolerance, and the denial of equal treatment for opposition parties in Republika Srpska within the news programme. During that period, monitoring for their own purposes was also conducted by the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP).

Ultimately, in 2017, the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina instructed the CRA to conduct, ex officio, a one-month monitoring of RTRS’s Dnevnik 2, which pointed to a series of shortcomings in reporting and the denial of airtime to the opposition in that entity.

Between March 2017 and April 2018, due to violations of fairness and impartiality as defined in the Code on Audiovisual Media Services and Radio Media Services, the CRA imposed fines on RTRS amounting to 67,000 convertible marks. In 2019, the CRA fined RTRS 12,000 convertible marks for a report on events from 1995 at Tuzla’s Kapija.

These are just some of the penalties imposed up to 2020.

For many years now, RTRS has not been, except in name, a public service for all citizens from whom it duly collects the RTV licence fee, while at the same time unlawfully withholding payments it is legally obliged to transfer to BHRT.

Insufficient media and information literacy among citizens

However, just as the editorial policy of this public broadcaster is a problem—having become a mouthpiece of the authorities in the Republika Srpska entity, above all the SNSD and its leader Milorad Dodik—so too are the attitudes of the CRA, the content produced and offered to the public by parts of the media, and the insufficient media and information literacy of citizens.

In the constant race for more clicks on news portals and higher viewership or listenership, we are witnessing an increasing volume of incomplete or inaccurate information being disseminated to the public. This results in an erosion of moral and ethical values and the frequent promotion of populist and nationalist narratives.

Few people ask who authored a piece of news, which sources were used, or who owns the media outlet. When this is compounded by the fact that parts of the media landscape are openly aligned with certain political options, truthful information becomes collateral damage.

Due to its war-torn past, Bosnia and Herzegovina is fertile ground for media manipulation, precisely because of the strong influence of politics. Politicians are often the main source of disinformation, which is why it is essential to publicly expose false and manipulative statements and hate speech.

War events, as well as all their consequences, are often presented to the public as “truths” interpreted exactly as political elites see fit. When this is combined with the fact that journalists frequently fail to question the views and claims put forward by politicians—not only on political but also on economic, social and environmental issues—and do not seek clarification or sources on which such claims are based, citizens accept everything presented to them as unquestionable truth.

‘Switch off the TV, open your eyes’

Nenad Pejić, a long-time editor at Radio Free Europe, wrote a book entitled Switch Off the TV, Open Your Eyes, with the clear message that not everything on television, in newspapers or on news portals is necessarily true.

However, in order to “see clearly”, engagement from society as a whole is required. This includes faculties that educate future journalists and their obligation to teach critical thinking about society, as well as to insist firmly on adherence to professional standards in journalistic practice. Excuses that codes are violated for the sake of a salary or a job only drag society further into mud and darkness.

Media and information literacy can also be strengthened through civil society by opening public debates and educational workshops where media content is discussed and citizens are taught how to recognise fake news.

These are just some of the mechanisms that could improve media and information literacy. The fight against manipulation, hate speech and selective reporting is not censorship, but a demand for evidence, a distinction between facts and opinions, and a culture of reasoned debate.

When it comes to electronic media, the depoliticisation and independence of the CRA are indisputable necessities. Yet the fight against media manipulation cannot be waged solely through laws or technology, but through educating citizens to ask questions, seek answers and understand context.

Without this, even though the simplest option may be not to watch, listen to or read a particular media outlet, the consequences of manipulation, hate speech and the spread of intolerance towards any social group will in fact generate new fears and misunderstandings.

Only media-literate citizens will not be blind consumers of information and cheerleaders in front of television screens, phones and computers, but objective observers who ask questions and seek answers.

Author: Gordana Katana

The article has been initially published by MediaCentar and has been republished here with permission.