We live in a very dangerous time when it comes to the media when our colleagues from the big media outlets play a dangerous game with narratives, assessed the editor of Radio Goraždevac, Darko Dimitrijević. While noting that not all media exhibit such behavior, and that there are a large number of decent journalists, Dimitrijević pointed out that there are large media houses in Pristina and Belgrade that abuse their influence on public opinion by contaminating public space, while producing special propaganda programs.
„It is dangerous when the media and especially journalists have a political agenda in their daily reporting,“ warned Dimitrijević in an interview with KoSSev.
„When you turn on the television, you can hear the presenters and news anchors of the so-called Belgrade media saying ‘so-called Kosovo’, ‘the so-called prime minister’, ‘the so-called the president of Kosovo’, the so-called that-this… And on the other hand, portals and media from Pristina say ‘so-called Kosovo Office’. God forbid someone mentions Metohija, even though it is included in the full name of an institution.“
He underlined that if a politician refers to someone or something as ‘so-called’, it could be perceived as a legitimate expression, but not if a journalist does it.
„If a journalist does it, it is not a fact, but a political expression to humiliate the other side. Journalists should not use such terms,“ he stressed.
According to Dimitrijević, this is only one example of how journalists contribute to the contamination of public space and communication between the two parties, but by doing so they also:
„Poison ordinary people to glorify their side and hate the other side instead of dealing with facts, truth and public interest. Unfortunately, in those large media with the greatest influence, such things are hard to find.“
The editor of Radio Goraždevac said that certain large media houses work “to poison one side or the other – Serbian or Albanian people.”
“Obviously, they are in the service of centers of political power.“
„When it comes to the media from Belgrade, they glorify everything that the government does, the other side is worthless, bad, but on the other hand, although not everyone knows the Albanian language, we who know it can see that on that side we have glorifying both the authorities and all the decisions made by Pristina as ‘victorious’, while the other side is again – insignificant.“
Big media outlets spread toxic narratives
In mid-February, the NATO mission in Kosovo – KFOR denied stories published by the „Indexonline“ portal, which was also picked up by a number of portals in Albanian, about the alleged entry of the Serbian army into Kosovo.
Entitled „Exclusive/It is suspected that Serbian forces have entered the territory of Kosovo, a citizen says that they pointed a gun at them (PHOTO)„, the portal „Indeksonline“ refers to the statement of „a citizen“, who, while passing through a village near Podujevo, at a KFOR checkpoint, allegedly witnessed Serbian forces „pointing guns“ at him after he spotted them. These allegations were later denied.
Dimitrijević assesses such texts, which directly incite ethnic hatred or fear of another nation with false information, as particularly dangerous, especially since the memories of the infamous role the media played in the initiation and spread of ethnic violence in 2004 are still fresh.
Spin news, replacing theses and facts is very dangerous, especially when it comes to problems and topics that are ethnically based, warns Dimitrijević.
„There is a significant number of citizens with a high dose of fear, such as women, children, people with disabilities. You have Albanians who follow the media in Belgrade. TV stations from Belgrade are followed throughout Kosovo society. When someone looks at it, it can cause unfathomable consequences in the ordinary world. The consequence of such news is enormous,“ he said, citing specific examples.
He expressed concern over the lack of responsibility, as some media do not take into account the consequences that such inaccurate news can have on citizens and communities.
Moreover, he indicated that media outlets that systematically publish spin news, and inaccurate and propaganda information are directly encouraged by political groups to report in such a manner.
In Belgrade, the way the pro-regime media and tabloids report directly benefits Aleksandar Vučić and SNS, while in Pristina such information benefits Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Self-Determination, Dimitrijević further points out.
„The goal is to present one side as superior. We had situations where the Brussels agreements were presented as a 5:0 victory, and then 10:0. We have that in the Albanian media and on social networks, the Prime Minister of Kosovo is presented as a lion. He is now fighting for something, and even the president of Serbia has been compared to some kind of animal. It is a completely abnormal situation where those who are supposed to deal with essential topics for the lives of citizens and sit down and talk, do not do so, while the media only reports their statements about spectacular big victories. After the session of the UN Security Council, both sides presented it as a victory. Therefore, what such media do is to present ‘their’ side as superior, regardless of the fact that journalists should not have a side, but the truth, facts and public interest as the main goal.“
Serious media, on the other hand, will ask questions about how it is a victory 5 to zero or 10 to zero, what it means for the citizens, how many benefits they will have, how much the citizens got from all those negotiations, Dimitrijević points out.
According to Dimitrijević, such media can be found in smaller newsrooms, which unfortunately have fewer resources, such as Serbian-language newsrooms in Kosovo, which are known for being independent editorially-speaking.
„I think that this is the only bright spot when it comes to that public space in Serbian areas in Kosovo and Metohija, of course, because without a few of you here in Mitrovica, or us in Goraždevac, or Radio KiM in central Kosovo, in fact many questions would remain shrouded in secrecy. But I say again, we are small media outlets and we cannot do as much as those who have huge resources, who can deal with many topics in depth.“
As a particularly positive example, Dimitrijević singled out the joint column on fake news (“Netačno”), which is realized by several newsrooms in the Serbian language. „Even many people who don’t live here are thankful and say that they have a clearer picture of media coverage of Kosovo thanks to it. Maybe this column did not have an epoch-making result in the fight against the production of fake news, but I think that column sends a clear message. It indicates who is actually spreading misinformation about Kosovo, and who is devoting much more attention, time and effort, all of which requires a serious commitment to portray the situation as it is, and what is more important – reporting in accordance with the code of ethics and media standards.“
A media literacy education program to be introduced in schools
Citizens rarely form their opinion based on multiple sources and fact-checking, Dimitrijević further points out.
„I think the most influential media are the main culprits in people believing everything that is on television without verifying it from another source, another channel or another media.“
While noting that there is progress, and that the journalists and editors themselves are involved in media literacy programs, there is no media literacy in all layers of society, Dimitrijević explained.
What is the solution?
Dimitrijević pointed out that the problem is of a systemic nature, and that therefore it should deserve much more attention, primarily through media literacy programs.
He revealed that small newsrooms, in addition to regular reporting, implement media literacy programs for the public, either through the detection of misinformation and spin news, or through other education programs.
„It always has an effect. Of course, we need a lot more resources to fight it, but it’s important that we point out fake news, disinformation, spin news, clickbait.“
He still stressed that the issue of media literacy must be tackled in primary education – schools and institutions.
Also, media literacy cannot help if those who spread misinformation do not bear the consequences, and there are institutions in charge of this.
‘Luxury’ of a twice repeated mistake
March 17 marked the 20th anniversary of the March Pogrom, the largest ethnic violence that occurred in Kosovo since the arrival of international security forces. Riots in Serbian areas south of the Ibar in 2004 began a day after three boys drowned in the Ibar river in the village of Čabra in the north of Kosovo.
Kosovo media reported about the case as an ethnically motivated crime, stating that the boys were chased by Serbs with a dog. They referred to the statements of the surviving boy, which eventually turned out to be untrue, as confirmed by several relevant domestic and international addresses. The role of the media was brought to the fore, despite this, 20 years later, on March 17, Radio Television of Kosovo (both in Serbian and Albanian) practically repeated the same interpretation of the event and the reason for the March Pogrom.
In the meantime, the news was rectified in the Serbian-language RTK newsroom, and employees, from journalists to editors, distanced themselves from the allegations shared in it.
Dimitrijević sees the fact that RTK did the same thing for the second time as unacceptable, describing it as sad and deplorable that the portal in Serbian also published the same news piece.
„But on the other hand, it is sad and deplorable that the RTK2 channel in the Serbian language has a portal controlled by RTK. Therefore, they do not have their editorial independence. What did the people who ran that channel do? Did they fight for that channel to get its editorial independence, so that when a case like the one in Banjska happens, the director doesn’t get suspended because he didn’t use the kind of narrative used by the Prime Minister and the Kosovo government.“
While harshly criticizing the role of tabloid and pro-regime media systems in Belgrade, Dimitrijević says he is „completely discouraged“ by the fact that even in Kosovo, the „journalistic crème de la crème“ from the majority community is not aware of their own lack of professional reporting.
„They literally glorify part of the values of only one community – Albanian. This, for example, is not the case with journalists who live and work in Kosovo and report in Serbian. That is the difference between us,“ he says.
Assessing the situation as practically „catastrophic“, Dimitrijević points to the ethnic separation between the media reporting in Serbian and Albanian.
„There are not many points of contact, but there are bright examples, such as the one when the incidents happened in Zvečan, some colleagues from the Serbian newsrooms literally saved the lives of colleagues from the Albanian newsrooms.“
He also addressed the lack of tolerance that can be observed among journalists themselves, from the way in which the UNS branch in Kosovo is viewed even though it is properly registered, to the language used.
„As a journalist, I don’t have any problem when someone says they live in Dukagjini, but I see that some colleagues have a problem when I say I live in Metohija. If the Dukagjini region can stand as a geographical reference on the RTK website that it covers, why can’t I use Metohija as a geographical reference?!“ – points out Dimitrijević, clarifying that this has nothing to do with politics.
Does a newsroom want its journalist to become news?
Commenting on the differences in the newsrooms in Albanian and in Serbian, he also pointed out that small editorially independent Serbian newsrooms took care, when reporting on riots or protests by Albanians, not to dispatch young colleagues, and those who they don’t speak Albanian language, or haven’t been trained in crisis reporting to cover such events, but that wasn’t the case with the big newsrooms in Pristina which sent young journalists to the north to report on crisis events.
„And then when something happens, they complain. It is certainly reprehensible. There is no question that those who attack journalists should be held accountable. I think they should be held accountable, but on the other hand, I think the editors are also responsible when they send their journalists. For God’s sake, they are not being sent to a philharmonic concert, but to a crisis area or to report on crisis situations,“ he said, adding that training for reporting in crisis situations is essential.
„In cases like this, I have the impression as if someone wants something like that to happen, so that it becomes news. When it comes to the media scene in Kosovo, I think that except for the media that I mentioned in the Serbian language (small editorially independent media), most of the media in the Albanian language have a very toxic narrative when it comes to the Serbian community and reporting on Belgrade“, emphasized Dimitrijević.
„If we want to create an inter-ethnic, civil society in which everyone has equal rights, you cannot glorify some things, such as the crimes that happened, glorify certain formations, such as KSF/KLA that carry the flag of Ethnic Albania, promote it as a great social value, while the main commanders of that formation that participated in the conflict in Kosovo are being tried for the most serious crimes. It’s not even professional. And we often have a situation where many politicians and media compare those two formations as successors, even the police. But we cannot say that one military officer – let’s call him that, or a member of the Kosovo Police, carries the emblem of Greater Albania. This is not a reflection of the civil society in Kosovo and I think it is just one indicator of how divided we are as media and as journalists along these ethnic lines. That is not good because, I say again, that is not the value of civil society. This is the value of a purely ethnically national society that is being promoted by one side.“
Reiterating the harmful influence of large media systems in both Pristina and Belgrade, Dimitrijević says that, this is where „the least rational voices come from“, but that it is a „special type of propaganda“.
„You have whole debates in the studios in Belgrade and Pristina dealing with the other side, various analysts, war commentators, connoisseurs of the situation, and the least of the actors who are being talked about are the Kosovo Serbs. And this is where this media coalition of ours differs from those who produce such content.“
Unfortunately, both the media that report in Albanian and the media from Belgrade are only interested in the Serbian people in Kosovo when something bad happens, and something that is politically attractive to both, but certainly spreads enormous hatred and intolerance
As an example of this, Dimitrijević pointed out that young Serbs no longer perceive Kosovo Police as a body that protects citizens, but as „an enemy that invades Serbian environments with its ministers.“
„It’s all part of a propaganda that violates the values of civil society, in order to promote nationalism and national values, and we all know that 9 communities live in Kosovo,“ he adds.
It is important to address the influence of the centers of power on the mainstream media
Finally, Dimitrijević stressed the importance of talking about the influence of power centers and political parties on the media, as a link with citizens.
„I think that this entire region, precisely because of this, is sliding into a totalitarian society, where those who think differently or want to express a different position will have less and less space, especially in the mainstream media,“ Dimitrijević pointed out.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
