Troll of the Month: Tabloid Informer
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. On the night of the 26th of March, a lifeless …
TV Herceg-Bosne on the “Sarajevo–Tehran connection” – Bias, Manipulation, Incitement
A TV report violating fundamental journalistic principles symbolically shows Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina as potential security threats to Europe TV report titled “The Sarajevo–Tehran Axis: An Islamist Viper in the Heart of Europe,” by journalist Jurica Gudelj aired on Radiotelevision Herceg-Bosne has sparked numerous reactions in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian public, as media professionals and analysts …
Monthly Monitoring Highlight January
During the month of February, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by hatred towards people with disabilities, xenophobic and Islamophobic narratives, ethnic discrimination and online gender-based hate. Hatred spread towards people with disabilities in Albania During a live broadcast of the reality television show Big Brother VIP 5, …
Media targeting of a woman of Bosnian origin in the Epstein affair
The published documents contain no incriminating facts against the woman from Bosnia and Herzegovina who is mentioned, nor are they in the public interest When an event becomes known internationally in which a person of Bosnian and Herzegovinian origin is one of the main actors, media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina often rush to publish …
From Belgrade to Prishtina: Women Who Refused to Be Silent
On August 14, 2025, after one of many student protests in Belgrade, a group of students was attacked by the police while heading home and taken to a nearby garage. Among them was Nikolina Sinđelić, a survivor of police brutality. “As we were walking down Nemanjina Street, we encountered members of the JZO (Unit for …
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: Laert Vasili
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. On 10 February 2026, during the recording of Përputhen on Top Channel, actor, …
Troll of the Month: The Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Mioković
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 Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliament …
Monthly Highlights January: Sensationalism, Sexism and Nationalism
During January, the RDN monitoring team identified a range of hateful narratives and discourse driven by sensationalistic reporting, sexism and misogyny, nationalism and ethnic hatred. Sensationalistic and unprofessional reporting in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina Albanian media reported extensively on a serious case of sexual abuse involving a 12-year-old girl who was found to be approximately 22 weeks pregnant following a medical …
The Metamorphosis of Prime Minister Edi Rama: From Hate Speech to the Use of Deepfakes
Prime Minister Edi Rama has targeted journalist Blendi Fevziu, host of one of Albania’s most-watched political talk shows, Opinion, through a series of posts on social media that used images generated by artificial intelligence (AI), known as “deepfakes.” These posts were accompanied by denigrating and delegitimizing language directed not only at Fevziu personally, but at …
