Serbia

GOOD DAY, BELGRADE!

WILL IT EVER GET BETTER IN SERBIA? On June 27, 2024, I left Prishtina for Belgrade to participate in this year’s edition of the Mirëdita, Dobar Dan! festival, organized by Integra in Kosovo and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) of Civic Initiatives in Serbia. The festival, now in its tenth edition, serves as a platform …

TELEGRAM GROUPS AS VIRTUAL SAFE HAVENS FOR IMAGE-BASED SEXUAL ABUSE OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Mass cases of image-based sexual abuse highlighted the exploitation, intimidation and humiliation of women and girls across the region. Abusers have found a digital safe space to exploit and intimidate women in the comfort of their anonymity and lack of accountability. The feminist organisation OsnaŽene (Empowered Women), based in Serbia, published an article investigating Telegram …

Monthly Monitoring Highlights June: Telegram groups, sexism and homophobia

Throughout June, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month, we have seen hatred based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity as well as an incident of image based sexual abuse and genocide denial. Image based sexual abuse in Serbia In Serbia, the feminist organisation OsnaŽene (Empowered women) from …

TROLL OF THE MONTH: Media outlet Informer.rs

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 Balkans region. The month of June saw the start of the UEFA …

Monthly Monitoring Highlights May: sexism and genocide denial

Throughout the month of May, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month, we have seen hatred based on gender, sexual orientation, genocide denial, and hatred against political opponents. Sexism in Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo. In Montenegro, during the TV show “Some like it hot” on Adria …

Monthly Monitoring Highlights April: femicides, genocide denials and hatred aimed towards journalists

Throughout the month of April, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month, we have seen hatred based on gender, ethnicity, and hatred against journalists. Femicide in Kosovo In Kosovo, two femicides took place in the month of April over a period of less than a week. At …

TROLL OF THE MONTH: Ninoslav Cmolić, Head of the Criminal Police Directorate, Serbia

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 …

Monthly Monitoring Highlights March: ethnic hatred, sexism, hate towards journalists and political opponents

Throughout the month of March, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month, we have seen hatred based on ethnicity, gender and hatred towards journalists and political opponents. Ethnic hatred in Bosnia and Herzegovina Klix.ba, the most read web portal in Bosnia and Herzegovina reported on an incident …