MEDIA LANDSCAPE FILLED WITH PREJUDICE: Portrayal of Roma people in Serbian media 

Roma people are usually only given space in the media when it is either World Roma Day or through media coverage of government support programmes for the Roma community. Even then, the reporting remains purely factual, without a deeper analysis and a critical view on the position of the Roma in Serbia.   Media reports fail to …

Monthly monitoring highlight: Homophobia and other hateful content throughout September

Throughout the month of September, the RDN monitoring team have detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month, there has been a rise in homophobia, but other forms of hatred have also been detected. Homophobia in Serbia and Albania This month, there was a significant rise in homophobia in Serbia across both traditional …

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: Savo Niković, a member of the Democrats in Montenegro

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 September Troll of the Month is Savo Niković, a …

MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE AND REPORTING DIVERSITY NETWORK 2.0 AT FAŽANA MEDIA FEST 2022 

For the past four years, every September journalists, media workers, academics and CSOs gather in Fažana, a small town in the Adriatic Coast, for the Fažana Media Fest, a multimedia journalism festival which has been proclaimed as a friendly home to journalists. MDI has been part of this festival for the past three years as …

Monthly Monitoring Highlight: Homophobia and other forms of hatered throughout August

Throughout the month of August, the RDN 2.0 monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. This month there has been a rise in homophobia, particularly in Serbia due to the upcoming EuroPride, along with sexism and ethnic discrimination.   Sexism in North Macedonia  The website express.mk published an article regarding singer Tamara …

TROLL OF THE MONTH: Bishop Nikanor of Banat

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. RDN’s August Troll is the Bishop Nikanor of Banat who …

WAR MONGERING AND RACE BAITING

SERBIAN TABLOIDS PROCLAIM WAR (ALMOST 300 TIMES A YEAR) In September 2020, the Guardian editorial board had GPT-3, artificial intelligence (AI) language software, draft an essay about how robots “come in peace” and that humans have no reason to fear them. The result was incredibly successful; GPT-3 delivered a roughly 1,000 word text that put …

THE MEDIA ESCALATED THE SITUATION

INSTEAD OF OPPOSING INFORMATION CHAOS, SOME KOSOVO MEDIA OUTLETS CREATED IT On June 29, 2022, the Kurti government took the decision to apply reciprocity measures against Serbia regarding personal identification documents. This meant that citizens of Serbia entering Kosovo, from August 1, would be provided with temporary forms replacing the documents issued by Serbia, a …