HATE SPEECH BASED ON ETHNICITY AND SEXISM IN THE WESTERN BALKANS: November onthly monitoring highlight

Throughout the month of November, the RDN monitoring team has detected a range of hateful narratives and discourse. During this month there has been a rise in hate speech including sensationalism, ethnic discrimination and sexism across the Western Balkans. Insensitive reporting in Albania Recently a headline emerged in Shiqiptarja.com reading “Horror in Fier/A 38-year-old kidnaps …

MEDIA (NOT) AS A MIRRORING, MEDIA (NOT) AS A CREATION!

… “31-year-old Elton Metaj shot his ex-wife Sabrina Benga to death. Police announced that they have arrested the perpetrator this morning. Sabrina left behind a 2-year-old baby ”… … “Albania: over 100 women and girls killed in 18 years…” … “only in the first six months of 2021, there were 1549 requests for protection orders, …

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN SERBIA: Media are missing the chance to educate the public

For a long time now, every November 25th on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, citizens in Serbia have been hearing about devastating numbers that tell us just how bad the situation is when it comes to gender-based violence. It seems that the number of citizens who condemn this situation publicly, …

TROLL OF THE MONTH: Member of the Parliament of Montenegro, Slaven Radunović

The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate on the internet 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. Our November Troll of the Month is …

Public Room: How the Macedonian Media Missed the Opportunity to Shed Light on Gender-based Violence

As the “Public Room” case remained unsolved for two years after its discovery, media coverage led the public in N. Macedonia to mistrust the country’s authorities. Gender-based violence is one of the several forms of violence where victims are often blamed. In other words, girls and women who are  often the victims of gender-based violence …

THE DARKNESS OF THE BLACK CHRONICLES: The editorial policy of Kosovar media needs a gender perspective

The news about the murder of Sebahate Morina in March this year shocked and frustrated many in Kosovo. It mobilized feminist activists to protest in the streets, where they reiterated for the umpteenth time that femicide is preventable and that the state is failing to protect women’s lives. When Dardan Krivaqa and Arbër Sejdiu left …

Quo vadis, Serbia?

How did the defenders of Serbia’s shameful past get the right to paint murals of war criminals?How did we get to the point of considering activists as rioters and arresting them? In commemoration of the International Day against Fascism on November 9, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia announced that it would paint …

Editor of the Antimigrant portal acquitted of Charges of Inciting Intolerance Against Migrants

Fatmir Alispahić, founder and editor of the Antimigrant portal, was acquitted of charges of inciting national, racial, and religious hatred, strife, and intolerance. In the rationale of the verdict of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Judge Goran Radević explained that Alispahić was acquitted, among other things, because the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina …

Call to media: putting an end to sensational reporting on the murder of the minor in Fier

Reporting Diversity Network 2.0, concerned about the way the media are reporting the case of the murder of a minor from Fier, draws the attention of those behind the sensational headlines and reports, in order to take measures in stopping harmful reporting practices. Not only the nature of the crime, but the way it was …