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Nenad Shebek: It would be hilarious to hear that the Serbian government, the prime manipulator, fights disinformation!

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Nenad Shebek is an international consultant for media and civil society. Previously he was director of the Belgrade office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and before that, spokesperson of Regional Cooperation Council. He served as Executive director of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe 2002-2014. Prior to that, he had worked as journalist for 26 years, 16 of them for the BBC World Service, when he also had been correspondent for the Balkans and Moscow. He is also visiting Core lecturer at the postgraduate course in Human rights at Vienna University’s Faculty of Law.

With this outstanding background, Shebek is the right person to talk with about the disinformation and fake news. In this interview we discussed the situation in Serbia, but also the coverage of the Serbian media of the developments in Macedonia

What are the most prominent manipulations and disinformation in Serbia?

Just like Serbia is to a huge degree a “captured” state, so the media in the country are mirroring that misfortune and, by and large, are captured and under control of the current ruling elite. The most common media manipulations are linked primarily to the internal affairs in Serbia, but the manipulations in the news about other countries are tweaked to fit into the narrative that the government sees as beneficial to its domestic agenda. This includes manipulating and misinforming the media consumers about the country’s political, international and especially economic standing.
The public broadcaster is that only by its name and the logo, but actually with all its effective means and purposes, is a government run operation. The same goes for what used to be the state news agency, TANJUG, which officially closed down 3 years ago but still operates as a propaganda tool for the government.
The whole tabloid scene is entirely pro government as are almost all of the privatized local broadcasters. Manipulation is also especially active by flooding the media with completely irrelevant news (about reality TV shows, starlets etc.) instead of focusing on the country’s real problems – state of democracy, captured state, poor international standing, Kosovo etc. A typical example is this.

Does the Serbian government have any action plan on countering disinformation and is it giving results?

Even if there was it is but a joke, since the main manipulator is the government itself.

Were there any convictions for inciting hatred and causing damage through spreading fake news or hate speech?

Hate speech is particularly present when writing about Kosovo and “the others” (i.e. the Kosovo Albanian side) or the opposition parties’ leaderships. It is especially present in the tabloid newspapers (“Informer”, “Srpski telegraf”, “Kurir”, “Alo”). There have been some court cases for libel, some of which were even won by some opposition leaders (e.g. Dragan Djilas) but to the best of my knowledge, none on hate speech on the basis of spreading hatred towards other nations or neighbors in the region.

Are the media associations active in countering disinformation?

There are two main media organizations UNS, NUNS and also the Association of independent journalists of Vojvodina. The last two are especially engaged in de-masking the disinformation described in answer 1. But in a captured state, that is almost impossible endeavor.

How much is North Macedonia present in the media reports in Serbia?

There was a strong pro-Gruevski sentiment in the Serbian media during the period when it wasn’t clear who would emerge as the victor in the political struggles in North Macedonia. After it became clear, it took some time for the Serbian government to accept it, and accordingly, this was reflected in the media. The few independent media (e.g. “Danas”, “NIN”, “VREME”) have written and continue to write fairly and objectively. There isn’t all that much interest in what is going on in the neighboring country, the exceptions being resolving the name dispute with Athens, the outcome of the changes in Skopje and anything related to Kosovo or the Serbian Orthodox church.

Do the media often publish disinformation on the Republic of North Macedonia?

It isn’t that much a question of fake news or direct disinformation as much as an “angle” that is given to a news item. And it appears – if the regime deems it necessary – this is often connected with Kosovo.

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