02. 08. 2005

SREBRENICA IN THE SERBIAN PRESS

Belgrade July 1, 2005 This is the fifth report of Media Center's Media Watch Research Group. It is perhaps a good idea to remind ourselves that this project of analysis of the print media in Serbia, supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), above all aims to answer the question – to what degree the press respects generally accepted professional principles and which are the most frequent forms of violations of those principles and standards. Analyses were based on precisely defined categories of professional reporting with 12 genre forms. Although the current analysis for June 2005 will stay within this framework, it will be a little different from prior reports because of the absolute domination in public of a certain subject. Namely, Srebrenica – the film about the vile murder of six Muslims from this town, discussions about Srebrenica, forthcoming tenth anniversary of the massacre, debate in the Serbian National Assembly and general public – has effectively suppressed all other events. This report will therefore deal with Srebrenica. The story began on the first day of June – in the morning, at the trial against Slobodan Milosevic, the prosecutor presented a film, more precisely a video showing seven Serbs, members of the “Scorpions” unit, brutally killing six Muslims, four of which were minors. At the evening, B92 TV broadcast the video in its news program as well as a conversation with Natasa Kandic lasting 20 minutes. RTS dedicated 20 seconds to this video in its news program. On the following day, June 2, first reports showed in the papers, together with pictures of the horrible crime. But, not in all of them and not in the same amount. “Danas”, “Politika” “Blic” and “Vecernje Novosti” have published a report under almost identical headlines - “Video Showing Murder of Muslims in Srebrenica presented at Milosevic Trial” (“Video Recording of Murders in Srebrenica”). The same was the superscription in Politika, with a heading that read “Witness Horrified”. “Danas” already had several interviewees. On the following day, June 3, other newspapers published reports and photographs - “Glas”, “Kurir” and “Srpski Nacional”, which claimed that “all politicians in Serbia and RS knew about the crime and kept silent”, with even more specific headline - “Djindjic knew about the Scorpions”. Front page in “Kurir” gave more attention to the fact that among the ten people arrested for the murder of the Muslims was some Pera Petrasevic, Bogoljub Karic's bodyguard, and even more attention to an arrest of football player Sinisa Mihajlovic's brother Drazen Mihajlovic who worked as customs officer and was arrested for a bribe worth 30 euros. Each newspaper published extensive articles about the subject. A superscription on the first page “Politika” announces that “Karla del Ponte Praises Belgrade's Reaction” while the headline on the same page reads - “Serbia Made a Wise Move” (statements by the chief Hague prosecutor and prime minister Kostunica to several newspapers served as a signal to give more attention to events surrounding Srebrenica). However, Srebrenica was not the main story in “Kurir” even on the June 4. Their cover story was Nebojsa Bakarec. Headlines on the first and seventh page of “Politika” read “Recordings of the Brutal Crime in Srebrenica Have Shocked the Public”, “Living in Fear” with a subheading saying that “some of the people who performed mysterious missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are not yet arrested”. During the next two days, on June 5 6, “Srpski Nacional” was in its element – first it ran a story with headlines “Ultimate Goal – Satanization of Serbia” and “Scorpions Instead of Jobs” which was explained in the article: “An ancient story from Srebrenica, which is by the way located in another country, predominates over the issue of near economic collapse”. Srebrenica is obviously a non-issue for “Nedeljni Telegraf”. For the whole month, it published only one article with a superscription “High Official from the District Court in Belgrade reveals that Sreten Jocic, Now in Jail in Netherlands, Might Soon Become a Witness at the Hague Tribunal”. The subject of his testimony was mentioned in the headline “Knows the Truth about Srebrenica Massacre and the Role of Dutch Peacekeepers 1994 1995”. It would take too much space to analyze in more detail journalistic articles or items giving space to speakers and so called experts who at the very least tried to relativize the crime committed in Srebrenica – biggest crime in Europe after the World War Two. We'll mention some of the recurring themes: manipulation with number of victims “from both sides to achieve some kind of balance and reciprocity of crimes”, generalization and ranking of both sides' guilt (“Politika”, June 19). There is also a “theory” of “understandable reaction to crimes committed by the other side”, as well as storylines which say that the crime was committed outside our territory, that we should talk about reasons for the crime – namely the destruction of Yugoslavia and secession of former republics, that we must not admit crimes because we would have to pay reparations... Since the video recording of the brutal murder of six Muslims have undoubtedly left a strong impression in the public (for the first time in a poll most of the participants had positive opinion about the Hague Tribunal), moving scenes of crimes committed against Serbs were found and revived. This trend had culminated in publication of a special addition about Serbian victims of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Vecernje Novosti”, June 30). Some article mentioned “a hysterical campaign” - “They Want to Force Us to Believe that All Serbs Are Responsible for Srebrenica – We've Had Enough of the 'Truth' about Srebrenica”. Every action has a reaction (“Glas Javnosti”, June 29). Worn out stories about foreign mercenaries and quislings came back to life: Radomir Smiljanic in “Srpski Nacional” (June 22) cites none other than Hitler, who called mercenaries “power hungry and money loving”. Smiljanic names them – “Natasa Kandic, Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco, Zarko Korac, Sonja Biserko, Goran Svilanovic and others – they will know who they are”. We don't want to limit this report just to analysis of articles related to Srebrenica – after all, Jovanka Matic from the Institute of Social Sciences will present some other views on the subject. So here are some of the most drastic violations of good manners and journalistic ethics. “Glas Javnosti” (on June 7), “Srpski Nacional” (on June 7) and “Danas” (on June 8) published excerpts from protected witness' testimony which was closed for the public [“If the source has disclosed unofficial information, it must not be used in a way that may reveal his identity”.] “As if didn't have enough of these shameless Slovenes who are trying to monopolize our market, now they're selling strangely sour oranges. There's even more, Merkator now has the nerve to advertise...” (“Srpski Nacional”, June 11) [“Journalists should not discriminate on grounds of nationality...”] In NIN on June 16 Damir Dokic, father of the tennis player Jelena Dokic, says: “Croats have brainwashed her, they destroyed her as a sportswoman and now want to destroy her as a human being. I hate them so much, I've said so many things against them hoping that they will expel her, but nothing happened” [same as in the above quote]. The “war” between “Kurir”, i.e. his owner Rodic, and minister of finance Mladjan Dinkic has continued in June. The government accuses Rodic of avoiding taxes. Tax authorities have confiscated newspaper's property which has left a bad impression, regardless of legality of such action, and opened the door to possible interpretations about the violation of media freedom. On the other side, “Kurir” and other newspapers supporting it took their gloves off in their fight against the minister (“Mladjan Dinkic – Serbian Gebels” - “Glas Javnosti”, June 21, “Minister's Dictatorship – a Tyrant” - “Kurir”, June 18, “Mladjan Dinkic Continues His Reign of Terror” - “Glas Javnosti”, June 23). [“... a journalist must respect human dignity and integrity of a person he writes about”] Another issue, related to Srebrenica and other subjects, has attracted journalists' attention during the last month – whereabouts of Ratko Mladic and when his transfer to Hague might happen. It started on June 9 with weekly magazine “Evropa” publishing a story about Russian intelligence mediating in Mladic's surrender. On the same day “Blic” and “Kurir” claimed that the government was negotiating with Ratko Mladic. “Danas” joined the chase on the following day publishing a sensational cover story that ”Mladic Has Been Located”. “Politika” jumped the bandwagon, running a story on June 11 about negotiations between Mladic and “intelligence agencies from other countries”. On the same day “Srpski Nacional” released a front page with a headline claiming that the “script“ for Mladic's arrest had been made by CNN's journalist Amanpour. Three days later (Tuesday) the same newspaper announced that “Mladic will surrender by Wednesday”. Three days after that, the paper claimed that “General Hid His Tracks”. On June 20, its headline reads: “Runaway General Negotiates With the Government and Tycoons”, adding that Mladic demands 10 million dollars. We'll finish this unsuccessful manhunt with a headline from “Kurir” published on June 13 – “Betrayal” and a subheading “Arrest of General Ratko Mladic Possible Only If Someone From His Security Circle Sells Him” [“At least two sources should confirm the information ... journalism is incompatible with sensationalism...”]