Propaganda Without Borders: How Did the Media Welcome the Student Protest on Vidovdan?

Phase One – "Serbia Under Attack"

In the first few hours and days after students in blockade announced the date of a new protest in Belgrade on their official accounts, we read claims from representatives gathered in Pionirski Park that “the blockaders want to attack them on Vidovdan”, or that “they want to kill them.” Soon, the media followed up with headlines such as “Serbia Under Attack Ahead of Vidovdan” because “the blockaders are preparing a bloodbath in Belgrade”, and “Albanian terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija.”

On portals favorable to the authorities, an alleged “blockader plan to mutilate Serbia” also emerged, and from page to page, information about “blockader checkpoints for terror against Serbia” was shared. Besides the headlines about preparations for “chaos,” we also saw that “the blockaders want blood on the streets of Serbia” and that they “have joined forces with Kurti” in an attempt to “bring us to our knees from within.”

The first wave of protest announcements, therefore, boiled down to satanization of the organizers, i.e., the students in blockade. The media linked them to political figures who consistently maintain the role of “designated enemies” in domestic headlines, such as Albin Kurti. With announcements of “chaos” and “bloodshed,” tabloids only intensified narratives about violent protests that have been present for months.

Phase Two – “Genocide Revolution”

After a series of headlines about “attacks on Serbia” and “bloodshed,” tabloids reported – “the blockaders want to label us as a genocidal nation” and “they are calling for elections to create a government that will acknowledge that Serbs committed genocide”. Among these claims were those stating that students in blockade “want to subjugate Serbs with Srebrenica” and “stigmatize them as genocidal”.

In this package of manipulations, tabloids also connected the students with another figure who has been demonized for years. We read that the founder of the Humanitarian Law Center, Nataša Kandić, referred to as “a symbol of anti-Serbian hysteria”, is preparing a “genocide revolution” with the “blockaders” and “leads the campaign ‘Serbs are genocidal’” – simply because the media noticed posts on her social media related to the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.

Through nationalist rhetoric and a new episode of deepening divisions, the media resorted to changing the narrative and biased reporting on the appearance of a student from Novi Pazar, Emina Spahić, on Utisak nedelje. The student stated in the show on Nova S that: “I must build on what has been mentioned, that we are approaching a significant anniversary of genocide. I will reiterate that a people and a nation can never be genocidal; only individuals who support and participate in that genocide are genocidal. I believe elections are necessary for us to express our stance. And that we simply show that we do not support this and that we do not want a government that will support such crimes for years and that will, in some way, participate in them.”

Phase Three – “Unmasking the Hellish Plan”

“mega exclusive” intended to “shock Serbia”, the media announced a “special program” co-produced by six television stations – TV Informer, TV Pink, TV Prva, TV Happy, TV B92, and Studio B. The focus, as they noted, was on “unmasking the hellish plan of the blockader-terrorists, the worst anti-Serbian extremists aiming to provoke a civil war in Serbia on Vidovdan.”

The “mega exclusive” was aired on Wednesday, June 25, following the detention of a student from the Faculty of Physical Education on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of inciting violent change of the constitutional order, and the arrest of six suspects who were allegedly preparing a violent change of government in the Republic of Serbia.

“The hellish plan of the blockaders was unmasked” by well-known figures from the most influential television stations – Gordana Uzelac (TV Pink), Ivana Vučićević (Studio B), Dragan J. Vučićević (TV Informer), Milomir Marić (TV Happy), and Oliver Jakšić (TV B92) – alongside the leader of the radicals, Vojislav Šešelj, professor of the Medical Faculty, Lazar Stijak, and businessman Branko Babić. They also presented, as they described, recordings of conversations between the arrested individuals and individual recordings of discussions at the plenums of students from the Faculty of Philology, Civil Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. The recordings were subsequently disseminated by portals alongside claims of “bloodshed” and “the most monstrous plan of the blockaders”, emphasizing that the plenums were “transformed into terrorist cells”.

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The campaign with which mainstream media announced and are welcoming the student and citizen protest scheduled for June 28 is intensifying. The situation is heating up with the same mechanisms of manipulation that we have seen in previous months, but with sharper rhetoric, even more intense intimidation through all available channels, and the satanization that marks students as “number one” state enemies.

Source: Istinomer