December 2020

Online Media in Balkans ‘Need Regulation, Not Censorship’

Posted on December 22, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Experts told an online debate hosted by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network on Tuesday that the current regulation systems for online media in the Western Balkans are not good enough, but efforts to curb the publication of hate speech and defamatory comments must not tip over into censorship.

Media and legal experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia who spoke at the debate entitled ‘Case Law and Online Media Regulation in the Balkans’ also said that the application of existing legislation is inadequate.

Authorities often rely on legislation that was developed for traditional media which has not been adapted accordingly, or on self-regulation which is not mandatory.

Lazar Sandev, an attorney at law from North Macedonia argued that “those who create public opinion regarding matters of public interest do not uphold any standards, they do not have any legal knowledge”.

Jelena Kleut, associate professor at the University of Novi Sad’s Faculty of Philosophy, said that in Serbia there is lack of willingness to apply standards in online media, and noted a difference between rich and poor media outlets as well as responsible and not responsible ones.

“The wealthy, irresponsible media – they have legal knowledge but they don’t care. They would rather see the complaints in court, pay a certain amount of fines and continue along, they don’t care. On the other end of the spectrum, we have responsible but poor media,” Kleut said.

The media experts also debated the controversial issue of reader comment sections on websites, which some sites around the world have removed in recent years because of a proliferation of hate speech, defamation and insulting language.

According to Montenegro’s Media Law, which came in force in August this year, the founder of an online publication is obliged to remove a comment “that is obviously illegal content” without delay, and no later than 60 minutes from learning or receiving a report that a comment is illegal.

Milan Radovic, programme director of the Civil Alliance NGO and a member of the Montenegrin Public Broadcaster’s governing council, argued that this “it is clear that in such a short period of time, if it is applied, will damage those affected, but also damages for freedom of expression”.

Edina Harbinja, a senior lecturer at Britain’s Aston University, warned that there is a conflict between regulatory attempts and media freedom, and that “this is when we need to be careful in how we regulate, not to result in censorship”.

This was the second debate in a series of discussions on online media regulation with various stakeholders, organised as a part of the regional Media for All project, which aim to support independent media outlets in the Western Balkans to become more audience-oriented and financially sustainable.

The project is funded by the UK government and delivered by a consortium led by the British Council in partnership with BIRN, the Thomson Foundation and the International NGO Training and Research Centre, INTRAC.

Share This Now! How Conspiracy Theories Swamped North Macedonia

Posted on December 22, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The day starts with coffee and unread messages: a few from friends, a few work related, a paid furniture ad, and one with lots of exclamation marks that indicates that it must be read immediately before it is deleted from the Internet. This is because it reveals a big secret, hidden from ordinary people.

That “secret” may refer to the “fake” pandemic, the “dangerous” new vaccine, the “global conspiracy against Donald Trump”, the “dark truth about child-eating elites” – an especially a popular term – and so on.

The sender or sharer may well be an ordinary person that we know personally or through social networks, and who sends such content for the first time or occasionally.

Spreading misinformation through personal messages has become increasingly common in North Macedonia, as elsewhere.

But this is not the only novelty. As the fight against fake news has intensified, with changes of algorithms on social networks and the inclusion of independent fact-checkers, so have the techniques that allow false content to remain undetected on social networks for as long as possible.

“Sending personal messages is an attempt to spread misinformation faster, before it can be detected,” explains Rosana Aleksoska, from, Fighting Fake News Narratives, F2N2, a project led by the well-known Skopje based NGO MOST, which searches for misinformation on the Internet.

Among the newer methods used to avoid detection, she notes, is the mass sharing of print screens instead of whole texts, and, in countries that use Cyrillic script like North Macedonia, Cyrillic and Latin letters are deliberately mixed.

Spreaders of misinformation are always in search of new ways to avoid detection. Illustration photo: BIRN

See and share before it’s removed

One video that recently went viral on social networks in North Macedonia, fuelling panic about COVID vaccines, was released on December 8.

In it, a former journalist appears to interpret a document outlining possible contra-indications in and side-effects from the newly developed Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 – but presents them as established facts.

It got more than 270,000 views and 5,300 shares on Facebook.

While the video reached a large audience, those numbers only partly show just how far the misinformation spread.

The video soon found itself in the inboxes of many other people, after Facebook acquaintances sent it to them in a direct message, urging them to see it as soon as possible, before it was deleted or marked as fake.

People who believe in conspiracy theories, or regularly participate in disseminating them, send direct messages to each other, informing them that new material has been released.

At a first glance, one might think it sounds like a small obscure group, hanging out online.

But the results of a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group, BiEPAG, showed that only 7 per cent of the population in the region do not believe any of the best-known conspiracy theories, and over 50 per cent believe in all of them. The combined percentage of all those who said they believed in all or just in some of the theories was over 80 per cent.

With these huge numbers, it is not surprising that more misinformation also ends up in the virtual mailboxes of those who “don’t believe”, persuading them to switch sides. Some of these people receive three or four such messages a week.

What the messages have in common is that they are accompanied by urgent words: “See this before they delete it from Facebook”, or, “Share and disseminate”, or “They could no longer remain silent, take a look”, etc.

Because people pay more attention to personal messages than to other social media posts, they are more likely to see this content. They may well also spread them, explains Bojan Kordalov, a Skopje-based expert on social networks and new media.

“The way they are set up and designed, fake news gives people a strong incentive to spread them,” he said.

The pandemic was the main topic of misinformation this year, but in North Macedonia this topic intertwines with others, ranging from Euro-Atlantic integration to politics, Aleksoska from F2N2 observes.

“The object of the attack is people’s emotions – to provoke an intense reaction,” she says.

As the year went on, the subject of messages also changed. At first they focused on the “false” nature of the virus, and then later on how there was no need to wear masks or observe social distancing and other health-protection measures.

After the breakthrough in discovering a vaccine was made, the messages began to focus on the alleged dangers and health risks of vaccination.

The way they are set up and designed, fake news gives people a strong incentive to spread them. Illustration photo: BIRN

“Don’t believe, check” – as we instruct you

The video about the supposed effects of the vaccine that gained traction in North Macedonia is a typical example of what typical disinformation looks like. Similar videos are produced every day.

Among the private messages received by social networks users are videos of people posing as doctors from the US, Canada, Belgium, Britain or Germany, filming themselves with webcams, warning that vaccines may well be deadly.

In one video, which focuses on reading the instructions on the Astra Zeneca vaccine, it is also clear that the creators of fake news use the same messages as those who fight fake news, such as: “Don’t believe, check”.

However, they also provide the guidelines about what to “check”.

“Don’t trust us, investigate for yourself. For example, visit these sites. Or google this term, ChAdOx-1. See here, it says – micro cloning,” the narrator in this video can be heard saying as the inscriptions from the vaccine packaging are displayed.

“They convince us that it is safe, but the traces are here in front of us,” the narrator adds, in a dramatic tone.

The pandemic was the main topic of misinformation this year. Illustration photo: BIRN

Finding new ways to bypass filters

Although outsiders have no direct insight into exactly how social networking algorithms detect suspicious content, as they are business secrets, many experts on these technologies told BIRN that certain assumptions can be drawn.

As the creators of disinformation can also be technologically savvy, they have likely drawn their own conclusions and seek new ways to bypass known filters.

One common alarm is when content goes viral quickly. This signals to social networks that the content needs to be checked. But if several different messages containing the same main point are sent, instead of one identical message, the protection algorithms may have a harder time detecting the content’s risk.

Apart from masking the content, spreaders of misinformation use different formats to avoid detection.

Print screens of articles and of social media posts may be shared instead of the actual articles or posts. Some users even do this with their own posts, and republish them as photos.

“Print screens are common in conducting disinformation campaigns. This is just one of the mechanisms they use,” Aleksoska explains. “The problem is much bigger, so the answer must be comprehensive and coordinated.”

Print screens are not only more difficult for the software to detect, but make it harder for people to check, especially if the name of the media outlet that published the content is omitted or cut from the photo.

The part of the internet in North Macedonia recently saw a print screen from a Swiss media outlet circulating with the title in German reading: “Currently no vaccine can be approved.” Hundreds of people shared it.

The publisher that first spread this print screen claimed that the Swiss had rejected the German vaccine “because of the risk of death”.

But the real text does not say at all that Switzerland rejected the German vaccine but only that it will first implement a risk control strategy “to prevent side effects or fatalities”.

This way, those who spread fake news have a clear advantage over those who fight to stop it.

In order to reach the original article, one has to first rewrite the title in German in a search engine, find the text with an identical title among the results and translate it with an online tool. While doing this, ten people will have since received this print screen and will just click “Share”.

Print screens in North Macedonia have also recently been used to spread untrue information about the current dispute between North Macedonia and its neighbour, Bulgaria, which has refused to allow Skopje to start EU accession talks.

Some of these posts present Bulgaria’s demands as something that North Macedonia already accepted.

Since the main bone of contention is the Macedonian language and identity, it is one of the most sensitive issues currently preoccupying the public.

Another technique used to avoid or baffle filters is mixing Cyrillic and Latin letters that are identical in meaning or form, like the letters a, e, n, x, u, j, s, as well as some others.

When a social media user complains that a post has been removed from their profile, in some cases, another user will advise them next time to mix up the letters, making it harder to detect problematic content.

Some people spread fake news because they believe in it and think they are contributing. Photo: Pixabay

Ideological foot-soldiers do the hard work

But why would anyone advise others on how to make it harder to for social networks to detect their problematic content.

Checking some of the profiles that publish and spread misinformation reveals that, besides the usual suspicious suspects – like thematic profiles with false names that only publish information from one or more sources, or people who are part of formal or informal organizations and spread their ideology – a large number of users have no known connection to disinformation networks.

Most are ordinary people who do not hide their identities, publish photos of family trips, but also from time to time share some “undiscovered truth” about the coronavirus or a “child abuse plot” – wedged between lunch recipes and pictures of walks in parks.

Fact-checkers and communication technology experts agree that disseminating misinformation is a highly organised activity, often done with a malicious intent – but also that many people share such content without hidden motives. They clearly feel a responsibility to be “on the right side”.

“Some people spread fake news because they believe in it and think that by doing so they are contributing to some kind of fight for the truth to come to light,” Kordalov explains.

This makes the fight against misinformation even more difficult, because while organised networks create and spread false news at the top, most of the work of dissemination is done by individuals and micro-communities that have no connection to them, or even between each other.

“All conspiracy theories are just pieces of the master theory that says that certain elites rule the world. The more somebody believes in that, the more likely he or she would read and share content supporting this theory,” Aleksoska notes.

However, there are some solutions. Algorithms, according to Kordalov, can be reprogrammed to recognise new forms of false news. No final answer can be found to misinformation, he admits, but the two sides constantly compete and the side that invests most effort and resources will lead in the end.

Technological competition, however, is not enough if it is not matched by stronger institutional action, because creating mistrust in institutions is one of the main goals of disinformation campaigns.

Kordalov says it is not enough for the PR services of institutions just to issue announcements rebutting fake news related to their work each time they spot it. They must be actively involved in a two-way communication and react to false news quickly.

“This is often called ‘damage control’ but this is not the point. Their [institutions’] job is to serve the citizens, and providing real information is part of that service,” he says.

One way for institutions to protect public trust in them is to provide high quality services, he adds. If they work well, and if citizens feel satisfied with them, it will be harder for disinformation to hurt them.

On 5G ‘Journey’, Opportunity at Every Turn for Balkan Economies

Posted on December 22, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

To Matjaz Bericic, chief technology officer at Telekom Slovenije, 5G is “not the destination, it is the journey”.

If that’s the case, the countries of the Balkans are at very different stages of that journey, but for all of them the potential benefits of the next cellular standard are vast, experts say.

“An early strategy on 5G deployment and frequency licencing could be a great opportunity for the region, as it can be seen as part of the advanced infrastructure that can attract investments from, for example, industrial production companies or multimedia production companies,” Petar Popovski, professor of wireless connectivity at Denmark’s Aalborg University, told BIRN.

“Reliable connectivity infrastructure becomes a must-have commodity, such as electricity or water,” he said.

In the Balkans, Slovenia is ahead of the rest, with Telekom, the country’s leading provider of ICT services, having already launched the first 5G mobile network in July this year. Slovenia is now one of 18 of the European Union’s 27 members with a 5G commercial network.

Bericic said the road to launch was long and complex, requiring advanced network technology and testing of the whole network chain – antennae systems, base stations, transfer systems, aggregation and core networks, services and terminal equipment. But the benefits are huge, he said.

“This evolutionarily upgrade allows users to achieve higher data transfer speeds than on the LTE/4G, while the full potential of 5G technology will become available after additional frequency bands are awarded,” Bericic told BIRN.

Various stages of rollout

Illustration. Photo: Unspash/James Yarema

Wireless connectivity experts say the Balkan region stands to benefit most from the reliable connectivity, infrastructure and services that 5G technology offers.

“The most important feature of 5G is that it is a flexible connectivity platform, capable to offer wide range of connections, from high-speed video streaming to low-latency tactile interactions with robots,” said Popovski.

At the end of November, Austrian mobile operator A1 launched a 5G network covering central areas, residential districts and business locations in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. In Croatia, A1 expects to make 5G available this month to more than 70 towns and cities.

Elsewhere in the region, Serbian mobile operator Telenor last year rolled out the first 5G base station in the country, in the Science Technology Park in the capital, Belgrade, and making it available for use by local and foreign companies, startups and students of technical faculties.

In North Macedonia, the Agency of Electronic Communications, AEK, expects to announce a tender for the allocation of radio frequencies for the introduction of 5G by the end of this year or the beginning of next, said AEK adviser Igor Bojadjiev.

“At the moment, from a technical and from a legal point of view, Macedonia has provided all the necessary conditions for starting the implementation of 5G,” Bojadjiev told BIRN.

North Macedonia is counting on 5G to aid the country’s economic development and the development of a national wireless ecosystem.

“The future economic and social development of Macedonia will largely depend on the development of new wireless technologies and digitalisation in all social spheres,” Bojadjiev said.

Vladimir Atanasovski, Vice Dean for Finance at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies in the capital, Skopje, said the early adoption of 5G “may provide a crucial advantage for Macedonia companies, making them more competitive on the international market.”

“5G can drive the economic development of a country by supporting both traditional manufacturers (that will embrace the technologies made practically usable by 5G) and novel and innovative companies that come up with products and solutions in the areas of data gathering, data analysis, associated artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts etc,” Atanasovski told BIRN.

Businesses already reaping the benefits

A 5G logo. Photo: EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER+

Across Europe, businesses and industries are already starting to reap the benefits of 5G networks.

The technology’s impact can be seen in industries ranging from smart production to agriculture, transport and energy. Some countries are taking 5G usage to the next level.

“For example, Germany started very early to licence frequencies for private 5G networks,” said Popovski, of Aalborg University.

“Those frequencies can be owned within a restricted area (for example, a factory) and the owner can control interference to offer predictable link performance, which is not the case with the technologies using unlicensed access, such as Wifi.”

In Central Europe, Czech-based 2N Telekomunikace, which specialises in the development and manufacturing of communication solutions, is already working on projects which include the use of 5G.

“5G will be a game-changer in terms of unlocking the potential of the IoT and making smart cities a reality,” CEO Michal Kratochvil told BIRN.

“It will offer great opportunities for almost every industry. We at 2N are particularly excited about it because our IP access control products are already part of the smart city solution and are a natural fit into the 5G ecosystem.”

‘In the pandemic period’

A woman wears a protective face mask in Zagreb, Croatia, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANTONIO BAT+

Some companies also expect 5G technology to have a big impact on transport and infrastructure.

For example, Rail Baltica, an international railway project spanning the Baltic states, is considering 5G technology for projects such as strengthening railway security, together with the use of drone technology.

Earlier this year, Latvian mobile operator LMT successfully completed the first ever cross-border drone flight conducted entirely over the mobile network. 5G offers even greater potential.

“If there’s sufficient coverage in the air, the mobile network can ensure uninterrupted connectivity throughout the entirety of its flight, which significantly improves safety,” said LMT Vice President Ingmars Pukis. “LMT’s strong network coverage makes drone flight and other 5G use case testing a possibility.”

Such developments offer hope for up-and-coming industries in the Balkans.

“5G also supports efficient simultaneous connections of a large number of devices, which will facilitate the development of smart industry, smart cities and communities and, through the option of network slicing, provide continued digitalisation of the economy and the introduction of numerous virtual dedicated (campus) networks,” said Bericic, of Telekom Slovenije.

The introduction of these “campus” networks would mean that a single physical infrastructure can host several virtual dedicated networks for various business verticals, such as energy supply, transportation, logistics, manufacturing, smart cities, healthcare, protection and rescue…

“We can hardly imagine living without the proper support of high capacity mobile services at every step, especially also now in pandemic period,” Bericic told BIRN. “Same goes for communication through different apps, unlimited access to information, social networks or the option of remote learning or remote work.”

Suing to Silence: Lawsuits Used to Censor Bosnian Journalists

Posted on December 21, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

Last year, Bosnian journalist Adnan Jasarspahic wrote an article for a local portal questioning the transparency of public sector recruitment in his municipality, Visoko, after the sister of the then mayor was hired by a municipality-owned company.

That Jasarspahic was sued by the mayor, Amra Babic, for defamation was one thing. That he had to move to the capital, Sarajevo, was quite another.

In Sarajevo, he said, “If you enter a lawsuit with anyone here, you’ll find someone to defend you.” Not so in towns like Visoko, a little over 30 kilometres northwest of the capital. “What’s it like in those small towns where the local sheriffs are masters of life, in charge of everything?”

“It’s not just about being sued and about defamation itself,” Jasarspahic told BIRN. “Things run deeper here. They mess with your family.”

Jasarspahic won the case, but the damage was done. Dozens of other journalists face similar challenges every year, sued for their reporting mainly by public officials in what media bodies say is a strategy of censorship, bogging down reporters in lengthy, costly court proceedings that make many think twice about digging into the affairs of prominent people.

According to an analysis conducted by the Bosnia mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, 80 per cent of cases were brought by public officials, ignoring the principle often cited by courts that such officials submit to a higher degree of public scrutiny and criticism.

This “should not be the case,” said Kathleen Kavalec, head of the OSCE mission. “Because these are exactly the individuals who should be open to public scrutiny and journalists who are doing their jobs, holding them accountable to the citizens who voted for them.”

The analysis found that 30 per cent of those cases dragged on for more than five years, prolonging the pressure on reporters and their media outlets.

Defamation suits are being “misused to prevent journalists from investigating certain topics or certain individuals,” said Sinisa Vukelic, director of the business portal Capital and a member of the Journalists’ Club of Banja Luka in northern Bosnia.

Lawsuits as ‘intimidation’

Adnan Jasarspahic, journalist. Photo: BIRN

In Jasarspahic’s case, Babic filed the suit even without first seeking a retraction. Jasarspahic said his article on Visoko.co.ba had simply stated the facts, as did the eventual verdict in his favour handed down by the Zenica Cantonal Court.

“You are a public figure, you spend public money, you exist in public space, you give statements in public space, but you act as if I entered your private space,” Jasarspahic told BIRN.

The storm the case kicked up in Visoko, however, made life for Jasarspahic and his family intolerable, prompting their move to Sarajevo.

Babic, the former mayor, declined to comment for this story.

Media and legal experts say it was far from an isolated case.

Defamation suits are “used for intimidation,” said Biljana Radulovic, a lawyer in the eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina.

“Politicians are mostly those suing journalists with the excuse of protecting their reputation. They file lawsuits for protection from defamation, thus intimidating journalists with the enormous amounts being claimed and often won in court proceedings,” Radulovic told BIRN.

Adi Isakovic, a judge at the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, said the number of such cases grows during each election campaign and that their sheer frequency is concerning.

“The abundance of such lawsuits surely affects the independence of journalists,” Isakovic said. “If a journalist publishes a news item of public interest and gets sued for defamation, of course it will matter in the future when they publish their next investigative story that they think the public should know about.”

The growing rate of such lawsuits in recent years has led to the closure of a number of media outlets and brought others to the brink of financial collapse – Sarajevo’s Slobodna Bosna newspaper and Respekt weekly in Banja Luka among the most prominent examples.

“It was simply impossible to function within such a system,” said former Respekt journalist Zeljko Raljic, “because the judiciary is under direct political control, particularly over the last three or four years.”

Vukelic said smaller media outlets were particularly endangered given they lack the resources to fight off repeated lawsuits.

“They cannot endure the pressure,” he said. Such cases can encourage self-censorship among less experienced journalists, who might ask, “Why should I write about that topic when there are a thousand others I can address?” he said.

Years-long legal battles

Sejla Maslo Cerkic, a legal officer at the Human Rights Section of the OSCE mission in Bosnia. Photo: BIRN

When such lawsuits reach court, they can stay there for years, in some more than 11 years, said Sejla Maslo-Cerkic, a legal officer at the Human Rights Section of the OSCE mission in Bosnia.

“When cases and proceedings last this long, everything loses sense both for the party seeking protection of their reputation in court and journalists and the media outlets due to additional costs which they sometimes cannot cover,” Maslo-Cerkic told BIRN.

Court rulings are often inconsistent or contradictory, creating greater legal uncertainty for journalists, she said.

“Under our law, the burden of proving that something is true is placed on defendants, in this case the media or journalists,” Maslo-Cerkic said. “We have noticed that the standard, the scale set by the court for journalists and the media is set too high.”

Bosnian courts, she told BIRN, do not work according to the principle set by the European Court of Human Rights by which freedom of expression protects the expression of statements that may sometimes be “shocking, disturbing or embittering.”

Arben Murtezic, director of the Centre for Education of Judges and Prosecutors in the Federation, one of two entities that make up postwar Bosnia, also cited the inconsistency of court rulings in such cases, but was sceptical of any imminent change.

“It is hard to start harmonising practices without touching the basic principle of the judiciary, i.e. the independence of judges,” Murtezic said.

“Almost all defamation cases are different and special. Each of those cases, and I have really read many of them, has its own specific features and protected values and gravity and compensation amounts claimed … So, I think that hardly anything can be done in that respect.”

‘Hard to be a journalist’

Matt Field, British ambassador to Bosnia. Photo: BIRN

The situation appears even harder for female journalists, particularly in terms of the abuse they are subjected to outside the actual lawsuits.

“When we speak about the exposure of female in comparison to male journalists, I would say that women are far more susceptible to this and are mainly the subject of such sexual assaults,” said Leila Bicakcic, director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Sarajevo.”

The British ambassador to Bosnia, Matt Field, agreed: “The abuse that they receive is out of proportion with their male colleagues,” he said. “It is much more unpleasant, much more personal … It is not normal. It is not part of doing their job and we should not accept that.”

Besides training for judges and prosecutors, experts say there should be strict adherence to the standards set by the European Court of Human Rights.

“We know very well, as we have learnt in the last couple of decades, that journalism is an indispensable segment of democracy,” said lawyer Nedim Ademovic.

“However, journalism is a two-way street. On one side, journalists must be educated and learn about the professional journalism standards, especially ethics in journalism and legal standards, in order to eliminate a danger of lawsuits jeopardising their independence. On the other hand, the state and even business entities dealing with journalism must ensure that journalists will be financially independent, so the fear from lawsuits would not actually lead to their self-censorship.”

Jasarspahic, from Visoko, said he knew of dozens of journalists who had given up fighting defamation suits simply because of the cost involved.

“When a journalist enters a court proceeding, you are immediately down 2,500 marka [1,276 euros]. Lawsuit, response to lawsuit, hearings … All those things cost money,” he said.

“If you lack money to defend yourself, you lose. You defend yourself with your money. Public officials defend themselves with budgetary money… Let’s face it – it’s hard to be a journalist these days. Very hard. The only way out is by solving things institutionally.”

Montenegrin Govt Urged to Commit to Press Freedom Reforms

Posted on December 16, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A group of media organisations has called on the new Montenegrin government to commit to reforms that will build and maintain media freedom.

Media Freedom Rapid Response, MFRR, the Southeast Europe Media Organization, SEEMO, and their partners published a report on Wednesday, demnanding protection of media freedom in Montenegro.

“It will take sustained and concerted efforts by Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic to improve protections for media freedom and the rule of law. They must devote particular attention to addressing the myriad problems faced by journalists and media workers in Montenegro,” said iNik Williams, coordinator at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, in a press release.

In parliamentary elections held on August 30, three opposition blocs won a slender majority of 41 of the 81 seats in parliament, ousting the long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS. After the election, on December 4, new Prime Minister Krivokapic, among other things, promised his government would restore and protect media freedom.

In the report, MFRR called for an end to impunity for crimes against journalists and media workers by ensuring police and prosecutors investigate all attacks and threats and bring perpetrators to justice.

It also called for establishing shared standards and principles for the regulation of the media market to encourage a fair playing field.

The report warned about the current ownership concentration of much of the media, saying management of state support funds and public advertising had been paired with a ruthless campaign against independent media.

The media organisations pointed to the prison sentence issued to the well-known investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic, calling it an attack on journalism. In a second-instance verdict, the court found him guilty of mediation in drug trafficking; he insisted he only met criminals for the purpose of his investigation.

“The new government should continue reform of the public broadcaster. It should start reforming journalistic source protection and, generally, ensure that all new or amended media laws are drafted in line with international standards and best practice on media freedom and pluralism,” the report said.

In its 2020 progress report on the candidate country, the European Commission noted a lack of media freedom in Montenegro, stressing that important old cases of attacks on journalists remained unresolved. The Commission warned also of the polarization of the media scene and of weak self-regulatory mechanisms.

“Concerns also remain about national public broadcaster RTCG’s editorial independence and professional standards,” the progress report said.

Turkey Fines Social Media Giants Second Time For Defying Law

Posted on December 11, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Turkey’s Information and Communications Technologies Authority, BTK, on Friday imposed fines of 30 million Turkish lira, equal to 3.10 million euros, on digital media giants including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Periscope and TikTok, following the first 10 million lira fine a month ago.

The second fine came after the social media giants again failed to appoint official representatives to the country as required by a new digital media law adopted in July this year.

“Another 30 days were given to those companies [to appoint representatives] and this time expired this week. Another 30 million Turkish lira fine was imposed on each of the companies which did not comply with the necessities of the law,” BTK told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.

In the past month, none of the social media giants has made any attempt to appoint official representatives, as the Turkish government demanded. The only social media company to appoint a representative is Russia’s VKontakte digital platform, VK.

“We require social media companies to appoint representatives in our country. We aim to protect our citizens, particularly children, who are more vulnerable than adults,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on December 1.

“We hope they voluntarily respond to our request. Otherwise, we will continue to protect the rights of our citizens at all times,” Erdogan added, accusing the social media giants of creating an uncontrolled environment in the name of freedoms.

If the media companies comply within three months, the fines will be reduced by 75 per cent. If not, they will face an advertising ban for three months. As final sanctions, their bandwidth will be halved and then cut by 90 per cent.

The government is also asking the online media giants to transfer their servers to Turkey.

Opposition parties and human rights groups see the new law as President Erdogan’s latest attempt to control media platforms and further silence his critics.

The new regulations might also prompt companies to quit the Turkish market, experts have warned. PayPal quit Turkey in 2016 because of similar requests and Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey for more than two-and-a-half years.

According to Twitter, Turkey has submitted the highest number of requests to Twitter to delete content and close accounts. Turkey asked Twitter to close nearly 9,000 accounts, but it only shut down 264 of them, in 2019.

Bucharest Wins Race to Host EU Cybersecurity Centre

Posted on December 10, 2020January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The Romanian capital has won the race to host the new European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre, ECCC, Romania’s Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, announced on Thursday.

“Exceptional success for Romania,” Aurescu wrote. “After intense diplomatic efforts, Bucharest was elected to host the EU’s Cybersecurity Centre – the 1st EU Agency in Romania,” the minister tweeted.

Bucharest was chosen over Brussels, Munich, Warsaw, Vilnius, Luxembourg and León, Spain, to host this new centre funded by the EU and dedicated to developing technologies to counter cyberattacks.

“Romanian expertise in IT was acknowledged in the EU. Romania is ready to work hard for a European cybersecurity ecosystem,” the minister continued in his tweet.

According to the European Council, the criteria to choose the host of the ECCC included “the date on which the centre can become operational”, “connectivity, security and interoperability with IT facilities to handle EU funding” and the existence of a “cybersecurity ecosystem”.

In recent years, Romania has become respected for its cybersecurity capacities. Conversely, it is also infamous for being the base of many cybercrime networks defrauding internet users all over the world.

The ECCC aims to “contribute to the deployment of the latest cybersecurity technology, support cybersecurity start-ups and SMEs, enhance cybersecurity research and innovation [and] contribute to closing the cybersecurity skills gap”.

The centre is expected to play a central role in the EU fight against increasing cyberthreats from hackers acting either on their own initiative or at the behest of hostile states and entities.

On such threat was reported this week by the European Medicines Agency. It said it had been hit by a cyberattack in which hackers accessed documents relating to a COVID-19 vaccine.

China Increasing its Footprint in Balkan Media, Study Concludes

Posted on December 9, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

A study presented on Wednesday authored by Vladimir Shopov, an expert on foreign relations and an European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) visiting fellow – says China is positioning itself in the media sector in Southeast Europe.

For the purpose of the study, “Getting on the Radar: China’s Rising Media Presence in South-East Europe”, Shopov said he conducted 40 interviews in eight countries over September to November, with different “media experts, journalists, policy analysts and researchers, university lecturers, diplomats, politicians and businesspeople”. The author also used desk research.

“China is creating an increasingly elaborate media cooperation framework with both state and private media institutions,” the report notes, adding that while “the focus is largely on economy and business”, it is “gradually expanding to include politics” – with mainly positive and fact-based reporting and “little critical content”.

The report elaborates on each Western Balkan country in detail.

It notes that China’s Xinhau News Agency has official collaboration deals with counterpart agencies in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia, where study visits for local journalists to China are organised often. Study visits are also organised in Croatia and Montenegro, despite a lack of extensive collaboration contracts there.

Free-of-charge Chinese content, such as documentaries “about China’s system of governance”, was brought to Albania under a 2019 agreement between the respective public broadcasters, the report recalls.

Albanian media report mainly on bilateral Chinese relations and run interviews with Chinese officials. The Chinese embassy has encouraged youngsters to write about China’s management of the pandemic.

Unlike Xinhua correspondents in Albania, who are not very active, in Bosnia and Herzegovina they engage in activities beyond journalism such as lecturing in universities.

“The other main actor is the China-focused” Kina-Danas regional media outlet, running since 2014, which reflects Beijing agenda and functions as a regional media outlet.

Stories focus on Chinese economic projects, although Chinese businesses do not usually communicate much with the media.

In Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency often distributes the “photo content” of Xinhua, the report notes.

Another Chinese outlet present for decades in Sofia, which has its local network, is Economic Daily. The news portal 24 Hours has created a segment entirely based on Chinese sources and content, called Focus China. Various portals presenting views of Beijing are currently being created in the country.

Croatia’s official collaboration with Chinese media is thin and “the main platform for cooperation are annual study visits for Croatian journalists”, the report says.

The local media’s increased reporting on China focuses on individual projects or China-US relations. The biweekly magazine Globus has a supplement on China and there are unofficial reports on Chinese companies’ failed attempts to acquire Croatian media organisations.

In Kosovo, China’s non-recognition of its statehood creates “extremely limited space for interaction” there, but the Beijing liaison office, although barely noticeable, is increasing its activities. Local reports focus mainly on Serbia-China relations and on Kosovo’s non-recognition.

China’s media presence in Montenegro is also thin. Chinese media provide free content for local media, which is considered low quality by most journalists. Montenegrin events are covered by Xinhua’s correspondent in Belgrade.

Coverage of developments in China is growing in North Macedonia as well, though, “most news items are about the economy, relate to ongoing or potential bilateral projects and remain factual” and often they are just translations of Western media reports.

In 2016, China’s State Council Information Office signed a collaboration agreement with Serbia’s Ministry of Culture, which intensified “media collaboration at the institutional level”.

News items in Serbia on China are often very positive, with “all projects … presented as investments while in most cases they are being funded via loans”, the report notes. Reporting on Chinese embassy activities is mainly managed by the Serbian state, and “critical outlets are visibly kept at a distance”.

The Human Factor: Experts Warn of Czech Hospitals’ Cyber Vulnerability

Posted on December 9, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

On the morning of Friday, March 13, the duty nurses at the University Hospital in the Czech city of Brno received emergency guidelines on conducting essential meetings.

The Czech Republic had just declared a strict nationwide lockdown and organisations across the country were scrambling to move their meetings online. But the hospital in Brno, bracing for its first wave of Covid patients, was going the other way.

The emergency guidelines said all operational matters must be discussed face-to-face rather than online, in team meetings to be held at regular intervals several times a day.

The measures worked, and the virus – a form of ransomware that had paralysed the hospital’s computers – was eventually contained.

“You cannot prepare for a situation like that,” recalls Branislav Moravcik, the head nurse at the hospital’s Clinic of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Resuscitation. “The key is not to panic.”

Moravcik learnt of the cyber-attack in the early hours of Friday morning. Upon reaching work, he backed up his most important data on a flash drive and shared the emergency guidelines with his team.

With computers and medical equipment linked to the IT network shutting down around him, he sent the guidelines using a personal laptop tethered to his mobile phone’s internet connection.

Were such an attack to happen again, Moravcik said, it would be helpful if staff could draw upon planned protocols, as well as mandatory training, to work out what to do.

Healthcare workers care for COVID-19 patient in the department of anaesthesiology, resuscitation and intensive care medicine (ICU) at General University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo: EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK.

The incident at the University Hospital in Brno was one of several cyber-attacks or attempted cyber-attacks targeting Czech medical facilities this spring.

In mid-April, hospitals in Ostrava, Olomouc and Carlsbad reported malicious activity in their IT systems, just days after the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, NUKIB, had issued a warning signalling the imminent threat of such attacks. As is usually the case, there was no clue to the hackers’ identity beyond the strings of numbers denoting their IP addresses.

These incidents revived a debate in mainstream media outlets about the state of the Czech public sector’s IT infrastructure, accompanied by speculation that the hacks might have been the work of foreign powers such as Russia and China.

The Czech government responded by pledging to upgrade its cyber defences. But as the country faces a second, deadlier surge of coronavirus infections over the winter, cyber-security experts are once again questioning the healthcare system’s ability to withstand attack at a time of crisis.

Experts interviewed by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, have said any investment in technical solutions must be accompanied by large-scale staff training in the basics of digital hygiene. Expensive upgrades, they argued, could only be as effective as the weakest links in the system – the tens of thousands of individuals who accessed public sector IT networks every day.

“The human factor plays a big role in cyber security,” said Michal Salat, Director of Threat Intelligence at Avast, a Prague-based provider of anti-viral software that helped Brno’s University Hospital deal with the aftermath of the attack. “It is easier to trick a person than it is to hack into a system.”

Hackers often use seemingly innocuous e-mails to convince individuals to provide the confidential details or download the infected files that end up compromising entire networks. Salat said stressed-out, busy workers – such as those staffing a hospital during a pandemic – would be particularly vulnerable to such “social engineeering” tactics.

To minimise the risk, he said, medical facilities should keep their software up to date, make constant backups of important data, and train staff in best practices for digital hygiene as they do for other forms of hygiene.

Digital-hygiene lessons would have to be repeated at regular intervals for their message to be re-enforced. Jan Kozanek, a cybersecurity specialist at the Accenture consultancy, warned of long-ingrained bad habits in the public sector, describing how any visitor to a local hospital was free to check standards for themselves with a little test. “Just count how many times you can spot passwords written on a piece of paper” near a computer workstation, he told BIRN.

‘Only an amateur would leave tracks’

Hospitals’ overwhelming reliance on IT systems to provide urgent care has made them popular targets for hackers seeking to extort money. Ransomware attacks, in which hackers encrypt data and demand payment for restoring access, have been reported at medical facilities across the US and Europe this year.

An attack on a hospital in the German city of Dusseldorf in September was investigated for having caused the death of a seriously ill patient, in what was thought to be the first such case of its kind. The investigation was however dropped as there was not enough evidence that the hack had led to the death. The best-known such attack remains the 2017 “Wannacry” hack that plunged the UK’s National Health Service into crisis, leaving computer screens frozen with messages demanding ransom payments.

This year’s cyber-attacks in the Czech Republic fit within this global trend, as well as within a narrower trend for hacks targeting the country’s public sector IT infrastructure. In June last year, for instance, NUKIB reported that the Czech foreign ministry’s e-mail servers had been targeted by hackers. This April, the country’s main travel hub, the Vaclav Havel Airport, said it had thwarted an attack on its IT system.

Healthcare workers transport a COVID-19 patient to Motol University Hospital after transfer from Zlin region, in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo: EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK.

Both the EU and the US issued statements criticising the cyber-attacks in the Czech Republic this spring. Several Czech media outlets went further, accusing Russia of orchestrating the hacks – a claim described by the Russian embassy in Prague as a “provocation”. Russia has major business interests in the country and its government is frequently accused of trying to influence Czech politics, as well as public opinion through disinformation campaigns. Similar accusations have also been directed at China, another global player with interests in the Czech economy.

Experts are however cautious about claims that foreign governments are involved in the recent hacks. According to Yuval Ben-Itzhak, the former CEO of Israeli cyber-security firm, Finjan, who currently heads the Prague-based digital marketing company, Socialbakers, state actors prefer making discreet inroads into IT infrastructure over high-profile hacks. “Governments want to have access on a long-term basis, not visibility in the news,” he told BIRN.

Alexandra Alvarova, a writer on disinformation tactics in the Czech Republic, said claims of Russian involvement in the hacks would most likely remain unverified unless there was a high-profile defection from the ranks of its intelligence service. “In this business, only an amateur would leave tracks, and Russian intelligence hackers are some of the best in the world,” she told BIRN.

Czech lawmakers are currently seeking to amend laws in order to give NUKIB a bigger role in defending hospitals from cyber-attack. NUKIB spokesman Jiri Taborsky said the legislative changes are a response to a “long-term, unsatisfactory situation” in the Czech healthcare system’s cyber-defences.

“This situation in turn reflects long-term under-investment in hardware and software infrastructure, as well as in human resources,” he told BIRN in an emailed statement. “NUKIB has been warning of this every year in its annual report on the state of cyber-security.”

The agency said it was also providing “educational materials and courses to help medical staff nationwide educate themselves” about the cyber threat.

‘Working crazy hours’

While claims of foreign involvement in specific hacks are rarely proven, the view that the Czech Republic is lagging behind in cyber-security matters has become a vote-winner.

The 2017 general election delivered a breakthrough for the Pirates Party, a new political formation that won the third-largest share of votes with a tech-savvy message that appealed to younger voters. A legislator for the party, Ondrej Profant, told BIRN that the country’s older governing class simply “did not understand the digital world – they lack the elementary habits”.

He acknowledged that the government had prioritised cyber-security following the attacks this spring, and praised NUKIB’s new digital-hygiene guidelines for staff at public offices. However, he warned, more training was needed.

“We are willing to invest in expensive technologies which improve our security by some margin against highly sophisticated attacks, but we forget about the staff at the main entrance,” he said. “It is as if we are building a very high wall to protect ourselves but leaving the door unlocked.”

It is moreover uncertain how much of an impact additional training will have on everyday habits in Czech hospitals. Apolena Rychlikova, a journalist who has reported on the healthcare system, said the effectiveness of digital-hygiene training would also depend on variables such as staff members’ age and workload.

“In general, medical facilities were understaffed and people were working crazy hours – and that was before the pandemic,” she told BIRN.

Albin Sybera is a journalist and Visegrad Insight fellow based in Ljubljana. This article was edited by Neil Arun. It was produced with a Reporting Democracy grant for stories that reveal how the Covid-19 crisis is reshaping politics and society in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe.

Serbian Security Service Named Among Users of Israeli Surveillance Software

Posted on December 4, 2020January 26, 2023 by BIRD

In research published on Monday, Citizen Lab, an Institute of the University of Toronto that specializes in surveillance issues, listed 25 countries and agencies – including Serbia’s Security Information Agency – that use the software of the Israeli company Circles, which enables the user to locate every phone in the country in seconds.

Founded in 2008, Circles reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system to snoop on calls, texts, and the locations of phones around the globe.

Circles is a part of NSO Group, an iPhone and Android spyware developer that is being sued by Facebook over attacks on the accounts of 1,400 WhatsApp users.

It has also been criticized for selling its services to governments that use it to spy on activists, journalists and other citizens, according to Forbes.

Circles, whose products work without hacking the phone itself, says it sells only to nation-states, but Citizen Lab’s research, based on leaked documents, shows that clients can purchase a system that they connect to their local telecommunications companies’ infrastructure, or they can use a separate system called the “Circles Cloud,” which interconnects with telecommunications companies around the world.

According to Citizen Lab, likely Circles customers include governments in Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Bill Marczak, from the University of California in Berkley, a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab, said the investigation should raise awareness on the wider issues. “We hope this report enables people to ask more precise questions and perhaps even improve the regulation of the field, which today operates as if it were the Wild West,” Marczak told Calcalyst.

But an NSO spokesperson told Forbes in the name of both NSO and Circles that they operate with “a commitment to ethical business and adhere to strict laws and regulations in every market in which they operate”.

“We cannot comment on a report we have not seen. Given Citizen Lab’s track record, we imagine this will once again be based on inaccurate assumptions and without a full command of the facts. As ever, we find ourselves being asked to comment on an unpublished report from an organization with a predetermined agenda,” the spokesperson said.

The technique used by the Circles tech is known as Signaling System 7 (SS7) exploitation. A SS7 is a protocol suite developed in 1975 for exchanging information and routing phone calls between different wireline telecommunications companies, the Citizen Lab report says.

In its research, the Toronto-based laboratory notes that whileabuse of the global telephone system for tracking and monitoring is believed to be widespread, it is difficult to investigate. When a device is tracked or messages are intercepted, there are not always traces on the target’s device, the report warns.

See and share before it’s removed

“Don’t believe, check” – as we instruct you

Finding new ways to bypass filters

Ideological foot-soldiers do the hard work

BIRD Community