February 2022

Kosovo Defends Decision to Ban Russian TV Channels

Posted on February 28, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The head of Kosovo’s Independent Media Commission IMC, has defended its decision on Saturday to ban the broadcasting of Russia Today and RT Documentary TV channels in Kosovo, saying it took the decision to prevent the spread of Russian propaganda following the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

The two channels are broadcasted in the Serb-run north of Kosovo by MTS, Serbia’s state telecom company. Serbia and Russia are close allies.

The head of the IMC, Faruk Rexhaj, told Prishtina Insight that it was important to counter misinformation about the war.

“We have appealed to the media to provide sources of information. The decision does not match a violation of media freedom, but measures must be taken not to spread misinformation,” he said.

He said Russia Today and RT Documentary were widely watched in Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo. “Today we are on the ground and identifying all distribution operators, to see if there are other [Russian] channels on platforms,” he said.

According to him, the decision is not a permanent restriction but only temporary prevention, until the situation in Ukraine improves. As Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues, fears about what is being served to citizens through the media, and the security of the source of information, have grown.

“Taking into account that the security of the Republic of Kosovo is related to the fate and security of other democratic countries, the IMC considers it necessary and indispensable to take this decision,” the decision for the ban read.

On Sunday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, said Russian TV channels would be banned across the EU, attacking what she called “a media machine”.

“We will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU. The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war,” she wrote on Twitter. “We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe,” she added.

The IMC is responsible for regulating, managing and supervising the spectrum of broadcasting frequencies in Kosovo.

It licenses public and private broadcasters, determines and implements the broadcasting policy and regulates the rights, obligations and responsibilities of natural and legal persons who provide audio and audiovisual media services.

BIRN itself monitors the media in Kosovo, tracking information with unreliable sources about the attacks in Ukraine.

As fierce fighting continues in Ukraine, a meeting was scheduled to take place between leaders of both countries. Airstrikes have targeted several cities and overnight Russia bombed Chernihiv and Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Serbia Sees Rise in Lawsuits to Silence Media and Activists: Report

Posted on February 23, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Between 2010 and 2020 in Serbia, at least 26 civil lawsuits were brought against journalists, media outlets, civil society organisations and activists as a result of their efforts to monitor rights violations, says a report published on Wednesday by international human rights group Article 19, the ABA Centre for Human Rights, and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, NUNS.

The lawsuits included defamation cases against publications and the authors of articles and social media posts that exposed or criticised the apparent misuse of public funds and official malfeasance. More than half of these cases were brought between 2018 and 2020.

Such legal actions – so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation or SLAPPs – are brought to harass or subdue an adversary and prevent the exercise of fundamental rights, the report says.

Those targeted by costly civil lawsuits are often ill-equipped to defend themselves, while the danger of being confronted with damages and liability for defamation creates a chilling effect and prevents them from reporting on matters of public concern, according to the report.

Most of the 22 lawsuits analysed in the report were brought against journalists and media organisations, while four cases were brought against environmental activists and organisations, and one case against a non-governmental organisation which revealed apparent connections between a public official and war crimes.

“Journalists, media outlets and activists are facing abusive lawsuits [SLAPPs] for investigating corruption or exposing abuses of power and links between political elites and criminal groups. In light of the upcoming parliamentary elections in April, it is crucial that politicians acknowledge the dire consequences of legal harassment against journalists and openly denounce any attempt to impede their work,” Roberta Taveri, programme officer at Article 19, told BIRN.

“Both national and international actors in Serbia must play a crucial role to stop the curb of SLAPPs against independent media and enact a comprehensive system to discourage such abusive lawsuits to be initiated. We call for the alignment of key national laws’ provisions with international freedom of expression standards and for the judiciary to apply these standards in their rulings,” Taveri added.

The report shows that the majority of cases were initiated by a small number of politicians and high-level public officials in an individual capacity. These individuals also brought multiple cases against different journalists and activists.

At the same time, Serbian courts failed to apply international and regional standards that require that public officials must tolerate a greater level of criticism and intrusion into their rights due to their official positions, according to the reports.

Serbia’s Media Law and Law on Contracts and Torts allow people to sue to defend themselves from attacks on their honour or trustworthiness, but these terms can be interpreted flexibly to suit the authorities’ needs, including in order to prevent criticism, the report claims.

It argues that Serbian courts allow individuals to sue for reputational damage if they are subjected to “offensive speech”, even if no actual harm was done to their reputation.

“In cases of public officials and figures, the courts give decisive weight to alleged mental anguish caused to the plaintiff even if the actual harm to their reputation is unsubstantiated,” the report says.

“When assessing reputational harm, Serbian courts often fail to require plaintiffs to demonstrate both the falsity of the impugned statement and that it caused harm to their reputation. Often, the courts are satisfied that the statement simply caused mental distress to the plaintiff,” it adds.

The research also shows that in several cases, plaintiffs filed multiple suits against the same media or campaigners over several stories on the same topic, requiring them to engage in lengthy, extensive and costly litigation.

For instance, in 2018, Nenad Popovic, then Minister for Innovation and Technology, filed four defamation lawsuits under the Media Law against the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network, KRIK, in response to a 2018 article entitled ‘Serbian Citizens in Paradise Papers’.

KRIK published four articles with factual information such as Popovic’s business dealings, offshore assets and partnerships contained in the so-called Paradise Papers leak of information about the offshore holdings of politicians and others.

Popovic accused KRIK of publishing politically motivated, unsubstantiated articles. He filed four lawsuits, one per article, asking for one million dinars (about 8,500 euros) to compensate for the damage to his reputation caused by each of them.

Although all four lawsuits were filed in the same court, arising from the same set of facts and involving the same legal issues, the proceedings were not consolidated.

Even where defamation cases are ultimately dismissed – either in the first instance or appeal – journalists, the media and activists have to invest time and resources into their legal defence, the report explains.

The proceedings typically stretch over a long period of time – for instance, at least five completed cases were in the courts for five or more years.

In the cases reviewed for the report, journalists and human rights defenders have been required to pay between 850 and 4,657 euros in compensation.

If they lose, they are also responsible for the plaintiff’s legal fees, which cost an average of 204 to 510 euros. These are considerable amounts because the average monthly salary in Serbia is about 510 euros.

The amount of damages might not be a prohibitive amount for large media organisations, but it represents a substantial cost to small independent media organisations, and it is even more burdensome for activists and freelance journalists, the report says.

Many defendants are often unable to continue to carry out their work at the same rate due to the time and resources that they have to devote to the proceedings, it adds.

On the positive side, the report finds that Serbian legislation provides some specific safeguards against violations of the right to freedom of expression in defamation cases brought against the media.

For instance, the Media Law sets a shorter statute of limitation in cases against the media (six months from the date of the publication) compared to other civil law cases (three years from the time of alleged offence).

The Media Law also puts the burden of proof on plaintiffs who have to prove that defendants caused harm to their reputation, and that this has resulted in material or non-material damage.

North Macedonia Banks Targeted by Notorious Greek Hackers

Posted on February 23, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A well known group of supposedly Greek-based hackers, calling themselves “Powerful Greek Army”, has claimed it took down the pages of several banks in North Macedonia on Tuesday evening for a couple of hours.

Only one bank, however, the private TTK Bank, has confirmed that its web page was in fact the target of a hacker attack, saying that it “successfully prevented” the attack and “there are no consequences”.

“Powerful Greek Army” posted on Monday that it intended to attack a range oif banks.

“ALL banks licensed by the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia/All Banks of North Macedonia will be downed … soon,” the group wrote on Twitter. On Tuesday, the group posted subsequent posts, claiming success in this.

BIRN asked North Macedonia’s central bank to comment but did not receive an answer by the time of publication.

This is not the first time the group has targeted North Macedonia’s institutions.

In February, the Education Ministry confirmed it came under attack by the group, which posted video footage of allegedly hacked video surveillance cameras from inside the ministry. However, the ministry said the camera footage was fake.

Earlier, in May 2020, “Powerful Greek Army” leaked dozens of email addresses and passwords from staffers in North Macedonia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, as well as from the municipality of Strumica – and bragged about its exploits on Twitter.

The hacking group was reportedly founded in 2016, when it took down the website of the Greek Prime Minister. Since then it has taken offline a number of banks in Turkey and downed the websites of Turkish Airlines and the office of the Turkish president among other targets. In a recent interview, an alleged member said they had not particular motivation or ideology and chose their targets at random, from Greece and its neighbours to Nigeria and Azerbaijan.

Greek Prosecution of Novartis Reporters ‘an Attempt to Terrorize Journalists’

Posted on February 21, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The former ruling New Democracy party MEP, and publisher of the free newspaper Free Sunday, George Kyrtsos, in a post on Twitter, condemned the prosecution of two journalists, Costas Vaxevanis and Gianna Papadakou, and a prosecutor, Eleni Touloupaki.

He said EU funds for Greece were at risk of being cut when the rule of law is violated, comparing Greece with Poland and Hungary.

New Democracy fired Kyrtsos last week as one of its MEPs over his criticism of the government’s handling of a long-running alleged drug bribery case involving the Swiss drugs firm Novartis.

It said Kyrtsos had failed to “promote the country’s positions in the European Parliament” and was instead “giving the country a bad name by questioning the independence of the Greek justice system and by comparing Greece to states that violate the rule of law”.

His behaviour “was an insult to all those who trusted him to represent them”. the party said. “There can be no tolerance for defaming the country,” it continued.

Kyrtsos on Monday responded by saying that Mitsotakis had personally warned him of his “imminent expulsion” back in April 2021. “I was surprised that he chose the battleground of Novartis in his effort to justify his authoritarian practices.”

“He has accused me of degrading the image of Greece and the government in the European Union. That kind of accusation is usually used by post-Soviet authoritarian regimes. … In my view, the negative image of the government in the European media and possibly in the European institutions is the result of Mitsotakis’ illiberal practices.”

The Novartis scandal has been the biggest political scandal in Greek history, involving ten former prime ministers and ministers from both New Democracy and its onetime left-wing rival PASOK taking bribes from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant.

The politicians denied wrongdoing and claimed the accusation was politically motivated. Novartis entered into an out-of-court settlement of $345 million with the US government.

Papadakou, an investigative journalist and press officer for The Left in the European Parliament, interviewed an informant, Herve Falciani, a HSBC computer technician who revealed the names of the Greek businessmen in the Novartis affair who had hidden accounts in the Geneva branch of the bank.

The catalogue of the deposits held by more than 2,000 rich Greeks at the bank was handed over to the former Minister of Finance, George Papaconstantinou by Christine Lagarde with the purpose of pursuing tax offenders in October 2010. The result of the investigation was the conviction of the Papaconstantinou.

Papadakou is accused of participation in a criminal organisation that created a “fake scandal” about the Novartis affair and the so-called “Lagarde List”.

She told BIRN she was “in the spotlight because of my … revelations about the Novartis scandal on my television show.

“All of this is an organized attempt to terrorize journalists with the aim of their eventual extermination and the cover-up of two major scandals that cost the Greek people many millions of euros.”

The second targeted journalist, Costas Vaxevanis, publisher of the newspaper Documento is also facing charges of participation in a criminal organization, breach of duty and abuse of power through his newspaper’s reports on the Novartis scandal.

Other journalists in Greece make the same complaints as Papadakou.

On February 10, the lawsuit of the company WRE HELLAS SA was heard, asking for 225,000 euros from the cooperative newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton and the journalist Tassos Sarantis accusing them of making “offensive claims against the company”.

The reason was an investigation by Sarantis into the company, which has served a barrage of lawsuits against those who opposed the installation of a wind farm it owned in the area of Monemvasia, in the Peloponnese.

“The company did not limit itself to the lawsuit against me, but also sent a legal notice to Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers asking them to delete a post in support for me,” he told BIRN.

“The lawsuits of companies against journalists such as Stavroula Poulimeni and the Syros Observatory are a double attempt to silence the press and the environmental movements,” Sarantis told BIRN.

Recently, a Greek NGO, Hopeten, served members and journalists of Solomon and Reporters United with a legal notice regarding questions they had asked them as part of their investigation into the allocation of European funds for the accommodation of asylum seekers in Greece.

Kostas Koukoumakas, a journalist and member of Reporters United, told BIRN that his team received three different legal notices before publishing the investigation, sent – he says – in order to intimidate them.

He said the Ministry of Immigration, which was accountable for managing the money, unofficially advised them to “be careful” about publishing because both companies and NGOs could file lawsuits, something that Koukoumakas interpreted as the Ministry appearing almost as their defender.

IPI Europe Advocacy Officer Jamie Wiseman said: “Journalists carrying out independent, investigative and watchdog reporting in Greece are working in an increasingly suffocating climate, facing a restrictive landscape for accessing public information, online harassment and abuse, and threat of vexatious legal threats from powerful individuals or institutions.”

Montenegro Promises to Compensate for Publishing Self-Isolators’ Names

Posted on February 21, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Montenegro’s government confirmed on Monday that it will pay compensation of 300 euros each, of a total of 816,000 euros, to citizens on the list of people ordered to self-isolate during 2020 whose names were published.

According to government data, 2,720 persons filed lawsuits against the state for publishing their names on lists of people ordered to self-isolate.

“Last December, the government agreed to pay 300 euros each in damages to every citizen whose name was published on those lists. The compensation will be paid for violation of personal rights by publishing personal data,” the government told BIRN.

Podgorica-based lawyer Dalibor Kavaric, who represented most of the citizens filing lawsuits, said the government had violated their human rights despite its claims that this was done in the public interest.

“The state has an obligation to protect the rights of every citizen even when it comes to the public health interest. When those lists were published, there was increased fear in the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that, those people were stigmatized, as they were presented as a public threat,” Kavaric told BIRN.

“We are not satisfied with the amount of compensation, as it should be at least ten times higher,” he added.

The government published the names on March 21, 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite warnings from opposition parties and civic society organisations that it risked violating their constitutionally guaranteed human rights. They also warned that citizens whose names were published might sue the state.

The government insisted it had a right to publish the names because some citizens were not respecting self-isolation obligations.

It said it had approval for its actions from the Agency for Personal Data Protection. It also stressed that the security forces could not control every citizen who should be in self-isolation and that anyone who failed to self-isolate posed a threat to the community.

On March 22, 2020, then Prime Minister Dusko Markovic said no compromises would be made with those who violated preventative measures amid the pandemic. He also warned that the government would continue to publish the names of citizens who had been ordered to self-isolate.

“The lives of our citizens are the priority. We have estimated that the right to health and life is above the right to unconditional protection of personal data,” Markovic said.

But after the Civic Alliance NGO submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Court, on July 23, 2020, the court annulled the government’s decision to publish the names of citizens ordered to self-isolate – although it did not rule that the government had violated their rights. The government then removed the list from its website.

In last year’s progress report, the European Commission urged Montenegro to award compensation for the publication of the names, warning that the government had violated people’s constitutional right to privacy.

Wave of Cyber Crimes, Political Clashes, Buffets Region

Posted on February 18, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Early February’s digital violations suggested that some of them were the result of the reluctance or inability of governments to cope with an increase in cyber-attacks and online frauds.

In Hungary, political clashes continued in the online environment ahead of spring’s general elections; in Romanian, a row in parliament between the energy minister and a far-right leader Simion resulted in both a spike in online tensions and a controversial amendment to parliament’s rules.

New computer frauds and hacker attacks were recorded in North Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia, where the responses of the authorities remain far from satisfactory. Ethnic and political-related death threats marred Bosnia’s digital environment.

Political contest haunts Hungary ahead of election

With parliamentary elections looming in Hungary, the party campaigns are becoming a battlefield in which the different options continue to attack each other.

On February 12, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered his annual “state of the nation” speech, which he used to attack his Fidesz party’s political rivals. If the left wins the next elections, he claimed, “taxes and debt will be sky high, and we will have a crumbling economy: unemployment, austerity measures, mountains of debts, IMF: No money.”

Former socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany addresses demonstrators protesting against the policies of the Hungarian government in a street overlooking the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, 28 September 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/ZOLTAN MATHE

In the first case recorded on February 9, Péter Márki-Zay, leader of Hungary’s joint opposition in the election and founder of the Everybody’s Hungary movement, on Facebook accused Fidesz ministers, including the Prime Minister, of involvement in an ongoing corruption case. The prosecutor’s office has since made it clear that the accusation had no basis in fact.

Pro-government media are meanwhile involved in political attacks and disinformation aimed at discrediting Fidesz’s opponents.

On February 13, the pro-government media launched a campaign against Ferenc Gyurcsány, president of the liberal Democratic Coalition Party, claiming he did not know the name of his own party’s candidate at an election event. To support this claim, they published a manipulated video in which Gyurcsány appeared not to know the candidate’s last name, saying: “Dr Oláh Somebody, the candidate for this constituency.” Gyurcsány had been targeted in a further case of disinformation led by pro-government media outlets Origo and Borsonline. On February 15, he won a lawsuit against an article published by the two media that claimed he was drunk at a party event.

North Macedonia still vulnerable to hacker attacks

Computer frauds and other cyberattacks jeopardized the integrity of a number of North Macedonian state websites in early February.

Despite government pledges to increase the security of the IT systems of institutional websites, weak cybercrime prevention systems remain a challenge. Lack of adequate training of IT personnel to prevent hacking attacks and raise awareness of their effects is another issue.

In a case recorded on February 4, hackers calling themselves the “Powerful Greek Army” boasted that they had hacked the Ministry of Education. The group released footage that appeared to be from the ministry’s own video cameras. However, after confirming the hacker attack, the ministry said the video footage published on Twitter by the hacker group was fake.

Days later, on February 9, scammers were sending out mass phishing emails in the name of North Macedonian Post. Several citizens reported receiving suspect messages on behalf of the Post Office, asking them to make payments through a fake website. The Post Office warned people not to open the links.

Romanian parliament clash spurs online tensions and controversial rule change

Shortly before the Romanian parliament’s Chamber of Deputies on February 9 rejected a motion of no confidence in Energy Minister Virgil Popescu, parliament was the scene of an ugly confrontation between George Simion, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians, AUR, and the minister.

Simion first approached the minister with threatening tones, yelling in his face: “You’re a thief.” The chairman of the meeting, Daniel Suciu, member of the Social Democratic Party PSD, suspended the session, “This is the first time in the history of the Romanian parliament that a minister has been physically assaulted while giving a speech,” he said.

Incident desfasurat in timpul sedintei ocazionate de citirea motiunii simple de cenzura impotriva ministrului energiei, in plenul Parlamentului Romaniei, 7 februarie 2022. Photo: Inquam Photos / Ilona Andrei

The digital environment was shaken by this event. In a case recorded on February 8, Energy Minister Popescu complained that he and his family were now being threatened on Facebook by the far-right party’s supporters. “Since this incident happened, I have been targeted by an avalanche of insults and threats on my personal Facebook account. These threats appeared even under pictures of my children. They went too far this time. Some of the accounts are fake, and the whole action seems organised,” he said.

The aftermath of the political clash resulted in a further episode that could have worrying implications for freedom of expression.

On February 9, the government proposed amendments to the rules of the chamber, which would limit MPs’ rights to livestream and video-record events inside parliament. Six NGOs criticized the change. “The ban on displaying banners in the parliament, as well as the ban on recording and broadcasting live is, in our view, a restriction on freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right, all the more protected when it comes to political debate,” they warned.

Phishing scams and online intimidation of journalists in Serbia

In Serbia, the first two weeks of February saw several phishing cases and more digital violations targeting journalists.

Serbia’s digital environment remains “hostile territory” for independent journalists and media outlets and attempts to discredit and discourage the free media are a daily reality.

Workers decorate with Christmas lights the head office of Raiffeisen Bank in Pristina, Kosovo, 16 December 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMA

On February 1, the Serbian branch of Raiffeisen Bank warned its clients that requests sent to customers to reactivate their mobile banking apps via email were fraudulent. The bank advised its clients not to follow such instructions. Two days later, Serbian Post informed citizens that fraudulent messages were being sent on its behalf via SMS and WhatsApp, asking people to make payments to pick up shipments. It advised people not to open these fake links or enter personal data.

Nedim Sejdinović, a journalist known for his anti-government editorials and author of various reports on social issues, reported to the country’s Cybercrime Prosecution Office that he had received threats and other insults via Facebook Messenger on February 11. One comment read: “Listen Turk [an abusive term for Muslim]… I will take care of you”.

Following a November 4 case, where Aleksandar Šapić, vice president of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, sued Nenad Kulačin and Marko Vidojković, hosts of the podcast “Dobar, loš, zao” (“The Good, The Bad, The Ugly”) for defamation, the politician again sued the two journalists on February 13, demanding more than a million Serbian dinars in compensation for the contents of their programme.

Ethnic Death Threats in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia, where ethnic tensions are endemic to the social fabric and political system, new ethnic-political-related death threats marred Bosnia’s digital environment.

Ćamil Duraković, former mayor of Srebrenica, received death threats after guesting on a television program where he confronted a Republika Srpska deputy, Nebojsa Vukanovic. One message read: “Because of last night’s spitting on Serbs in the [TV] show, I can only tell you, ‘Long live Ratko Mladic’ and it’s a pity they missed you” – “they” meaning the Bosnian forces under General Mladic who killed 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.

Another case involved the vice president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the larger of Bosnia’s two entities, Milan Dunović. He reported receiving death threats from some individuals who had threatened to “cut off his head”.

“When individuals dare to threaten public figures, who are under the protection of the police, the question is what citizens can expect. Of course, I reported all threats that I consider a direct threat to the safety of me and my family to the authorities, but such threats can only be stopped by stopping policies of hatred and invoking conflict,” he said.

Computer frauds and COVID disinformation Spread in Croatia

Croatia recorded several cases of computer fraud and other cases of disinformation linked to the COVID pandemic in early February,

Following the pandemic, cyber frauds have increased in Croatia and, although Croatia has joined the EU Cybersecurity Regulation, it appears that its cybersecurity is not yet efficient. A study suggests that Croatia has yet to offer an adequate answer to the increase in cyber-threats.

A bitcoin sign is placed in front of a crypto exchange office in Pristina, Kosovo, 10 January 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

On February 9, Croatian telecommunications operator A1 was subjected to a hacker attack that compromised around 10 per cent of A1’s user data. The hacker demanded a $500,000 ransom or threatened to sell the data on the dark web. One day earlier, a Croatian company became a victim of internet fraud following the interception of its email exchange with a business partner. The company then received an email with details of a fake bank account, into which it deposited funds, losing a couple of thousand kuna. A massive cryptocurrency fraud was also discovered between September 2021 and November 2021, which targeted thousands of citizens.

Two cases linked to COVID disinformation were also recorded. In the first, on February 3, false information about the cause of the recent death of Valerij Jurešić, who headed the Department of Culture, Sports and Technical Culture in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, spread via social media and online media.

This claimed that his death by heart attack was linked to the COVID-19 vaccine. However, Jurešić’s daughter clarified that her father had been suffering from cancer, adding that anti-cancer drugs probably induced his heart attack.

On the same day, a case was recorded of a scientist who became a victim of hate speech and death threats online after he warned about the dangers of COVID-19.

Croatian Teen Suspected of Hacking Communication Company’s Data

Posted on February 17, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Croatian news site Index.hr reported that the prime suspect for hacking the database of Croatia’s telecommunication operator’s, Tele Operator A1, exposing around 10 per cent of user data, is a 14-year-old primary school pupil from Slavonski Brod.

Police reportedly waited for the suspect at home after he came back from school on Monday and questioned him in the presence of his parents. They then searched his home and, according to reports, found the equipment he used to hack Tele Operator A1.

As the suspect is a minor, the police were unable to give many details, but Renato Grguric, head of the police’s Department of Cyber-Security, said there was “enough evidence that the person in question is the hacker. When the investigation is over, adequate criminal charges will be brought”.

The police also said that he had an accomplice, who was not from Croatia and who did not participate in the hacking itself.

Grguric said that when a crime perpetrator is a minor, the emphasis is not on punishment but on preventing further crimes. “People usually get three to five years in prison for a crime like this, but that’s not the point. In this case, the responsibility is on the minor, not the parents. Every person over 14 is responsible for their own actions,” Grguric explained.

On February 9, Croatian Tele Operator A1 was the target of a hacking attack that compromised round 10 per cent of A1’s user data, exposing their names, addresses, personal identification numbers and phone numbers.

The hacker demanded a $500,000 ransom or threatened to sell the data on the dark web. A1 did not pay the ransom and the hacker claimed to have sold the data anyway.

Turkey Gives Foreign Media Short Deadline to Obtain Licence

Posted on February 9, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council, RTUK, the state agency that monitors and sanctions radio and television broadcasters, has given international media outlets operating in Turkey a 72-hour deadline to get a national licence.

If media outlets of Voice of America, VOA, Euronews and Deutsche Welle, DW, do not apply for a national licence, their websites will be blocked in Turkey, Ilhan Tasci, a board member at RTUK from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, warned on Wednesday.

“After the national media, the international media is next for monitoring and silencing. The real target is press freedom and plurivocality. They want a press that is silent and does not criticize,” Tasci said.

The RTUK has become a tool of Turkish President Erdogan’s autocratic government, experts say. Gurkan Ozturan, Media Freedom Rapid Response Coordinator at the European Centre for Press, told BIRN that RTUK applies disproportionate fines to independent media houses.

“Targeting national media institutions on the one hand and on the other international media institutions which have become prominent due to the poor news environment in the country raises the question of whether a new series of steps are being taken, targeting the right of society to receive information,” Ozturan said.

A recent report by independent media website Bianet on January 25 said Turkish state institutions for monitoring and regulating the media continue to target independent journalists and media houses, “in a mediascape where 90 per cent of national media outlets are controlled by the government”.

It noted that the remaining independent newspapers, including Evrensel, Sözcü, Cumhuriyet, Korkusuz, BirGun, Karar, Milli Gazette, Yenicag and Yeni Asya, were barred from carrying advertisements for public institutions in 2021, deliberately depriving them of revenue.

It also said RTUK had imposed fines on media outlets that aired critical or inquiring broadcasts, such as Fox TV, Halk TV, Tele1 and KRT. In total, broadcasters were fined 31,630,000 Turkish lira – more than 2 million euros – in 2021.

Turkey’s government increased its control on online media houses under a new law in 2019. Three years on, RTUK has decided to expand its control and monitoring of foreign media outlets, based on this law.

In a similar move, Russia banned Germany’s Deutsche Welle from operating in the country on February 4, also because of an alleged national licence issue.

North Macedonia Ministry Confirms New Hacking Attack

Posted on February 7, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

North Macedonia’s Education Ministry on Sunday said it had been a target of a hacking attack over the past few days, but said video footage published on the Twitter account of a hacker group called “Powerful Greek Army”, as proof of the hacking, was fake.

The video footage, that seems to be taken from a camera surveillance system, “was not taken by or within the ministry because the ministry does not have such a system”, it said.

The ministry did not yet disclose whether it suffered damage from the attack, or whether any documentation had been lost or hijacked.

“Powerful Greek Army” published the short video on Twitter on Friday last week, writing that it had hacked the Education Ministry of the neighbouring country. “We have access even in their camera systems, we watch you 24/7, we have eyes everywhere, Skopje,” the group twitted.

This post caught attention in North Macedonia over the weekend.

It was far an isolated incident in the country. After several attacks on state institutions over the past few years, experts have warned that the country’s IT system is particularly vulnerable to cyber-crime, and is in dire need of security improvements.

The Greek hacking group behind ther latest post is also not unknown to the public in North Macedonia.

In May 2020, “Powerfull Greek Army” leaked dozens of email addresses and passwords from staffers in North Macedonia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, as well as from the municipality of Strumica – and bragged about its exploits on Twitter.

Djokovic Saga, Far-Right Rhetoric and Ethnic Bias Disrupt Online World

Posted on February 4, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Online violations recorded at the end of January show, among other things, that divisive political propaganda and domestic ethnic tensions are having a strong impact on online behavior.

In North Macedonia, internal tensions with the country’s Bulgarian and Albanian communities did not subside and remain one of the main challenges for the new political rulers; the aftermath of the apparently settled Rio Tinto issue and tennis star Djokovic’s Australian Open saga still dominate Serbia’s online environment.

Political clashes in Hungary ahead of the 2022 parliamentary elections continue to intensify, while far-right nationalist propaganda is escalating in Romania. In Bosnia, a banned Republika Srpska holiday and online misogyny were the cause of several online breaches

Ethnic-based violations agitate North Macedonia

In North Macedonia, where a way out of the long-running political crisis still seems to be far off, ethnic and national divisions remain one of the main challenges that the new authorities face in the short run.

The Bulgarian minority there endures much online hate speech due to persistent tensions between the two countries. In this context, the March 2021 attack on North Macedonia’s Eurovision contestant, Vasil Garvalniev, over his dual citizenship, was prescient.

Ethnic tensions also involve the country’s big Albanian minority. Recently, Elida Zylbeari, ethnic Albanian editor-in-chief of the North Macedonian-based Portalb.mk, said he experienced regular discrimination as a member of this ethnic minority. “Being an Albanian journalist in North Macedonia is harder than being a Macedonian journalist,” he remarked.

Ethnic Albanians march in protest following a court decision in Skopje, North Macedonia, 29 January 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

In a case recorded on January 16, an anonymous Twitter user spread false claims about the contents of the North Macedonia dictionary, accusing its editors and curators of allowing words and phrases deemed offensive to Macedonians, while throwing out words seen as offensive towards ethnic Albanian and Roma people. The tweet went viral and sparked an intense debate online.

In a separate Facebook case, on January 24, administrators of a Facebook group, called “I want to tell the latest”, misused the logo of a well-known North Macedonian online media outlet SDK to post pro-Bulgarian and anti-Macedonian rhetoric. SDK suffered similar abuse from another Facebook group in 2018, ahead of the 2018 referendum on EU and NATO membership.

Rio Tinto and Djokovic saga stir Serbia’s online environment

In response to large-scale protests that took place across Serbia, where thousands in Belgrade and elsewhere blocked major transport networks in protest against two massive investment projects involving foreign mining companies, the Serbian government revoked mining giant Rio Tinto’s exploration licences.

At a press conference on January 20, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić insisted that the decision to end Rio Tinto operations in Serbia was final. “We have fulfilled all the demands of the environmental protests and put an end to Rio Tinto in Serbia. With this, as far as the Jadar project and Rio Tinto are concerned, everything is over,” Brnabić told journalists.

But the Rio Tinto issue has not completely disappeared. Many environmental activists still do not trust the government’s promise to scrap the agreement with the mining giant. Brnabic “did not say what we will do with the damage and with the wells that are leaking, she did not say whether she will ban research into lithium and boron. She did not tell us … who from her government persistently pushed the project,” the Association of Environmental Organizations of Serbia, SEOS, said on Twitter.

The Rio Tinto “question”, in fact, still causes various offline and online tensions. On January 22, Marinika Tepić and Dragan Đilas, from the opposition Freedom and Justice Party, received death threats on Twitter in reply to Tepić’s tweet about a Rio Tinto press release. In her tweet, Tepić revealed that the announcement was sent from the email address of the Serbian government, writing also about the government’s seeming lack of transparency on the matter. In response to Tepić’s tweet, a Twitter account most likely bearing a false name threatened the politician, saying she and her children “deserve a bullet”.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia reacts during his men’s singles fourth round match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, 14 February 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/DEAN LEWINS

Another viral topic still dominating Serbia’s online environment was tennis star Novak Djokovic and his Australian saga. Deported by the Australian authorities after losing a gruelling visa battle ahead of the Australian Open, he has been the subject of several incidents of online misinformation and fake news.

On January 13, a few Serbian online media outlets presented satirical stories linked to the case as news, significantly spreading fake news on the web. The satirical portal Zicer, for example, spread the story of a Serbian allegedly roasting a kangaroo in Australia in support of the tennis player with the headline: “Serbs from Melbourne roasted kangaroos on a spit in protest for Novak!” The article stated the roasted kangaroo had been brought in front of the hotel where Djokovic was staying to express solidarity with him.

In a similar manner, online media reported as news an article from the Australian satirical news website Double Bay Today, DBT. An alleged survey was published in the article, claiming that more Australians supported the deportation of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison than Djokovic. The text said that 52 per cent of the 5,600 voters favoured Morrison’s deportation, but that the Australian Prime Minister did not want to comment on the results of the poll.

Hungary continues to experience mounting tensions ahead of the April 3 general elections

Hungary is fast approaching the parliamentary elections on April 3, 2022, and the political clashes between rivals do not subside, on the contrary, they intensify considerably as the electoral period approaches.

News of partisan attacks, political scandals, unfounded accusations are an everyday occurrence, leaving Hungarian citizens at the mercy of conflicting news circulating on the web. The latest news concerns an alleged loan of 10.6 million euros that a Hungarian bank would have given to Marine le Pen, French far-right leader, to finance her campaign ahead of the first round of the 2022 French presidential election.

Independent MP Timea Szabo (C), Co-Chairperson of the oppositional Dialogue party unfolds a long sheet of paper containing projects of civic organizations supported by the Norwegian Fund as legislators vote on a draft concerning the transparency of organizations receiving funding from abroad during a session of the Parliament in Budapest, Hungary, 13 June 2017. Photo: EPA/ATTILA KOVACS

In a case, occurred last January 31, Gábor Jézsó, a Catholic theologian and opposition candidate in the 6th district of Szerencs-Tiszaújváros in Borsod, reported in a video posted on Facebook that he had received a death threat via e-mail. The email contained a photo of a bloody knife and the caption “I will stab you”. Jézsó filed a complaint to the local police against an unknown perpetrator for the incident.

Just days earlier, on January 20, Tímea Szabó, an MP and co-chair of the opposition Dialogue for Hungary Party, Párbeszéd, launched an attack on the reputation of a political rival in a case of disinformation aimed to spread falsehoods and unverified information. In particular, the politician alleged in a post on Facebook that Antal Rogán, a Cabinet Office minister from the ruling Fidesz party, could be the unnamed man known only by the initial ‘R’ in the so-called Völner-Schadl corruption case. In a press conference, opposition members claimed that Rogán was involved in “the highest level of corruption case in the political history of Hungary” since its democratic transition in 1989-90, “which started with the exposure of the bailiff mafia and the deputy justice minister, and who knows where it will end.”

Episodes of Covid-19 misinformation and the massive circulation of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories also continue to populate the Hungarian digital environment.

Ákos Kovács, a popular Hungarian pop-rock singer and songwriter, alluding to a well-known conspiracy theory, claimed in a video interview, released on January 23, that the coronavirus was “cooked in China and financed with American money”. In a related case of disinformation about a Covid-19 news, a newspaper article started spreading the fake news on Facebook claiming that the Austrian city of Linz was recruiting “manhunters” to capture people who refuse to be vaccinated despite the country’s mandatory vaccination. The article, which showed a police officer snatching a man, quickly went viral and was shared more than 1,200 times on Facebook.

Far-right rhetoric and computer frauds alarm the Romanian online landscape

In recent days, Romania has seen an alarming crescendo of popular and nationalist rhetoric in the public sphere. The Alliance for the Union of Romanians Party, the ultranationalist right-wing party active in both Romania and Moldova, has become the protagonist of numerous controversial episodes, arousing political tensions and ethnic-racial hatred.

Romanian politician George Simion (R), the leader of the extremist party Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), delivers a speech during a protest held in front of Health Ministry headquarters in Bucharest, Romania, 13 April 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT

First, they organized a protest in front of the Romanian parliament against the possible introduction of the mandatory COVID vaccination passes, and then recently criticized the teaching of Holocaust and sex education in schools. Madalin Necsutu suggests that it is a worrying trend that “the right-wing AUR party in Romania sees anti-Semitism as a way to pick up new voters”.

In a worrying incident, which occurred last January 26, the AUR party started a public campaign on Facebook against Romanian media that it deemed hostile. AUR published a “blacklist” of the Romanian press on its official Facebook page. “AUR is trying to intimidate those journalists who dare to cover in an honest way the actions, intentions and positions of this party”, the chief editor of G4 Media, Cristian Pantazi said. Creating a blacklist in Romania is nothing new as politicians like Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Traian Băsescu, Liviu Dragnea and Florin Cîțu have all followed a similar practice in the recent past.

Phishing scams and computer frauds are omnipresent in Romania’s digital environment. At the same time, and as already pointed out by our latest annual report on digital rights, “Online Intimidation: Controlling Narrative in the Balkans“, Romania also stands out as the country with the highest number of cases (20) involving breaches of citizen data recorded in the last year.

In a first incident, recorded on January 20, the National Company for Road Infrastructure warns that numerous drivers are being targeted by phishing emails, after their email addresses were stolen from the Vignette Website. It is not clear when the original attack happened and how the unknown hackers obtained the users’ email addresses. Meanwhile, it was also revealed on January 26 that the attackers behind the FluBot trojan, which spread globally last year, targeted predominantly Romanian users between January 15 and 18, according to a report released by Bitdefender cybersecurity experts.

Republika Srpska’s holiday and online misogyny cause hostilities in Bosnia

The aftermath of the banned national holiday day in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, continue to characterize some violations that occurred in the second half of January in the Bosnian digital environment.

On January 14, a video of the song ‘Jedina Srpska’, performed by the Belgrade Trade Union and Danica Crnogorcevic, a singer of folklore and spiritual music from Montenegro, has been removed from YouTube. The video, which was released to coincide with the celebration of Republika Srpska Day, was removed after several YouTube users complained that it incited ethnic hatred, according to the singer.

Misogynists’ episodes and attacks on activists also continue to occur very frequently in Bosnia. Environmental activists, in particular, across Bosnia face growing threats, pressures and attacks from both citizens and public institutions as evidenced by the case of Mostar, where the municipal court has issued a decision imposing a sentence on all activists active in the region.

An incident, recorded on January 20, involved the public debate on small hydroelectric power plants, which was supposed to provide solutions and ideas for a better environment in Mostar, which was marked by an accident and took place in the Mostar municipality. One of the owners of a small hydroelectric power plant insulted an eco-activist in front of the “Aarhus Center” Association. The discussion went viral and many social media users shared this video, characterizing it as a chauvinistic and vulgar attack.