Month: March 2023

Fake News ‘Virus’ Needs ‘Vaccine’, BIRN Media Conference Concludes

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In the wake of regional and global political uncertainties, fake news in Kosovo has gone to another level, a BIRN-organised conference on the eve of International Fact-Checking Day, April 2, concluded on Thursday.

The conference gathered media people, politicians and diplomats to showcase the danger fake news pose in a pluralistic media environment and elaborate ways on how to fight the phenomenon.

Presenting the preliminary findings of a report on disinformation that BIRN in Kosovo is conducting, Kreshnik Gashi, editor-in-chief of news site KALLXO.com said that from October 2022 to March 2023 a total of 315 fake information articles had been detected, with 33 of them related to Kosovo’s interethnic relations and national security and 30 related to the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

“During the research, we saw that producers of fake news are deceiving even the computer … These are not dubious news, they are fake. They are published and verified as fake,” Gashi said.

“We have managed to understand who the source of these information is. In 169 of them, they appear to be people who have political knowledge, who are influencers, and who have produced fake information distributed on social media,” he added.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, said fact-checking was a potential “vaccine” against the “virus” of fake news.

“Verification techniques are expected to be a vaccine against the virus of fake news. It’s similar to the fake news on COVID vaccines which flooded the world three years ago, where our population was a victim, too. But to produce a vaccine against the virus of fake news, we need a sociology of television and media anthropology,” Kurti said.

The head of the European Office in Kosovo, Tomas Szunyog, said advances in the internet and digital age had increased dramatically their impact.

“It is our collective responsibility to fight disinformation and explore new strategies and partnerships to promote professional journalism and media literacy and ensure access to verified information, transparency, and accountability. The EU will continue supporting Kosovo in this regard,” Szunyog said.

Antonello De Riu, Italian ambassador to Kosovo, said that behind fake news, the wider strategy was to manipulate public opinion and erode the stability of states and their democratic institutions.

“In this environment, civil society organizations and media play a central role in addressing disinformation’s growing impact on democracy, positively contributing to shaping policy making, improving platform responses and enhancing citizen knowledge and engagement,” he said.

In its annual report for Kosovo, the European Commission noted that the country has “some benefits” from a pluralistic and lively media environment.

“However, concerns remain regarding public smear campaigns and threats and physical attacks on journalists. The lack of financial self-sustainability leaves the media, including the public broadcaster, vulnerable to political and business interests,” the Commission said.

The international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in its latest report said that despite its small size and division along ethnic lines, Kosovo has a pluralistic and vivid media market.

But it added that although the media hold the authorities accountable, journalists are regularly targeted by political attacks.

Hate Speech and Disinformation Fuel Digital Rights Abuses in Balkans

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The Western Balkans has faced ongoing political tensions and “culture wars” that have migrated from the physical world to the digital space, leading to human rights violations in digital environments.

BIRN’s latest annual report, “Distorting the Truth: Hate Speech and Disinformation Fuel Digital Rights Abuses in the Balkans,” covers digital rights in eight countries of the region, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, plus Hungary.

From September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022, BIRN documented 782 digital rights violations in our database. The breakdown of these cases is: Bosnia and Herzegovina (77 cases), Croatia (70), Hungary (146), Kosovo (89), North Macedonia (83), Montenegro (65), Romania (128) and Serbia (124) recorded by the SHARE Foundation.

The report highlights that human rights violations in fragile democracies differ in type, nature, scope, and target, which, combined with rapidly changing technology, has led to violations of human rights in digital environments. Journalists, public officials, human rights activists and the public face different attacks online, including smear campaigns, trolling, and hate speech.

Identifying key trends in digital rights violations, the report warns against the spread of digital rights violations in the region. More robust accountability measures are needed to address these issues, and promoting the responsible exercise of freedom of speech in both online and offline domains is crucial.

BIRN’s goal is to equip policymakers, civil society organizations and citizens with the tools needed to safeguard digital rights now and in the future. The report presents recommendations for policymakers, regional regulators, media and technology entities and individuals, aimed at promoting and protecting digital rights in online media and journalism, including freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy.

BIRN’s recommendations include making all types of online aggression illegal, providing specific training and resources to law enforcement authorities and prosecutors, taking interim measures to combat hate speech, prioritising the development and implementation of robust cybersecurity measures, collaborating with local civil society players on content moderation and freedom of speech, and improving data collection to combat hate speech and hate crime.

By following these recommendations, policymakers and regulators can help ensure that digital platforms and technologies respect users’ rights and freedoms, contributing to a healthier, more vibrant digital public sphere where diverse voices can be heard and informed public debate can flourish.

Kremlin’s Ukraine disinformation campaign

The war in Ukraine, which started in February 2022, has not only been fought on the battlefield but also on the digital frontlines. It has become a hotbed for online disinformation and propaganda campaigns, with Russia and its supporters using every tool at their disposal to shape public opinion and sow discord across the region.

This resulted in a surge of digital human rights abuses, as documented in our latest annual report. The report notes that over 60 cases of online violations have been verified, ranging from fake news and hate speech to cyberattacks and digital surveillance.

The impact of these violations is far-reaching and can have severe consequences. They fuel political tensions, stoke nationalistic sentiments and contribute to the erosion of democratic institutions. Moreover, they create an environment of fear and distrust, where people are hesitant to express their opinions freely or seek out reliable sources of information.

The highest number of cases recorded by BIRN was in Hungary and Romania, followed closely by Serbia. In Hungary, fake news about the war in Ukraine has led to political clashes and concerns that the pro-government media is spreading a pro-Russia narrative. For example, the false claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had fled the country reached approximately 1.2 million Facebook users.

Moscow also uses fake news and propaganda to shore up support in Serbia, where many feel culturally far closer to Russia than to Western Europe. In addition, Moscow’s refusal to recognise Kosovo – which declared independence in 2008 – has further endeared Russia to Serbs who refuse to accept Kosovo’s independent status.

However, while many Serbs might view President Vladimir Putin as willing and able to return Kosovo to Serbia, Belgrade in reality is negotiating a trickier path. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is pursuing relations with both the West (notably EU-membership) and Russia. This balancing act has seen Belgrade refuse to join sanctions against Moscow while at the same time stopping short of recognising Crimea (annexed by Russia in 2014) as Russian territory, claiming that could create problems regarding Kosovo’s status.

An image taken with a slow shutter speed of Ukrainian national flags waving over the graves of fallen Ukrainian soldiers in a military cemetery in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, late 22 February 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/PAVLO PAKHOMENKO

Exploiting disquiet in Bosnia and Kosovo

In the wake of the war in Ukraine in early 2022, the Balkans has become a battleground for disinformation and propaganda, fuelling political tensions and culture wars across the region. Nowhere is this more evident than in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Russia’s supporters have been publishing denials of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian troops in Ukraine and disseminating a slew of sometimes contradictory fake news and social media posts in the divided country. Power in Bosnia has been divided between two entities since the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, the mainly Bosniak (Muslim) and Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.

Observers warn that Moscow is trying to scare Bosnia off from joining the NATO alliance by raising the spectre of renewed violent conflict, also to frustrate its EU-accession progress. They caution that Russia uses misinformation and conflicting fake news stories to sow discord and keep Bosnians in a state of anxiety and confusion.

The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, Dusanka Majkic, a Bosnian MP and member of the main Bosnian Serb party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, tweeted: “In March 2021, Moscow promised to react if Bosnia takes any further steps towards NATO. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.”

The SNSD president and leader of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, is a staunch supporter of Putin’s Russia and an opponent of NATO. Dodik actively advocates the break-up of Bosnia and Republika Srpska’s independence, and is a frequent guest in Serbia, whose presidents and prime ministers have shown him strong support. Many right-wing Serbian groups and ultra-nationalistic opposition parties, such as the Dveri movement also back him.

A few days after Majkic’s tweet, Serbian MP and Dveri leader Bosko Obradovic told TV Prva, a Belgrade-based television channel, that it would be “justified for the Serbian Army to get involved” in Bosnia “to protect Serbs in Republika Srpska, if aggression is launched against them”. He even said Serbian military intervention would be “an obligation in every kind of sense, both moral and historical”. The video went viral and was covered by numerous media outlets.

In Kosovo, Moscow’s supporters among the Serbian minority have also used widely shared fake news to exploit deep-seated divisions and tensions between ethnic groups and generate fear among people that the violent conflicts between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians could erupt again. Long-standing tensions between the Kosovo government and ethnic Serbs who maintain close ties with Belgrade regularly spill over into violence in the Serb-dominated north of the country. Russia, a long-time supporter of Serbia, is viewed as a potential threat among the ethnic Albanian majority.

President Milorad Dodik speaks at a parade in East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 09 January 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

Journalists face threats and intimidation

The intimidation of journalists remains one of the greatest challenges to media freedom in the Balkans. According to the 2022 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, media freedom remains a major concern in many Balkan states, with journalists working in polarised political environments and facing threats from criminal groups. It also noted the information chaos is a result of “a globalised and unregulated online information space that encourages fake news and propaganda”.

Independent media and investigative journalists who expose abuse of office and seek to hold those in power to account are routinely threatened and targeted by media outlets that support Serbian President Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, which has ruled Serbia since 2012.

Of cases relating to threats against journalists, BIRN logged the most in Serbia (50). This echoes the findings in BIRN’s previous report on digital rights abuses, which suggested journalists in Serbia were the most frequently targeted party online (38 of 111 cases verified by BIRN). In addition, public figures who have been the subject of critical media coverage or have been investigated or charged by the police with offences related to corruption have launched legal actions against independent journalists/outlets in what are widely regarded as attempts to silence critical voices and stifle public debate.

There is growing concern about the development of a chilling effect on independent critical reporting across the region due to the apparent impunity for those making on and offline threats against journalists.

Political smears threaten democratic process

Smear campaigns have become commonplace across the region and pose a serious threat to democratic values, where many of the monitored countries have hybrid regimes that combine democratic elections with elements of authoritarian rule. Election campaigns held in 2022 in Bosnia, Hungary and Serbia spawned a torrent of online attacks between political rivals.

In May 2022, the president of the Women of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, in Sarajevo, Alma Omerovic, insulted the vice president of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Denis Becirovic in a Facebook post. She called him a traitor, writing: “Get smart Bosniaks, this [the election] is the jihad of our time”. After the post went viral and drew criticism from many media outlets, Omerovic defended her characterisation of the elections with: “Jihad, you bet! Because we truly need it!”.

There are also concerns over censorship, particularly when it comes to media outlets that support ruling parties. In March 2022, Serbia’s Happy TV removed a video from its YouTube channel which featured a heated debate involving political analyst Boban Stojanović, who criticised the government’s economic policy and noted that salaries in Serbia are now the lowest they have been since the fall of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000.

In Hungary, where Viktor Orban secured another term as prime minister following general elections, he used his victory speech to criticise European Union “bureaucrats” and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling them “opponents”. Zelensky has criticised Hungary’s refusal to unequivocally condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or allow weapons intended for Ukraine through Hungary. Orban’s Fidesz party launched numerous smear campaigns and attacks against political opponents in the run-up to the elections.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban leaves after an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium, 24 March 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/Olivier Matthys / POOL

Homophobia remains endemic online

Pride parades in Bosnia and North Macedonia met incidents of online hate speech and incitement to violence against the LGBTQ+ community. In the Sarajevo and Skopje parades on 25 June 2022, numerous digital rights violations occurred, including comments calling for violence against Pride parade participants and other members of the LGBTQ+ community.

During the build-up to the October 2022 general elections in Bosnia and North Macedonia, some politicians used the controversy over the Pride parades to appeal to voters. This involved making discriminatory statements and, Bosnia, even comparing the parade to the brutal Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia’s 1992-5 war. Such statements left members of the LGBTQ+ community concerned about their future rights.

In Serbia, thousands protested against the parade while insults and homophobic content were shared on social media. In Hungary, several pro-government media shared homophobic articles targeting the newly appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Energy, Sam Brinton, who identifies as non-binary. Some articles called Brinton a “dog fetish drag queen” with a “deviant” personality.

In Romania on August 10, 2022, MozaiQ, one of the most active gay rights NGOs in the country, condemned what it called a worrying increase in hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community. In the following weeks, some members of the organisation received death threats and received online attacks, Vlad Viski, executive director of MozaiQ.ms, said.

Participants raise their fists and shout slogans during Sarajevo’s third gay pride parade, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 14 August 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

Scams, phishing and data breaches

Online scams, fraud, data breaches and cybercrime are commonplace across the region including hacking attacks targeting websites belonging to public and government institutions.

BIRN recorded serious attacks in North Macedonia and Romania involving cyber-attacks and computer fraud targeting public systems. On July 4, 2022, one of North Macedonia’s most popular IT websites, IT.mk, suffered a series of devastating DDoS attacks. The hackers demanded a ransom in bitcoin. After IT.mk refused to pay it was targeted again on August 17, 2022, by another DDoS attack.

In Romania, websites of several key public institutions were also hit by DDoS attacks. Responsibility for the attacks was claimed on Telegram by Killnet, a hacking group based in Russia. The hackers justified the attacks by accusing Marcel Ciolacu, President of the Chamber of Deputies, of promising “maximum assistance” to Ukraine. For about seven hours, users could not access online government services including the defence and border police websites.

The full version of BIRN’s annual digital rights report, “Distorting the truth: Hate speech and disinformation fuel digital rights abuses in the Balkans”, can be downloaded here.

BIRN’s Digital Rights Programme has recently launched three new databases covering digital rights violations in Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro. 

Belgrade Mayor Files Defamation Lawsuits Against BIRN

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Aleksandar Sapic, the mayor of the Serbian capital of Belgrade, has filed two separate defamation lawsuits against BIRN Serbia, its editor and journalists, claiming that their reporting damaged his reputation and caused him mental anguish.

Sapic is suing BIRN Serbia, editor-in-chief Milorad Ivanovic and investigative reporters Jelena Veljkovic and Aleksandar Djordjevic for their reporting on his villa in the Italian coastal city of Trieste

He is also suing BIRN Serbia, Ivanovic and investigative reporter Radmilo Markovic over an article about the legalisation of extensions to Sapic’s mansion in Belgrade’s Bezanijska Kosa neighbourhood.

He is seeking six million Serbian dinars (around 50,000 euros) in damages in each case – a total of around 100,000 euros.

“By publishing falsehoods, the accused have caused irreparable damage to the plaintiff in terms of mental anguish due to the violation of [his] honour, reputation and human dignity, which called into question the plaintiff’s overall moral values, which he enjoys within a certain social environment,” both lawsuits allege.

BIRN Serbia editor-in-chief Ivanovic said the lawsuits were another example of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, SLAPPs, which are aimed at intimidating journalists and discouraging them from reporting about individuals and topics of public interest.

He added that court practice in Serbia shows that judges do not award damages in such large amounts as Sapic is seeking from BIRN, and that the aim of the mayor’s lawsuits is to expose the media organisation, its editors and journalists to financial costs in order to exhaust its resources.

“BIRN will continue to investigate topics of public interest, keep institutions, politicians and public officials in check, and publish stories that the public has the right to know about so that they can make informed decisions,” said Ivanovic.

The aim of SLAPPs is to drain the target’s financial and psychological resources and chill critical voices to the detriment of public participation, according to a report on SLAPP lawsuits in Serbia published in 2022 by Article 19, the American Bar Association Centre for Human Rights and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, NUNS.

Albanian TV Station Guard Shot Dead in Mystery Killing

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Unidentified gunmen early on Monday shot dead a 60-year-old security guard at the premises of national television station Top Channel, Albanian police announced. The event happened under unclear circumstances, they said.

Media reported that a car was later found burnt at another location, allegedly belonging to the gunmangunmen. “As a result of the shooting, a security guard, citizen P. K., 60 years old… lost his life,” police said in a press statement.

“Police Services have set up checkpoints and the work to identify and catch the perpetrators continues,” they added.

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, ECPMF, issued a statement on Monday expressing shock.

“We are shocked to learn that there has been a firearm attack on the premises of Top Channel in Albania, which killed a security guard at the facility. We express our condolences to the family and call on Albanian authorities to conduct independent & professional investigations,” it said.

President Bajram Begaj called the shooting a “serious event” and urged institutions to clarify it.

“A really serious event in the early hours of the morning, where the building of the national television Top Channel was shot at with a gun, and as a result the security guard Pal Kola lost his life. As I express my condolences to the family of Mr Kola, I encourage law enforcement agencies to clarify this criminal event as soon as possible,” Begaj declared.

Prime Minister Edi Rama also condemned the killing and said “it requires a clear answer from law enforcement agencies”.

Ilir Meta, former president and head of the opposition Freedom Party, also reacted. “Crime victims are neither far away or unknown, they are our people, our citizens, our Albanians”, he said.

The TV station itself did not declare anything more than the police statement.

Turkey Punishes TV Channels for Critical Coverage Ahead of Elections

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Four Turkish TV stations have been sanctioned and fined for their critical coverage ahead of highly important May 14 parliamentary and presidential elections, Ilhan Tasci, a board member from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP, at the Radio and Television Supreme Council, RTUK, announced on Tuesday.

“The RTUK made it clear in today’s meeting that it aims to bring critical broadcasters in line before the election,” Tasci wrote on Twitter.

The state agency that monitors and sanctions radio and television broadcasts sanctioned Halk TV for praising a convicted criminal, when jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas’ most recent book was discussed.

Halk TV has had 5 per cent of its monthly advertisement income and its programmes stopped five times.

Show TV received the same fine for alleged physical violence against a woman in a soap opera, but Tasci said that the real reason was a political comedy show that satirized the government’s poor handling of the February earthquakes.

Fox TV was fined 3 per cent of its monthly advertisement income for the remarks of commentators about a ruling party mayor’s handling of foreign funds after the flood disaster of the last week.

The same fine was applied to Tele 1 TV channel after a journalist criticized Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, over the ban on women’s day rallies on March 8.

Halk TV was also fined another 3 per cent of its monthly advertisement income due to a TV programme in which an opposition politician criticized the handling of the earthquake disaster.

Experts said such fines are unacceptable as the country heads towards elections.

“Turkey’s partisan media regulator issues heavy fines against critical TV networks, primarily focusing on post-earthquake broadcasts, punishing critical speech on screens. Such absurd fines, especially when considered within the election timeline, are a major threat to society’s right to access information and an assault on media freedom,” Gurkan Ozturan, Coordinator of Media Freedom Rapid Response at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, told BIRN.

The RTUK previously fined three TV stations in February for their coverage of the government’s quake response, in what unions and watchdogs called another blow to media freedom.

Ozturan said: “The target of these fines and broadcast bans is obvious – critical speech that was aired in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes ahead of the elections. Such pressure and punishment of journalism and independent media are unacceptable.”

The opposition, experts and international rights groups have accused the RTUK of going all out to crush the remaining independent media in Turkey and of acting as a tool of the authoritarian government of President Erdogan.

Turkey ranked in 153rd place out of 180 countries in 2022 in the latest press freedom index of watchdog organisation Reporters Without Borders, RSF, which classifies the Turkish government’s control over media outlets as high.

Greek Intelligence Service Accused After New Spyware Revelations

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Left-wing opposition party SYRIZA alleged on Tuesday that the Greek National Intelligence Service collaborated in the use of the illegal spyware software Predator to monitor Artemis Seaford, a Greek-American woman who worked for social media company Meta, as well as other targets.

The New York Times on Monday confirmed a previous report by Greek media outlet Documento that the illegal spyware software Predator monitored Seaford at the same time as the intelligence service was spying on her. It was the latest in a series of spyware revelations in Greece.

“The New York Times’ revealing report on the Artemis Seaford surveillance underscores what everyone knows, but the Mitsotakis administration continues to deny. The National Intelligence Service and Predator are the same single eavesdropping centre,” SYRIZA said in a press release.

Seaford lived in Greece for part of the time from 2020 to the end of 2022. During that time, she worked as a trust and safety manager at Meta, Facebook’s parent company, where she maintained working relations with Greek and other European officials, according to the New York Times.

Seaford’s mobile phone was infected with the spyware when she clicked on a message she received which contained a contaminated link for her vaccination against COVID-19.

“Anyone, anywhere can fall prey to spyware hacking. I should know – I was a Predator target,” Seaford wrote on Twitter on Monday.

“This does not make it normal. We need our governments and international bodies to protect us,” she said.

The Greek media outlet Documento first revealed in November 2022 that she had been monitored.

Kostas Vaxevanis, journalist and publisher of Documento, published lists of politicians, ministers, businesspeople, journalists and others who had been put under surveillance; among these names was Seaford. Documento’s report said the reason why she was being monitored was unclear.

Seaford expressed bemusement in an article she wrote for Greek media outlet Kathimerini later in November.

“I am not an official of any party, a member of the press, or a business owner with close government connections,” she said.

According to the New York Times, Seaford’s monitoring by the intelligence services started in August 2021, the month before the Predator infection, and for several months into 2022.

The newspaper suggested that the simultaneous tapping of Seaford’s phone by the intelligence services and the Pegasus infection “indicate that the spy service and whoever implanted the spyware, were working hand in hand”.

Mitsotakis’ conservative government has denied any responsibility for the spyware scandal.

“The Greek authorities and security services have at no time acquired or used the Predator surveillance software. To suggest otherwise is wrong,” government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou told the New York Times.

“The alleged use of this software by nongovernmental parties is under ongoing judicial investigation,” Oikonomou added.

In November 2021, the newspaper EFSYN reported that journalists and lawyers dealing with refugee cases, civil servants and anti-vaxxers had all been the targets of surveillance by the National Intelligence Service, including BIRN contributor Stavros Malihoudis.

In April 2022, Greek media outlet Inside Story disclosed that Predator was used to spy on journalist Thanasis Koukakis.

In July 2022, it was also revealed that Nikos Androulakis, head of PASOK-KINAL, the third-largest party in the Greek parliament, almost fell victim to the Predator surveillance software.

In the meantime, the Greek judiciary has been investigating the use of Pegasus and other surveillance spyware and the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee has launched its own investigations.

Suspect for Arson Attack on Kosovo Journalist’s House Detained

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Pristina Basic Court on Monday ordered 30 days of detention for A.L., suspected for setting fire to the house of Alban Selimi, a staffer on Kosovo’s public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, on Thursday.

The garage which is part of the house located in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje, near Pristina, was heavily damaged by the fire. No casualties were reported.

Approving the prosecutor’s request for detention, the judge assessed that if released, the suspect could avoid justice and even repeat the offence.

“Taking into consideration (his [suspect’s] criminal background, the court has assessed that if released, the suspect will repeat the criminal offence which he has threatened to commit,” the court said in a press release on Monday.

A.L. was arrested on Saturday by Police and immediately put in custody. When he learned about his identity, Selimi posted on Facebook that he was a neighbour, and the attack appeared linked to an investigation he did in November 2021 on a property worth a million euros.

Selimi said the suspect was his neighbour and a relative of those who had usurped the land he investigated. “Justice should have its word for the criminal, whoever he is,” Selimi said.

The incident was condemned by the Association of the Journalists of Kosovo, AJK, which said that “any attack on journalists is an attack on the public interest, democracy and citizens’ rights”.

“Such threats are totally unacceptable and seriously violate freedom of expression and impact the work of journalists to report in a safe environment,” the AJK said.

“We urgently demand relevant institutions investigate the motives for this attack and bring the perpetrator before justice,” it added.

Bulgaria Media Report Fresh Cases of Intimidation

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Bulgarian journalists and online media face fresh instances of what media watchdogs describe as possible strategic lawsuits, or SLAPPs, and even arrests.

On March 15, media reported that the journalist and publisher Ivan Atanassov had been arrested on Tuesday for 24 hours following an anonymous claim that he was in possession of ancient coins and objects of cultural and historical values, without being registered as a private collector. 

Atanasov is the publisher of the regional website sakarnews.info, focused on the south-central town of Harmanli, and is also part of the team behind the anti-corruption online platform zaistinata.com (For the Truth), which includes Dimiter Petzov, who in 2020 was arrested for possession of drugs in what he described as an act of intimidation. 

In a statement, zaistinata.com wrote that a likely factor in Atanasov’s arrest were his articles critical of the work of the local administrations in Harmanli, Topolovgrad and Svilengrad – and that he was working on a story about potential voting fraud in favour of the GERB party, which has previously been associated with similar misdoings. 

“I guess I overdid it with the criticisms of GERB and the Ministry of Interior,” Atanassov told Sega.bg ironically on his release on Wednesday.  

GERB, headed by three-time PM Boyko Borissov, has not responded to this version of the events.

On March 8, the insurance company Lev Ins filed a lawsuit for 1 million leva (500,000 euros) in the Sofia City Court against the respected online media outlet Mediapool.

The company felt offended by an article from journalist Tsvetelina Sokolova from September 27 that said Bulgarian drivers might lose their liability insurance in the European Green Card System when traveling internationally from January 1 2023, due to the big debts run up by Lev Ins.

The article included a statement by interim financial minister Rositsa Velkova who said: “There is a serious risk that our national office will be excluded from the Green Card system.”

On the same day, watchdog organisation Reporters Without Border described the lawsuit as “abusive”.

The Association for European Journalists – Bulgaria expressed support for Mediapool and demanded Lev Ins to withdraw the “shameful” case. ”It is absurd for a media outlet to be sued for quoting a minister’s speech by referring to an official transcript,” it said.

On March 14, AEJ-Bulgaria initiated a donation campaign for Mediapool which raised 5,000 euro in a day: “The significant amount that the defendant must provide in order to adequately participate in the case is probably one of the reasons why the insurance company filed such a large claim.”

The latest developments are part of a long line of acts of intimidation against critical journalists. Well-known journalist Slavi Angelov was assaulted by masked men in early 2020. Early last year, several journalists and activists received threats.

In 2021, BIRN looked in-depth into the problems of Bulgaria’s media landscape while the country is in a cycle of elections, which as of 2023, is ongoing.

In 2022, the World Press Freedom Index listed Bulgaria in 91st place, a slight improvement from 112nd position in the 2021 report. 

Anti-government protests between 2020-2021 were associated with several instances of physical violence against journalists from the authorities. 

“The few independent voices in Bulgaria work under constant pressure,” the most recent report by Reporters Without Borders says.It added: “Corruption, insufficient independence and low efficiency of the justice system make the state often toothless vis-a-vis press freedom violations. Independent media and investigative journalists are regularly victims of abusive procedures, or SLAPPs. [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation]”.

Turkey Arrests Hundreds for Earthquake-Related Violations

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Over 300 people have been arrested in a continuing crackdown by Turkish police and prosecutor’s offices on “provocative” social media posts and construction wrongdoings after the devastating earthquakes of February 6 killed over 48,000 people in the country.

Turkish police said on Twitter on Monday that 1,165 social media account holders had been “evaluated for making provocative posts about earthquakes on social media platforms in order to create fear and panic”.

Legal proceedings were initiated against 730 of them, 179 were brought to police stations and 43 were arrested, police said.

Prosecutors are investigating more than 1,000 individuals on suspicion that they ignored building laws and regulations to devastating effect when the earthquakes struck and buildings collapsed.

Demiroren News Agency, DHA reported on Monday that so far, 279 people including 99 builders, 149 site managers, 13 construction site owners and 18 people who made alterations to constructions have been arrested.

Millions were left without homes in Turkey’s 11 southern and south-eastern provinces when they were devastated by twin earthquakes registering 7.9 and 7.7 on the Richter scale.

Search and rescue missions have been halted, but the removal of debris continues and dead bodies are still being brought from the rubble. It is believed that there are still thousands of bodies still missing.

In the earthquake zone, which was home to nearly 15 million people, more than two million people migrated to western towns and cities and millions continue to live outside in tent camps and prefabricated houses.

Many town and cities still have difficulties with clean water, electricity, food and heating.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu urged the public to continue donating and supporting humanitarian aid campaigns for the survivors.

“We are asking for support from our citizens, benefactors and donors,” Soylu told reporters on Sunday during his visit to the affected area, stressing the continuing need for food and clothing supplies.

‘I Was Powerless’: Serbian Women Detail Devastating Impact of Revenge Porn

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Confiding in her sister and a friend, the three of them composed an email to the porn site asking for the video to be taken down. Pornhub, which has over 130 million visits per day, obliged. But days later the video was back under a different heading.

She wrote again, and the video has since disappeared, but Marina lives with the threat that it may resurface at any time. Pornhub did not respond to a request for comment.

“I don’t talk about it with a lot of people,” Marina said. “I feel like everyone would judge me if they knew and blame me for not reporting him or doing more about it.”

“I want to cry when I think about it even today. Somehow, it reminds me how powerless I am, or was.”

Marina was one of 28 women in Serbia interviewed by BIRN about their experiences of revenge porn; some said intimate videos of them had circulated on Telegram groups with tens of thousands of members, others on porn sites.

Coupled with months of monitoring of Telegram groups and data from police and prosecutors, the picture that emerges is one of systematic failure on the part of the Serbian legal system to protect the victims of revenge porn, a form of gender-based violence.

Victims are exposed to blackmail, public shaming and emotional trauma. Few have the resources to fight back.

Today, explicit photos and videos of Serbian women are being shared on at least 16 Telegram groups, BIRN has found, the biggest of them boasting almost 50,000 members.

“You feel like the whole world will collapse if anyone sees it, finds it, passes it on further,” said another victim, a 28 year-old woman from the Serbian capital, Belgrade. “I was horrified for a month; I was shaking at every message and call.”

None of the victims quoted in this story are identified by their real names in order to protect their privacy.


Infographic: BIRN.

A safe place for abusers

The term ‘revenge porn’ refers to the sharing of private, sexually explicit photos or videos of another person without their consent, often with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress. Some activists specialised in this area say a more accurate term would be ‘image-based sexual abuse’.

Using advanced search bots, BIRN spent several months monitoring Telegram and was able to identify 13 active groups sharing private, explicit material, with several thousand users posting daily.


Infographic: BIRN.

At one point, a video of Jelena was in there too.

Jelena told BIRN she had been in a committed relationship when she began suspecting that her boyfriend had hidden cameras in the flat they shared.

“We were spending time in that flat, having sex in the bedroom, and he was filming it all and watching it later,” she said. Her boyfriend confessed and showed her all the footage.

“There was footage on those files from every day for the last year, and it wasn’t just with me but various other girls,” she said. Her boyfriend threatened to publish the videos if she reported him to the police; undeterred, Jelena did go to the police, twice. But on both occasions officers doubted her account and refused to search the apartment, citing a lack of evidence.

Then a friend called her to say there was a video of her being shared in a Telegram group.

“He published videos in a closed group where you can only enter if you have an invite,” Jelena told BIRN.

Users enjoy complete anonymity; messages are sent almost every minute, some with photos or videos apparently taken from porn websites, but others with material that appears to be private.

There is no information on how the content was created or whether the people they feature have given permission for the files to be shared. Often there is some information, however – links to the Instagram profiles of the women, or their Viber or WhatsApp numbers.

The result is often a barrage of messages to women from anonymous men asking for sex.


Infographic: BIRN.

Telegram’s Terms of Service prohibits the sharing of “illegal pornographic content on publicly viewable Telegram channels”. The platform has an email through which users can report such content.

This investigation, however, shows that some Telegram groups in Serbia are violating those rules with impunity.

In a written response to BIRN, a Telegram press officer wrote that “since its launch, Telegram has actively moderated harmful content on its platform – including the publication of revenge porn.”

“Our moderators proactively monitor public parts of the app as well as accepting user reports in order to remove content that breaches our terms.”

Legal issues

Revenge porn, on its own, is not defined as a criminal offence in Serbia.

In order for police or prosecutors to get involved, the case needs to involve elements of blackmail, harassment, or stalking. Otherwise, victims have to initiate a private lawsuit, within three months of discovery of the content.

That’s what a police officer told Ivana to do, after she went to the police aged 19 to report an ex-boyfriend.

Their breakup had unleashed months of stalking that became so intense that Ivana had to move apartment and block her ex-boyfriend on all her social media profiles. But he continued sending emails and contacting her family, before finally threatening to release intimate video of them together.

The threat was real; one night, Ivana recalled, she suddenly received 100 friend requests on Facebook from strangers, many featuring offensive messages. What followed, she said, were “a few days of torture and crying, worrying about who would see it.”

With the help of friends, Ivana set about removing the video from various websites. Then she went to the police.

“The inspector listened to me. He did not blame me for anything, especially because I told him about the violence in the relationship and said that he would call him [the ex-boyfriend] but that there was not much he could do,” Ivana said. “I had to file a private lawsuit, if I wanted, because he was posting the video without permission.”

After the officer spoke to the ex-boyfriend, the harassment stopped.

“If there’s any message a woman can take from my experience, it’s that no one has the right to do this to anyone and that no one ‘deserves’ something like this,” Ivana told BIRN.

Explicit photos and videos of Serbian women are being shared on at least 16 Telegram groups, BIRN has found, the biggest of them boasting almost 50,000 members.

Mirjana Stajkovac, a high-tech crime prosecutor, said that revenge porn should be defined as a criminal offence under Serbian law.

“Everyone has the right to send their intimate material to others. But it has opened new doors for misuse. And then the person suffers consequences that can be devastating for their mental health and the members of that family,” Stajkovac told BIRN.

In May 2022, the Autonomous Women’s Centre, an NGO, submitted an initiative to the Serbian Justice Ministry asking that revenge porn be included in the criminal code, but nothing came of it.

The Centre says that it receives at least one call per week from women of all ages who have been affected by the problem.

Many of the women who shared their experiences with BIRN said they had been in committed relationships and trusted their partners when they agreed to be photographed or filmed; they said they believed it to be a “one-off” and that the material would be deleted.

Olivera had lived with her partner for years and has a child with him.

When he asked to take photos of her naked, she did not hesitate; they were building a life together, and she trusted him, she said.

“I didn’t think anything negative for a single moment,” Olivera told BIRN. “He bought me all kinds of halters, bras, panties, SM gear, socks, you name it.”

They would look at the photos together and she believed he deleted them. But he hadn’t.

After nine years, Olivera ended the relationship. Six months later she received a message from her ex containing screenshots of photos of her, published on a porn site. He sent the same pictures to her mother, brothers, friends and male relatives.

Olivera went to the police; eventually she was given full custody of their child and her ex-partner was banned from approaching or contacting her in any way. “A very ugly, sad and unpleasant situation, but I got over it; life goes on,” she said.

Minors


Mirjana Stajkovac, a high-tech crime prosecutor, said that revenge porn should be defined as a criminal offense under Serbian law. Photo: Stefan Milovojevic.

Some of the women interviewed by BIRN were minors when they became victims of revenge porn.

Katarina was 15 years-old when she began dating an 18 year-old from a small town in Serbia. They talked about sex, but Katarina told him she wasn’t ready and believed he understood.

After a few months, they went to Serbia’s Tara Mountain, where Katarina came down with a fever. She drank a cup of tea and fell asleep. Today, she believes her then boyfriend drugged her.

She remembers nothing from the night, but after they broke up a few months later, video of her appeared on countless porn sites and in Telegram groups. Katarina had no idea the video had ever been made.

“You can see me on the video, but not him, nothing but his genitals,” she told BIRN. “He wrote to my sister saying he did it to re-educate me, because how dare I break up with him.”

Alongside the clip was Katarina’s full name, her home city, Instagram profile and phone number. Katarina went to the police, several times, but her complaints fell on deaf ears.

“They said I was exaggerating because we were still in a relationship, so maybe he couldn’t wait any longer because he is a man, and he has needs,” Katarina said, recalling the police response.

“More than three years have passed and I started to fight with the problems in my head only now when I moved to another city. The consequences are permanent, and nobody reacted.”

With a staff of four, the Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime is the only one dealing with such cases; they review reports of revenge porn on a daily basis.

One of the cases it is handling, concerning Telegram, has been dragging on for roughly two years but is being investigated as child pornography, not specifically as revenge porn, BIRN has learned.

The Telegram group ‘Nislijke’ [Nis Women] was initially exposed by one of its victims, Stasa Ivkovic, who took to Twitter to say her picture and social media profile had been circulating in the group, focussed on the city of Nis. Police arrested the group’s administrator, Nemanja Stojiljkovic, in March 2021, but the case is still ongoing.

“Many of the victims I talked to are very upset,” said Stajkovac. “Most of these people cry while giving their testimony, which is very upsetting for me as well. I really trust them.”

Victims, she said, should save the evidence as soon as they detect that something has happened – screenshots of messages, pictures, posts, and profiles from which content was sent.

“In every possible way, please, they should screenshot everything and not sweep it under the rug, believing it will pass. It will not pass, and the consequences can be dire.”

Victims should go to their nearest police station and hand over their phone for expert examination, she said. And take any witness they might have who could corroborate their account.

“These actions taken by these people are criminal acts for us, and we will not look at it lightly as a phenomenon in a society that should not be sanctioned,” Stajkovac told BIRN.

“Those people will not relax so easily and think that they can do whatever they want. If the predator feels that someone is on his tail and chasing him, he will make a mistake, and we will catch him in that mistake.”

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