Media Archives - Page 3 of 15

Pro-Kremlin Online Rhetoric Thrives in Orban’s Hungary

Posted on April 20, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

After Viktor Orban’s re-election as Hungary’s prime minister for a fourth consecutive term, pro-Russian propaganda continued to spread online in the country despite the Budapest government’s official support for the EU’s imposition of sanctions on Moscow.

Two such cases are documented in this latest bi-weekly review of online violations compiled by BIRN’s monitors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.

Meanwhile, journalists have been targeted online in Serbia and Romania, while recordings of conversations published online highlight political frictions and cases of alleged graft in Bosnia and North Macedonia

Ukraine war misinformation spread in Hungary

Despite voting for EU sanctions and showing humanitarian support for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, Hungary continues to show some reluctance to fully join the European bloc in condemning the Russian invasion.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, after his fourth electoral victory on April 3, cited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his opponent in his victory speech, confirmed he will not take any action against the Russia-founded International Investment Bank and insisted that Russia’s Rosatom would continue building a new nuclear power plant in Hungary.

Given this context, it is clear why pro-Russian propaganda is so widespread in Hungary, where pro-government media support Orban’s ruling party Fidesz.

Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary and President of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) Zsolt Semjen (L) and the head of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyas hold a press conference after closing the polling stations for the general election and national referendum on the child protection law in the Balna convention center in Budapest, Hungary, 03 April 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/SZILARD KOSZTICSAK

On April 4, thousands of Hungarian Facebook users started sharing pictures of a man covered in Nazi tattoos, claiming that he was the “deputy police chief of Kyiv”. However, the man, whose name was Artem Bonov, did not appear in the list of employees on the Kyiv Police website and was found to be a well-known far-right activist instead.

On April 8, two separate cases of misinformation and propaganda were recorded in Hungary. In the first of the two, several Hungarian-language Russian propaganda sites and their Facebook pages spread false information that there was no massacre in the Ukrainian town of Bucha and that the reports of civilian casualties were fake.

Some articles that included a video of carnage in Bucha falsely claimed that one of the dead bodies lying on the street was actually moving, that there was evidence that the massacre did not take place, and that recordings made after the recapture of the town were staged.

In the second case, following the adoption of the fifth package of sanctions targeting the Russian and Belarusian economies by the European Parliament, the Hungarian State news agency MTI reported the news as if Fidesz MEPs had not voted in favour of the sanctions.

However, despite a claim by Fidesz party MEP Kinga Gál, who said on Facebook that her fellow Fidesz MEPs voted overwhelmingly against the proposal to impose an embargo on gas, oil and nuclear power from Russia, the EU proposal was supported by Fidesz MEPs.

Journalists targeted in Serbia and Romania

Journalists continue to be verbally attacked by pro-government media and political figures across the region, and the beginning of April saw several incidents in Serbia and Romania.

People walk past a puddle reflecting an election billboard of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Serbia, 04 April 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

On April 1, Verica Marincic, a journalist from the town of Indjija in Serbia who works for the IN Medija website, reported that she received serious threats via Facebook.

Marincic said she believes that the threatening messages were connected to an article she published about the behaviour of a local priest who was taken into custody some days earlier after he refused to pay for some items from the local Lidl store.

In another case on April 5, sports journalist Milojko Pantic said his YouTube channel, which also hosts political content critical of the government led by the Serbian Progressive Party, had been removed from the platform without explanation.

Pantic said he believed that the shutdown of his channel was probably related to the release on the YouTube channel of his show about Serbia’s democratic failings, which was uploaded before the parliamentary and presidential elections on April 3.

Meanwhile in Romania, Reporters Without Borders said in a report on its website that press freedom remains vulnerable as “the government’s vision of journalism and freedom of expression encourages censorship and self-censorship”.

The media watchdog added that “mechanisms for funding the media are, in many cases, opaque or even corrupt, and editorial policies are subordinated to the interests of owners, who often use them as propaganda tools”.

In one recent example of the troubled media environment in the country, well-known investigative journalist Emilia Sercan said on April 4 that she was targeted after she published material claiming that Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciuca plagiarised part of his doctoral thesis.

“In the course of a single month, I was targeted in three separate incidents – threats, defamation and intimidation – all related to my work as an investigative journalist. According to the evidence in my possession, one of the defamatory acts was carried out with the complicity of a certain state institution’s employees,” said Sercan.

She also said she was sent some revealing pictures of herself, taken about 20 years ago by a former fiancé, from an unknown person on Facebook Messenger.

In response to the incident, the International Press Institute and other media freedom NGOs issued an appeal to the Romanian authorities calling for a swift and independent investigation.

Politicians targeted in Bosnia and North Macedonia

The Bosnian political scene remains deeply divided and fractious. In one recent example of this, the Klix.ba website published a recording on which Jelena Trivic, the vice-president of the Party of Democratic Progress and a member of the Republika Srpska National Assembly, is heard threatening former councillor Ivan Begic.

On the recording, which was made ahead of local elections in 2020, Trivic tells Begic, who served on Banja Luka City Council, that he “will be buried”. Klix.ba says the recording has been authenticated, but the Party of Democratic Progress claimed that it was an edited version of the original tape.

Former prime minister of North Macedonia Nikola Gruevski (C) leaves the Budapest-Capital Regional Court after his extradition trial in Budapest, Hungary, 27 June 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/ZOLTAN MATHE

In another incident involving recordings of private conversations published online, this time in North Macedonia, two audio recordings of a conversation allegedly between former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and businessman Orce Kamchev were released by an unknown source on April 3.

In the conversation, voices appearing to be those of Gruevski and Kamchev discuss a court case in which they are both involved. The voice that is claimed to be that of Kamchev says that he gave a statement saying that Gruevski had nothing to do with buying plots of land on Mount Vodno for 1.2 million euros. The authenticity of the recordings has not yet been confirmed.

Fake news, cyberattacks and other online violations

Incidents of disinformation and unverified claims, as well as cases of cyber fraud, continue to be a problem in many countries’ digital environments.

In Bosnia, a spoof article saying that Apple has created wedding rings that allow couples to monitor their spouses’ movements went viral after it was published by the Zanimljivo satirical humour website. The article was reposted as genuine news even though the fact-finding site Raskrinkavanje reported that it was not intended to be taken seriously.

Another case saw several online media and news websites in North Macedonia post unverified claims about the death of Croatian handball player Denis Toth, who is believed to have died as a result of injuries sustained in a fight after leaving a nightclub in Skopje. The unverified claims sparked a lot of speculation on social media in the country about the reason for Toth’s death.

Police were forced to intervene in North Macedonia after the reappearance of a notorious Telegram group entitled Public Room, a forum for sharing explicit photos of young women. The latest iteration of the group, in which photos, videos, information from social networks and phone numbers of girls and women in the country were posted, had close to 1,500 members. After a few days, the police intervened and the group was closed down.

Finally, the National Directorate for Cyber Security in Romania said there had been a massive increase in cyber-attacks against state institutions and private companies in the initial days of the war in Ukraine. It claimed that Russian IPs had been involved in reconnaissance attacks on Romanian state and private companies in the energy sector.

Powerful Albanian Businessmen Pick up Struggling TV Channels

Posted on April 12, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Powerful, politically-connected businessman Shefqet Kastrati has entered Albania’s crowded media market with the purchase on Monday of Euronews Albania, following in the footsteps of Samir Mane who bought TV SCAN last month.

Balfin Group, 100 per cent owned by Mane, bought TV SCAN in March for 700,000 euros. TV SCAN is a small operator, controlling just 2.9 per cent of the TV advertising market in 2020, according to financial data analysed by BIRN. At the end of that year, TV SCAN had racked up losses of some 470,000 euros.

Mane has business interests in a wide range of sectors, from food and clothing to electricity, minerals, construction, and tourism.

On Monday, Kastrati’s Kastrati Group said it had bought 60 per cent of shares in Intermedia Group, which owns Euronews Albania, for an undisclosed sum. It announced plans to expand into Kosovo and North Macedonia.

Euronews Albania was founded in 2019 under a franchise agreement with Euronews, the European news network owned by a Portuguese company linked to the family circle of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Kastrati has interests in fuel, construction, tourism and insurance, besides owning the concessionary firms operating the highway linking Albania and Kosovo and Tirana International Airport.

Euronews hit the ground running in Albania, reporting revenues of some 214 million leks, roughly 1.8 million euros, in 2020 or some 5.3 per cent of the market. It accumulated some 59 million leks of losses, however, during the first two years of operations, eating into some 60 per cent of the subscribed capital.

The Albanian television market is dominated by Klan and Top Channel, the two main operators with combined revenues accounting for some 63 per cent of the total market turnover.

The market, however, is far from transparent.

On Monday, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Ylli Ndroqi, a media owner in Albania, for using media outlets formerly under his control to “extort and blackmail Albanian citizens through demands for money and advertising purchases in exchange for withholding publication of negative media stories.”

Earlier this month, an administrative row within Top Channel, the country’s leading operator, caused a war of words between the management and the recently fired director of a major show, with each accusing the other of blackmail and corruption.

Montenegro’s Divided Govt Finally Silences Russian Media

Posted on April 8, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Montenegro’s government on Friday finally suspended the broadcasting of Russian Today and Sputnik in line with European Union sanctions on Russia related to its war on Ukraine.

The government adopted the measures on Friday, more than five weeks after it joined EU sanctions on Moscow on March 1.

Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said the move covers a wide package of restrictions on Russian officials, banks, companies and media.

“I am satisfied with the government’s decision, as the majority of ministers understood that it was important for the state. Those measures will have an economic impact,” Abazovic told the media. “If we reduced everything to economic logic, we would have a dilemma. But this is political logic,” he added.

In supporting EU sanctions, the would-be EU member committed itself to ban on Russian overflight of its airspace and access to its airports. It also banned transactions with the Russian Central Bank and joined the SWIFT ban on seven Russian banks.

On March 2, the EU suspended the broadcasting of Sputnik and Russia Today in all member states, accusing the outlets of spreading disinformation and manipulating information about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Podgorica government has now suspended all broadcasting licenses or approvals for Russian sponsored media, prohibiting broadcasting by any means, such as cable, satellite, IP-TV, internet service providers, internet video-sharing platforms or applications.

Only seven of the 12 government ministers reportedly supported the measures, reflecting deep East-West divisions in the country.

Minister of Agriculture Aleksandar Stijovic abstained from voting while Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic was absent in Greece. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vesna Bratic, Health Minister Jelena Borovinic Bojovic and Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ratko Mitrovic were also absent.

On Friday the US ambassador in Podgorica, Judy Rising Reinke, welcomed the government’s decision.

“It’s important to see a friend, partner and ally join EU sanctions, which are designed to undercut Russia’s ability to fund its inhumane, unjustified and unprovoked war on the people of Ukraine,” Reinke posted on Twitter.

But one of the leaders of the largest bloc in the ruling coalition, the pro-Russian Democratic Front’s Milan Knezevic, said the measures will damage the economy.

The Minister of Finance and Social Care, Milojko Spajic, said tourist income would drop due to the measures. “Every year around 23 per cent of tourists who come [here] are from Russia and Ukraine,” Spajic told television Vijesti.

Opinion in Montenegro is divided about Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. The country’s large ethnic Serbian community is traditionally sympathetic to Russia, while other communities are far less so. The smallest bloc in the government, Black on White, supports the EU sanctions, but the largest bloc, the Democratic Front, opposes them.

Election Hostilities Shake Serbia and Hungary

Posted on April 6, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Political clashes, smear campaigns and attacks on political opponents dominated the election campaign period in Serbia and Hungary in the second half of March.

Ahead of general elections held on April 3 in both Hungary and Serbia, online incidents of political rivalry and nationalist propaganda were also recorded. Hungary also saw an increase in cases of homophobia in the lead-up to the controversial referendum on LGBTQ+ gay rights.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, meanwhile, media and TV reporters received threats and other offensive gestures from political figures in the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, the main Bosnian Serb party. In North Macedonia and Romania, where nationalist rhetoric is on the rise, more clashes occurred between ruling parties and political opponents.

Elections in Hungary and Serbia stimulate tensions

National elections were held on April 3 in both Hungary and Serbia. In Serbia, the parliamentary election coincided with presidential and local elections in 12 municipalities, including the capital, Belgrade.

Hungary went to the polls to elect a new parliament and cast votes in a controversial government-initiated referendum on LGBTQ+ rights.

Serbia’s main opposition parties, according to earlier polls, had little chance of beating the ruling Progressive Party-Socialist Party coalition and struggled to be heard.

In the event, President Aleksandar Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, secured an easy victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

After Vucic’s main presidential rival, Zdravko Ponos, a retired general and former diplomat, appeared on the political talk show of Serbia, “Utisak Nedelje” (“Impression of the Week”), some voters speculated that Ponos might snatch away the votes from the SNS and represent a break with the past conduct of the opposition.

Incumbent Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during his pre-election rally in Belgrade, Serbia, 31 March 2022. Serbia will be holding general elections on 03 April 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

In a case recorded on March 18, the YouTube channel of Nacionalna Televizija Happy (National TV Happy), a privately-owned TV channel in Serbia with national coverage, removed a video from its morning programme that featured a heated political debate involving the political analyst Boban Stojanović.

In the show, Stojanović, criticising the economic policy of the ruling SNS, asked his interlocutors if they knew how much salaries had risen since the fall of former leader Slobodan Milosevic in 1999, noting that the current salaries in Serbia were the lowest ever, since then.

In Hungary, tensions and partisan attacks ahead of the parliamentary elections were no less fierce than in Serbia.

Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party again won the election, and he is about to start his fourth successive term as prime minister.

In his victory speech, Orban criticised Brussels 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 lethal weapons destined for Ukraine to cross Hungary.]

Smear campaigns and attacks on political opponents, which most likely will continue in the post-election period, were Fidesz’s trademark in the run-up to the elections.

On March 15, Fidesz’s political rivals were targeted by the Hungarian state news agency MTI which took a photo of an opposition rally before the demonstration had actually begun.

The photo showed far fewer people than were later present at the event. Several newspapers, on the basis of this photo, said that very few people attended the demonstration, and some reported wrongly that the planned march was cancelled for this reason.

In another episode on March 22, the government sent an election campaign letter using the email addresses people had submitted to register for COVID vaccinations. The email, which attacked both the EU and the opposition, read that, “some Brussels leaders want to punish Russia at all costs, and they also want punitive measures that would place an additional unpaid burden on the shoulders of European citizens, including Hungarians”.

Justice Minister Judit Varga, echoing the government’s anti-EU campaign, also claimed incorrectly that Hungary did not receive any EU help in “stopping migration” in a post published on Facebook last March 23.

Homophobia surges ahead of disputed referendum

The Fidesz-sponsored referendum on LGBTQ+ rights, which coincided with the date of the general elections, also prompted numerous violations in the Hungarian digital space.

A ballot paper is stamped by an election official at a polling station during the general election and national referendum on the child protection law in Budapest, Hungary, 03 April 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/Zoltan

Although the referendum failed to become binding, as less than half of those entitled to vote cast ballots, the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in the country will likely remain under threat following Fidesz’s landslide election victory.

Following a case in early March, in which the szentkoronaradio.hu website published a list of names and photos of teachers who have supported LGBTQ+ rights, other incidents have occurred.

On March 23, CitizenGO Hungary, a local branch of a far-right advocacy group founded in Madrid, and the website vasárnap.hu, a portal linked to the junior ruling KDNP party, published homophobic articles linking homosexuality with paedophilia.

Vasárnap.hu also launched an appeal for people to go to the polls in the referendum, claiming that laws on the protection of children in Hungary were inadequate, and that the demands of LGBT rights groups were unfounded.

Reporters threatened and insulted in Bosnia

In 2016, after Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic’s hearing in court, BIRN confirmed the opening of an investigation into Pavlovica Banka, a bank based in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, concerning a loan that Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik took out to buy a villa in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

After several years, the case continues to occupy space in the public debate and online.

Moilorad Dodik, Chairman of Bosnian Presidency (L), and Zeljko Komsic (R), member of Bosnian Presicency, attend a press conference after a meeting with Slovenian President Borut Pahor (not pictured) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 05 March 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

On March 22, after giving a statement to the Prosecutor’s Office about his purchase of the villa, Dodik showed his middle finger to journalists from his car. After the picture of the offensive gesture went viral, Dodik later apologized, saying he had over-reacted after he recognized a television team that he thought was leading a media hunt against him.

Media journalists were also targeted in another case recorded on March 26, when Rajko Vasić a member of the main board and former secretary of Dodik’s SNSD, threatened on Twitter to blow up the television building of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Radio Television, BHRT.

BHRT owes large debts to the tax administration of Bosnia’s Federation entity. For these reasons, its accounts are blocked, and it faces complete suspension.

Commenting on its difficult financial situation, Vasić, said he would “blow up” the TV building “if others were ashamed to do so”. In response, Damir Arnaut, an MP in the Bosnian parliament and a member of the Party for a Better Future, filed a complaint with the authorities, accusing Vasić of terrorism.

Fake news targets North Macedonian officials

After last year’s political crisis, partisan attacks still mark the current scenario in North Macedonia. In Romania, similarly, clashes between the ruling party and its opponents mixed with a rise in populist and nationalist rhetoric dominate both institutional and online domains.

On March 25, two North Macedonian officials, public prosecutor Fatime Fetai and Justice Minister Nikola Tupanchevski, were targeted with fake news published in several news portals regarding their trip to Palermo for a football match between Italy and North Macedonia.

Aleksandar Trajkovski (L) of North Macedonia celebrates after scoring during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 play-off qualifying soccer match between Italy and North Macedonia at the Renzo Barbera stadium in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, 24 March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/CARMELO

Online media and various journalists claimed that Fetai and Tupanchevski were there on a state-sponsored trip and that their costs were covered by North Macedonia’s Football Federation. Both denied the claims and stated that they personally paid for their trips.

In Romania, parliament on March 14 passed a controversial law making incitement of political-based discrimination a crime. A person found guilty of this may now be sentenced from six months to three years in jail.

It was the second time the law came before parliament. An earlier version was turned back by the Constitutional Court, after a complaint launched by Romania’s President. This time too, a constitutional complaint against the new version of the law was initiated by the Union to Save Romania party. “It’s obvious that this law can give authorities the idea of opening criminal cases against political opponents. But the old law could also have been used in such a way,” commented Diana Hatneanu, a lawyer at the Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Romania – the Helsinki Committee.

Five Journalists Killed in First Month of Ukraine War

Posted on March 24, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A month after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, at least five media workers are among hundreds of civilians who have been killed so far, raising fears that journalists are being intentionally targeted for attack.

Oksana Baulina, a Russian journalist working for independent news site The Insider, was the most recent to be killed earlier this week.

Baulina, who formerly worked for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption organisation before leaving Russia, “died under fire in Kyiv”, The Insider said on Wednesday. “She was filming the destruction after Russian troops shelled the Podil district of the capital,” it added.

Media freedom campaign group Reporters Without Borders last week called on the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, who is probing war crimes in Ukraine, to also investigate crimes committed against journalists by Russian forces.

“At least eight journalists or media crews have been deliberately targeted by Russian forces or have been the victims of indiscriminate bombardment,” Reporters Without Borders said.

On March 1, Ukrainian camera operator Yevhenii Sakun was killed during a Russian strike on a television tower in Kyiv – one of a series of allegedly deliberate strikes on radio and TV towers since the start of the war, aimed at silencing Ukrainian media.

US journalist and film-maker Brent Renaud died on March 13 when the car in which he was travelling with his colleagues came under fire in the town of Irpin.

The following day, Franco-Irish camera operator Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova, who were both reporting the war for Fox News, were killed when their car was hit by gunfire in Horenka, a village some 20 miles from Kyiv.

Reporters Without Borders has said that a TV crew from Britain’s Sky News, a Czech team from the Voxpot media outlet, a Swiss journalist and an Al Araby TV crew have also been intentionally targeted in attacks.

Several other journalists have gone missing or have been detained by Russian forces since the war began, including Viktoria Roshchina, a reporter for Ukraine’s Hromadske TV, who was released on Monday after ten days in captivity.

“Multiple journalists have gone missing or been detained under murky circumstances since the war began, and these incidents only serve to harass the press and stifle independent reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia programme coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Two Associated Press journalists in the besieged port city of Mariupol have described how managed to escape what they believed was a targeted attempt by Russian soldiers to detain them because of their graphic reporting of Moscow’s sustained assault on civilian areas, including the killing of children.

“They had a list of names, including ours,” wrote AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov after he and his colleague managed to flee.

Albanian Journalists Threatened by Suspected Gang Member’s Staff

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

Albania’s Media Authority, AMA, on Wednesday condemned the manhandling and threatening of a journalist and camera operator from Top Channel, Albania’s leading television channel.

The journalists were targeted by unidentified employees at Ovvital, a poultry farm owned by a suspected crime gang member, Top Channel said on Tuesday.

In a video aired by the station, an unknown staffer is heard telling the crew that he knew how to “cut women into pieces”.

“Earlier I was the one who could cut a woman into pieces, but now I have a little girl myself,” the man is heard saying, threatening a female journalist.

“The employees [of the company] manhandled the journalists and used physical and psychological violence. They also damaged their equipment,” the AMA said, deeming the event “a flagrant violation against freedom of speech”.

The journalists were reporting a bird flu pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of chickens at several farms in central Albania, causing the price of eggs to skyrocket.

Ovvital, the company where the incident occurred, is owned by Xhevdet Troplini, who, according to Albanian Police is suspected of being member of an organized crime group. However, an investigation into him in 2020 yielded no results.

Turkish Journalist Who Revealed Islamist NGO’s Murky Ties Faces Prison

Posted on March 22, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Metin Cihan, an independent investigative journalist faces three to six years in a Turkish prison over his investigation revealing the ties between the Turkish Youth Foundation, TUGVA, a political Islamist NGO, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and family.

“The case was not a surprise. As we’ve got used to, they do not punish the people who commit crimes but the ones who reveal them,” Cihan told BIRN.

The prosecutors’ office in Istanbul has asked for a jail sentence of between three years and nine months and ten years and six months for Cihan and Ramazan Aydoglu, a former TUGVA member who allegedly shared documents with him.

The indictment said Aydogdu accessed the files of the foundation, thought to have been acquired from the TUGVA’s computers, “without consent or the right to do so”, and then sent these files to Cihan, manipulating and changing them.

Documents shared by Cihan, who is currently based in Germany, reveal that TUGVA, which has members of President Erdogan’s family on its board, used its influence with Erdogan to appoint its members to posts in the state, police and military.

Documents that BIRN has also seen also show that pro-government businesspeople, municipalities and governor offices finance TUGVA.

Cihan said that TUGVA wants to send a message with this court case.

“They want to show that they are still strong in the judiciary with this indictment. According to my information, the prosecutor was chosen for this case deliberately. Secondly, TUGVA administration received reactions from its own members after I revealed the documents. TUGVA then promised that the people who leaked and shared documents will be punished,” Cihan said.

According to Cihan, “This case is just the continuation and consequence of the illegality of the parallel state created by TUGVA within state institutions. In future, this case alone will be a topic for a legal investigation,” he said.

The leaked documents include the names of people affiliated with TUGVA, their phone and ID numbers, their university of graduation and the names of the ministries, police and army branches to which they would like to be appointed – plus the dates of their interviews and the names of their “references,” who are usually members of TUGVA, or Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP.

Another list also reveals that institutions closed and seized as part of a government crackdown on critics, accused of supporting the failed coup attempt in 2016, were handed over to TUGVA and five other Islamist NGOs with close ties to Erdogan’s party and government.

Thanks to generous government support, TUGVA has 37 student dormitories and more than 570 city and district offices in Turkey. The Islamist foundation organises events, conferences and projects with the aim of “raising a generation who stand for the right and for justice”.

If the indictment is accepted, Cihan and Aydogdu will stand trial before the İstanbul Criminal Court of First Instance.

Propaganda and Hysteria Flourish in Russo-Ukrainian War

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

The beginning of March saw numerous digital violations, mainly related to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has electrified the digital environments in the region, and pro-Russian propaganda, misinformation and fake news are skyrocketing. The conflict has also inspired hysteria and panic among the public in North Macedonia and Romania related to energy fears.

Cybercrimes and online fraud confirmed their endemic nature, with Hungary and Croatia remaining at the top of the list of countries where such violations occur most often. Routine digital violations continued to weigh on the Serbian, Macedonian and Bosnian digital environments.

One-sided war narratives, disinformation, and fake news

The Ukraine conflict continued to provoke a wave of disinformation and fake news across the region. And the hostilities will, most likely, continue to have a huge impact on the online environments for some time. Pro-Russian propaganda, partisan manipulative episodes and massive disinformation campaigns are now at a high level in several countries following the outbreak of the war.

Due to the rapid increase in incidents of fake news, disinformation and pro-Russian propaganda related to the war, Romania started to implement some tech countermeasures.

One is the development of an IT platform to identify pro-Russian propaganda narratives on social media resulting from the collaboration between several NGOs and the Department for Emergency Situations.

However, the initiative has also attracted criticism. This is because the government has proposed a number of key terms to be associated with the algorithm which, if applied, would equate cases of “corruption” or “incompetence” related to the Prime Minister or President to pro-Russian disinformation.

In Hungary, on March 5, a pro-Russian Facebook page Orosz Hírek (‘Russian News’) published a video with Hungarian subtitles that has been watched more than 587,000 times.

In the footage, Ukrainian MP and former Socialist Party leader Ilya Kiva claimed that Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, was on the run. However, the news was false. President Zelensky has not left the country or the capital, Kyiv.

In North Macedonia, a case recorded on March 2 saw a Twitter user spread panic by claiming officials were recruiting soldiers for the war in Ukraine.

Fake news, misinformation and disinformation on the war have circulated widely in Croatia as well. On March 1, following a social media story that went viral, celebrating a Ukrainian fighter pilot for shooting down six Russian planes, a number of Croatian media published fake news about a so-called “Ghost of Kiev”, which turned out to be just an urban legend about a fearless Ukrainian pilot protecting the skies above Kyiv. Many users of the social network on March 7 shared a photo from a Serbian film that was falsely attributed to the war in Ukraine.

Bosnia and Herzegovina reported a case of exploitation of the Ukrainian conflict for political ends, on March 8.

Commenting on the war, the leader of the right-wing Dveri movement in Serbia and member of Serbia’s parliament, Boško Obradović, told Belgrade television that it would be “justified for the Serbian Army to get involved” in Bosnia, “to protect Serbs in [the Bosnian Serb entity] Republika Srpska, if aggression is launched against them”.

He said this Serbian military intervention would be “an obligation, both moral and historical and every other”. The video went viral, and many media published it on their pages.

Panic in North Macedonia and Romania over energy

The Ukrainian conflict has also triggered energy panics in many countries that rely heavily on gas and raw materials from Russia.

Data from the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators shows that North Macedonia, Bosnia and Moldova are the most dependent countries in Europe on Russian gas.

North Macedonia, which receives gas from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline through Bulgaria, imports 100 per cent of its national gas from Russia.

This has led to episodes of mass hysteria and panic.

A man drives his motorbike next to the screen with the new prices of petrol and diesel at a petrol station of Lukoil in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, 02 March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

On March 3, fake news on social media about shortages prompted thousands of North Macedonians to queue at gas stations. The rumours were refuted by authorities, which said there was no crisis in the supply of oil and oil derivatives.

In Romania, images of Bulgarians queuing up for petrol and buying huge quantities of cooking oil caused a panic over alleged shortages of gas there as well.

First, Romanians started panicking over buying cooking oil, and later, they formed massive lines outside gas stations.

Adrian-Ionuț Chesnoiu, Romania’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, reassured the population, stating: “We have enough cooking oil stored in our warehouses. We have no shortage. There are a lot of oil factories in this country, we aren’t dependent on imports.”

Cybercrimes and online fraud remain endemic in many environments

Online fraud, scams, data breaches and cybercrime continue to occur frequently in many countries.

Hungary and Croatia remain at the top of the list of countries where such violations occur most frequently, with 37 and 26 cases of computer fraud recorded in our annual report, “Online Intimidation: Controlling the Narrative in the Balkans”.

A woman walks in front of Headquarter of Erste Bank in Zagreb, Croatia, 24 January 2017. Photo: EPA/ANTONIO BAT

The digital environment in Serbia saw challenges on digital rights and freedoms in the area of information security. A popular private bank warned its customers and citizens about phishing email fraud. One of the fraudulent emails had “Payment from Russia” written in the subject field.

Another episode involved singer Ana Djuric “Konstrakta”, who said her official Instagram and Facebook accounts had been hacked. Having recently won the national competition to represent Serbia at this year’s Eurovision, she has become very popular.

On March 8, the National Cybersecurity Institute of Hungary warned that several organisations had received email requests that appeared to be from the European Commission, on the “Situation at the EU’s borders with Ukraine”, but which contain harmful links and malware file attachments.

The Croatian digital environment was also affected by two different cases of computer fraud, both recorded on March 6.

In the first case, Erste bank, the third largest bank in Croatia, warned its customers about a fake internet page in its name. The bank told users not to input any personal data on the page. Similarly, RBA bank warned of fake SMS messages, which are “trying to discredit the bank and its stability”. The bank reported the incident to the Interior Ministry.

In Serbia, North Macedonia and Bosnia, routine digital violations

Threats to independent journalists and free media, political friction driven by a climate of instability, and ethnic tension, are just some of the factors behind routine violations.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer (C), members of the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sefik Dzaferovic (L) and Milorad Dodik (R) arrive for their meeting, during Nehammer’s visits in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 18 March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

Miljko Stojanovic, Danas newspaper’s correspondent from Zajecar, received threats via Facebook because of an article he wrote about a Ukrainian taking refuge in Serbia. Serbian police found the person suspected of threatening Stojanovic.

On March 11, during an official visit to the UK, North Macedonia’s Defence Minister, Slavjanka Petrovska, was targeted by hate speech from users, posting derogatory remarks about her looks on Facebook and Twitter.

In Bosnia, ethnic and political tensions continue to provoke online violations. On March 7, Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency and head of the main Bosnian Serb party, the Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, received threats via social media. A video in which a masked man offered a million euros for Dodik’s murder was published on the social network TikTok.

Fake allegations also spread on social networks and online media about possible riots at a rally of the right-wing Serbian nationalist Ravna Gora Chetnik movement in Visegrad, eastern Bosnia, on March 13.

Online media claimed riots were to be expected because of the arrival of some people from Bužim. However, several associations from Bužim denied the rumours, saying that no one wanted such incidents in these times.

SLAPP Cases Targeting Many Public Actors Besides Journalists – Report

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

A new report by the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe, CASE, “Shutting Out Criticism: How SLAPPs Threaten European Democracy”, published on Wednesday, says although journalists are most likely targets, these lawsuits also target activists, human rights defenders and academics.

“Journalists are targeted with SLAPPs because they bring information to light while activists, civil society organisations, and academics are confronted with SLAPPs because they challenge the status quo,” the report says.

Its data also show that the number of so-called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation in Europe is growing, and that claimants are “becoming increasingly creative”.

The report recalls the example of Elitech against Friends of the Earth, FoE, Croatia and the civic initiative, Srdj je nas (“Srdj is ours”).

In 2013, the citizens’ initiative, together with the Croatian Architects Association, requested the Constitutional Court to assess the legality of the construction of a luxury resort and golf course on Srđ hill by the multinational manufacturing company Elitech. FoE Croatia placed a billboard criticising the project in a public place.

“FoE Croatia subsequently faced two different lawsuits: civil defamation against the organisation, with a request for a gagging order; and the president and two vice-presidents of FoE Croatia were criminally prosecuted for libel,” the report recalls, adding that this case “shows how SLAPPs are used as a means of silencing those speaking out about a shared concern”.

The report stresses the “chilling effect” that SLAPPs have, meaning the financial burden, the time defendants have to take to prepare their legal defence, the effort to remember details of events that often took place years previously, as well as the mental and emotional toll.

“Many described the process of dealing with the SLAPP as more taxing and intimidating than actually receiving the legal threat,” the report adds.

The paper quotes data compiled by the Croatian Journalists’ Association, HND, which recorded a total of 905 active court cases against journalists and media outlets in the country in 2020 – not all of them SLAPPS – and at least 924 cases in 2021.

In Poland, the biggest daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has been targeted by more than 60 civil and criminal cases over the past few years, many of them initiated by the governing Law and Justice Party’s politicians, the paper stressed.

The Coalition Against SLAPPS in Europe, CASE, is an umbrella group uniting a range of watchdog organisations.

In January, it published a comprehensive study noting a sharp rise in SLAPP cases across Europe over the last four years – with 539 across Europe today, a fifth of that number lodged in 2021 alone.

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are civil claims filed against individuals or organisations. Businesses and government officials often file them against those that oppose them on issues of public concern, with a view to silencing them. They are widely seen as a tool of “modern censorship”.

A SLAPP can be based on a range of legal theories, including defamation, data protection, privacy, business torts and data protection, and often exploit gaps in procedural protections that are often highly specific to the jurisdiction in question.

Turkish Journalist Walks Free Despite Sentence for Insulting Erdogan

Posted on March 11, 2022January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

A Turkish court on Friday ordered the release of the well-known independent woman journalist Sedef Kabas who was sentenced to jail for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kabas was released from prison at the first court hearing under a super-fast judgment after being sentenced to two years and four months in prison for insulting the President by reciting a famous proverb.

Kabas told the court, where the hearing was followed by rights groups, unions and opposition parties, that she will continue to express her opinions in public.

“I will continue to tell the truth despite the experiences the current leadership is making me and others go through,” Kabas said.

Police raided her home the morning after Kabas recited a proverb on a TV show and shared it on Twitter. She was sent to prison on January 22 and had been held there ever since.

“There is a very famous proverb that says a crowned head becomes wiser. But we see it is not true. A bull does not become king just by entering the palace; the palace becomes a barn,” she said on TELE 1 TV channel.

The Supreme Board of Radio and Television, RTUK, the state agency for monitoring, regulating and sanctioning radio and TV broadcasts, stopped five shows and the channel may have to hand over 8 per cent of its profit as an administrative fine.

According to official figures, by the end of 2020, more than 160,000 people had been investigated for alleged insults against President Erdogan and more than 38,000 people were tried in court for the same reason during Erdogan’s time as Prime Minister and then President since 2002. Turkey has come under international pressure to change the insult law.