balkans Archives

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.

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.

Wave of Cyber Crimes, Political Clashes, Buffets Region

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

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

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

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

Political contest haunts Hungary ahead of election

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

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

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

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

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

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

North Macedonia still vulnerable to hacker attacks

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

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

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

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

Romanian parliament clash spurs online tensions and controversial rule change

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phishing scams and online intimidation of journalists in Serbia

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ethnic Death Threats in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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

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

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

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

Computer frauds and COVID disinformation Spread in Croatia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ethnic-based violations agitate North Macedonia

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rio Tinto and Djokovic saga stir Serbia’s online environment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Routine Digital Violations Still Rising

Posted on November 18, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The violations recorded in the second half of October show that routine digital violations are not disappearing. Hate speech, discrimination and war-mongering flourish in Bosnia’s digital environment, and, following the introduction of a new decree by the President of the Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, digital violations have accelerated further.

Local elections in Hungary and North Macedonia, where ruling parties suffered setbacks, also caused a rise in violations, triggered by a climate of political antagonism.

Finally, in Serbia and Romania, the presence of unsolved issues at home resulted in the resurgence of the one and the same violations.

Hate Speech and War-mongering Rhetoric Poison Bosnia

With 45 violations recorded in our database out of a total of 101 cases between August 1, 2020, and August 31, 2021, hate speech and discrimination remain the most widespread form of violation in the Bosnian digital environment.

Zeljka Cvijanovic (L) speaks during the 29th Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdroj, southern Poland, 03 September 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/GRZEGORZ MOMOT POLAND OUT

Following recent developments, including the entry into force of a presidential decree from Zeljka Cvijanovic, head of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, aimed at not complying with a state law banning the denial of genocide and war crimes, there has been a further acceleration in hate speech and war-mongering rhetoric in the country.

Two hate speech and warmongering incidents were recorded in the second half of October. After the release of a video on Twitter on October 22 from the online news outlet Istraga, several comments inciting ethnic hatred and war propaganda showed up. Footage had showed Dragan Lukač, RS Minister of Interior, with members of the RS special forces doing exercises in Jahorina.

The second case involved Muhamed Velic, a Muslim cleric in Sarajevo, who called for war on his Facebook page, garnering 2,200 likes and 60 shares. The post, published on October 16 and later removed, said: “Ammunition in Konjic and Gorazde! Howitzers in Travnik! RPGs in Hadžići! Etc. Trust yourself and your hooves! They know that this is not a joke and that Bosnian might is not a small cat!” The message, which was then shared on Twitter by Bosnia’s consul in Frankfurt, Admir Atović, forced the country’s Foreign Ministry to intervene and seek urgent clarifications from him.

Hungarian Opposition Primaries Prompt Flow of Digital Violations

The 2021 Hungarian opposition primary, held in two rounds between September 18 and October 16, featured a harsh political confrontation between opposition candidates and the ruling Fidesz party. The stakes were high: to choose the challenger against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in next year’s parliamentary elections. After the second round of the primary, voters elected Peter Marki-Zay, the conservative mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, to lead the opposition into the 2022 parliamentary election.

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay gives an international press conference at Brussels Press club, Belgium, 11 November 2021. Marki-Zay was nominated as a candidate by six-party opposition alliance formed specifically to oust Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s election. Photo: EPA-EFE/OLIVIER HOSLET

Before and during the primaries, a series of cyberattacks were carried out. The opposition asked Ferenc Frész, a senior cyber defence expert, to investigate the causes and origins of these DDoS attacks. The aftermath of the election after the second round was also a breeding ground for online violations. Three independent media outlets were attacked on announcing the primary election results. The pro-government website, Origo, was also repeatedly hit by DDoS attacks between October 22 and 24, making the site inaccessible. Internal investigations suggested that unknown individuals externally attacked the website. In the final days of the primaries, strange advertisements, apparently promoting the main opposition candidate, appeared in the news feeds of several Hungarian Facebook users, claiming that Márki-Zay was building a “new Fidesz” party. The messages quoted and distorted many of his statements on subjects like the corporal punishment of children.

Another incident recorded in our database involved the temporary suspension and unavailability of Valasz.hu, a website storing the complete archive of Heti Válasz, a conservative weekly established by Fidesz in 2001 and shut down in June 2018, after Lajos Simicska, a business magnate close to Orban, bought its publisher. As reported earlier by BIRN, Hungary remains a critical country in terms of the role of genuinely independent media. Members of Orban’s closest circle now own almost 88 media outlets.

Interference in North Macedonia’s Election Alleged, COVID Certificates Hacked

A woman votes at the polling station in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, 17 October 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

In the second half of October, political confrontation worsened in North Macedonia following two rounds of local elections on October 17 and 31. As Balkan Insight reported, the elections were of crucial significance, as the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, for the first time since 2017, re-established itself as the dominant political force, also declaring that it now had the strength in parliament to lead a government.

On October 24, Stevcho Jakimovski, leader of the Citizen Option for Macedonia Party GROM and a candidate in the local elections for the municipality of Karpos, claimed that Chinese troll farms targeted his Facebook profile. He called on political rivals to behave ethically and not engage in such campaigns during the election. GROM, in coalition with VMRO-DPMNE at national level, ran alone in the Karpos mayoral race. On October 29, as our new focus page on COVID-19 Crisis and Tech Response reported, the Ministry of Health withdrew its EU digital certificates and QR codes, following a hacker attack.

Users of a forum said the hackers, who broke into the system and started issuing QR codes, using data from Macedonian citizens, penetrated the unprotected Macedonian server, from where they managed to get the key to the codes. IT.mk, a Macedonian information technology portal, showed how easy it was to bypass the national health system and has shared several posts of Twitter users with valid certificates, issued for Adolf Hitler, Sponge Bob and other dead or fictitious characters.

COVID-19 Fake News and Online Harassment Persist in Romania

Following a global trend, Romania’s digital environment is experiencing a rise in fake news, misinformation, and other manipulative content on the COVID-19 pandemic. Romania’s online space also continued to record a high number of episodes of misogyny towards women, especially those working in education. For instance, on January 6, a former presidential candidate and TikTok influencer, Alexandru Cumpanasu, was arrested for sending comments of a sexual nature, and instigating hatred and discrimination, against teachers and professors. Some violations that occurred in October confirm this trend in Romania’s digital environment.

On October 19, Piatra Neamț County Police opened a criminal investigation into the spread of false information after a woman streamed herself on Facebook in front of a critical care ward, where COVID patients were being treated in Piatra Neamț, north-east Romania. The woman, filming from a distance, claimed that “there is no one” inside the clinic, suggesting the pandemic was fiction. The video also became known thanks to a Facebook post of Oana Gheorghiu, cofounder of the NGO Dăruiește Viață, who immediately reported the incident.

A Romanian woman gets a Pfizer vaccine dose from a volunteer nurse, at a Covid-19 Marathon Vaccination For Life center organized at Children Palace venue in Bucharest, Romania, 22 October 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT

A second case concerned Florentina Golea, a schoolteacher who was harassed after posting photos on Facebook while teaching a class of 12-year-old girls on the importance of vaccination. On October 5, RO vaccinare, the official page of the National Committee for Vaccination, promoting the vaccination campaign in Romania, shared photos from the teacher’s profile on Facebook. After that, the teacher received hundreds of insulting comments via Facebook, from “profiteer” and “be ashamed” to “monster” and “criminal”. The teacher also received death threats from people who claimed to know where she lived and the address of her school in Tecuci, in Galați County. Sorin Cîmpeanu, Minister of Education, announced that he would support the teacher if she sued those who had harassed her on Facebook.

COVID-19 Manipulation and Threats to Journalists in Serbia

Manipulation, conspiracy theories and other fake news have spread fast in Serbia’s online environment, where most cases still seem to be linked to the COVID pandemic.

The logo of the messaging application Viber pictured on a smartphone. Photo: EPA/RITCHIE B. TONGO

Recently, a case was uncovered where some citizens were wrongly prescribed anti-parasite treatment for COVID via a Viber group. At the same time, alarmingly, Serbia stands out as one of the countries with the most attacks on independent journalists. Between August 1, 2020, and August 31, 2021, 30 out of a total of 111 such cases targeted journalists. BIRN editor and investigative journalist Ivana Jeremić was threatened by a Twitter user last December 2.

The latest cases recorded by our monitoring team confirm this trend in the Serbian digital space.

On October 10, after Serbian virologist Ana Banko stated on Radio Television of Serbia RTS that vaccinated citizens can transmit the Delta strain of the coronavirus, part of her statement was spread on social media with the intention of manipulating her words. The video shared by many users, together with the title, took the sentence out of context, leading readers to the wrong conclusion. The virologist was answering a series of questions on a talk show, and her intention was not to diminish the effects of the vaccine but only to emphasize the speed of transmission of the new Delta variant.

On October 21, meanwhile, online threats targeted two Serbian journalists, Jovana Gligorijević and Snežana Čongradin, the historian Dubravka Stojanović and the literary critic, Jelena Lalatović.

The threats, which have been condemned by the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, were misogynistic and anti-feminist, and were posted from an anonymous Twitter account. This is not the first-time threats have been sent from this account. A year ago, the journalist Vesna Mališić was also threatened by the same profile, which called for a lynch and her murder.

Women in Balkan Media ‘Must Speak Out’ Against Sexual Harassment

Posted on October 28, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Despite that the majority of journalists in the Western Balkans are women, they still face gender-based discrimination and abuse and often do not feel secure in speaking out due to fears of losing their jobs or reputation and not receiving the necessary support, an online panel discussion organised by BIRN was told on Thursday.

Media organisations in the Balkans should have proper codes and procedures to follow in cases of sexual harassment or other kinds of gender-based discrimination, said BIRN’s project coordinator Sofija Todorovic, who moderated the debate entitled ‘#MeToo in Journalism: When Will Balkan Journalists Speak Up?’

This would “enable that every journalist at the media outlet where she works to be aware of the steps she can follow”, said Todorovic.

Dafina Halili, contributing editor at online magazine Kosovo 2.0, spoke of the difficulty of speaking out in a small country such as Kosovo.

“Women journalists are often harassed in the newsroom in front of journalists who then speak in public and on live TV about sexual harassment [as phenomenon] but do not intervene in cases when their colleagues are being harassed [while they are present,” she said.

Halili said that Kosovo has yet to witness a #MeToo movement, as no public figures have yet spoken out about the harassment they have suffered. But she said that it is positive that young people in Kosovo are organising protests and other events for women rights.

Jelena Jovanovic, a journalist at Montenegrin news outlet Vijesti, said that a patriarchal mindset often stops women from speaking out, particularly in rural areas where even domestic violence is kept hidden.

Jovanovic explains the situation is not much different for women journalists who often are faced with gossip that they achieved where they are by sleeping their way up.

“I took the approach saying ‘yes I did it’ to shut people up and at one point it worked but it did not stop, the gossip moved to other colleagues” Jovanovic explains.

Natalija Miletic, a journalist and fixer who works between Serbia and Germany, explained that despite the #MeToo movement, the situation remains difficult.

She said that in Serbia, despite the fact that some media organisations are overwhelmingly staffed by women, “there is no woman editor-in-chief in the mainstream media”.

Zhaklin Lekatari, a journalist, sex blogger and human rights activist in Albania, said that a #MeToo movement does not exist in Albania either, and that there are two main issues women in the country face when considering speaking out about their experiences of abuse and sexual harassment – fear and lack of trust.

“We don’t have a gap in the gender representation of editors-in-chief in Albania, but the [media companies’] policies are not feminist,” Lekatari said.

The panellists agreed that the problem will not be solved by having more female editors-in-chief, but by improving management practices and editorial policies.

Lekatari advised young female journalists to seek support and solidarity – “find support, identify, link groups together and organise them”.

Urging women journalists to come forward and speak to BIRN about their stories, even anonymously, Todorevic said: “The right time to speak up is whenever the women [who have been victims of abuse or sexual harassment] are ready to speak up and if they don’t speak sooner it is everybody’s fault.”

Balkan Region’s Media Pluralism Stagnated in Pandemic, Report Warns

Posted on July 21, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Balkan countries have experienced a general stagnation or deterioration in terms of media pluralism and media freedoms during 2020, shows a new study, “Media Pluralism Monitor 2021”, published by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute.

These trends can be observed through the four fundamental risk areas encompassed in the study: fundamental protection, market plurality, political independence and social inclusiveness.

Medium and high-risk factors for Balkan countries

In the area of fundamental protection, which among other things encompasses the protection of freedom of information, right to information and observing of journalistic standards, North Macedonia scores best out of all the Balkan countries in the study.

On a scale from 0 to 100 when scores between 0 and 33 per cent are marked as low risk factors, scores between 34 to 66 per cent mark medium risk, and scores between 67 and 100 per cent indicate high risk, only North Macedonia was marked as low risk, with a score of 32 per cent.

The rest of the countries were put in the medium risk group. Croatia scored 42 per cent, Montenegro 43 per cent, Serbia 45 per cent, Slovenia 48 per cent and Albania 59 per cent.

In the area of market plurality, which looked at issues like transparency of media ownership, news media concentration and owners’ influence over the editorial policies of the outlets, Montenegro was ranked best with 62 per cent, followed by North Macedonia with 64 per cent, both being ranked medium risk.

The rest of the countries were marked high risk. Serbia scored 69 per cent, Croatia 71 per cent, Slovenia 76 per cent while Albania ranked worst, with 89 per cent.

The third area concerns over political independence, which measures indicators such as editorial autonomy, state regulation and resources allocated to media and the independence of funding. All countries from the region in the survey, bar Slovenia, were marked as medium risk.

North Macedonia again scored best with 50 per cent, followed by Serbia on 57 per cent, Croatia with 61 per cent, Montenegro and Albania which both scored 64 per cent. Slovenia was marked as a country of high risk with a score of 73 per cent.

The fourth fundamental risk area in the report, social inclusiveness, encompasses indicators like access to media by minorities, as well as for local and regional communities, access to media for women, media literacy as well as protection against illegal or harmful speech.

In this risk area, North Macedonia again scored best with 58 per cent, followed by Croatia with 61 per cent, the only two countries marked with a medium risk factor.

Serbia scored 67 per cent, Slovenia 70 per cent, Albania 72 per cent and Montenegro scored worst, with 73 per cent.

Illustration: Pixabay

General stagnation or decline

Starting with Slovenia, the report noted that all monitored areas showed a slight or significant deterioration compared to the findings of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2020.

“Unlike many other EU countries, Slovenia and its government did not enable or promote any financial, fiscal, or tax instrument, strategy, or other potential intervention aimed at strengthening media plurality or, for example, social inclusiveness” during the pandemic of 2020, the report noted.

For Croatia, another EU country, the report noted that the regulation of the media sector has been stagnant for years, which has resulted in the deterioration of media pluralism.

The report said that, “there is no overarching media strategy, or initiative, to tackle specifically local issues such as poor protection of the journalistic profession and standards. The country has seen a surge of SLAPPs and defamation charges aimed at journalists”, adding: “Political interference without considerations of public interests is seen in many appointment procedures: from the public service media to the main media regulator.”

On Albania, the report noted that the country is weakest in terms of market pluralism, where it “faces a high level of news media concentration in its audio visual media market, while the viability of most outlets – apart from a number of family owned conglomerates that control the lion share of revenues and audiences, is weak”.

In the area of fundamental protection, Albania should do more to increase professional and journalistic standards, the report said, in order to avoid the threat of government intervention to regulate online media content, as proposed by the current ruling Socialist Party.

As for Montenegro, the report said the country’s legal framework is suitable for the development of media pluralism, but more in a quantitative than in a qualitative sense.

While the process of establishing media, especially online, is extremely free, there is no effort to boost professional or ethical standards. In addition, efforts to create and implement rules for digital news media that limit political influence have generally been sporadic, insufficient, and ineffective, the report said.

“Existing legal solutions allow political power to control the public broadcaster and the other media at the national and local levels, the report further states, especially through their dependency on public financing” the report also noted.

The report also said that the establishment of the state-level Fund for Encouraging Media Pluralism and Diversity is an innovation that may yet prove its worth, provided that strong control over the distribution of resources is established.

When it comes to Serbia, the general conclusion is that while the country has a solid legal framework covering traditional media, full enforcement of this is missing.

Some highlighted points are political and state advertising in media, lack of transparent media ownership and the lack of protection for media workers and instances of attacks on journalists that remain unsanctioned.

“During the 2020 election campaign, the so-called functionary campaign turned out to be the weakest element in media regulation, so this issue should be arranged by the Law. The area of political advertising and reporting on spending on online platforms campaigns should be regulated by the Law as well. Political advertisement should be equally accessible to all political players, under the same conditions,” the report said.

Of the six countries from the region, North Macedonia had the highest overall score. The report notes that the situation in 2020 “significantly improved” compared to 2016, the last year of the former authoritarian PM Nikola Gruevski who was ousted in 2017.

The report notes that media freedoms are broader, journalists and their associations are no longer exposed to serious physical attacks and pressures, and the regulator is fairly independent and more efficient.

However, risks remain present: “The market is fragmented, most media are economically weak, and the working status of journalists is still unstable,” the report noted.

In general, for all countries, the report points out that for most of the countries’ populations, especially the young, online media have become their main source of information, and with this comes their increased exposure to disinformation and hate speech.

This creates a new challenge for all these countries’ regulatory policies, the report concludes.

The Media Pluralism Monitor 2021 was published as a research tool designed to identify potential risks to media pluralism in member states of the European Union and candidate countries.

The project, under a preparatory action of the European Parliament, was supported by a grant awarded by the European Commission to the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European University Institute.

Freedom of Information in Balkans: ‘No Will, No Optimism’

Posted on July 15, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

The region needs more proactive transparency, open contracting and political will to deal with freedom of information, FOI, speakers from the region and internationally told BIRN’s conference Platform B: Freedom of Information in the Balkans, held on Thursday.

Countries are still struggling with the slow implementation of FOI laws, political pressures and institutions’ unresponsiveness, while the first year of the global pandemic also saw excessive delays in responding to FOI requests, speakers at the event, at which BIRN’s annual freedom of information report was officially launched, agreed.

Ivana Jeremic, editor at Balkan Insight from Serbia, told the conference that 2020 was “extremely hard” in terms of getting any information from institutions in Serbia, making it difficult for journalists to do their job.

“I don’t know what to expect in future, but the trend is not optimistic, there is no will from institutions to implement our law, which is actually among the best laws in the world, but on paper.

Besides, people who are in charge [of FOI requests] at institutions are not educated enough on how to respond to those requests and there is also lots of pressure on them about which information should be made public and which not,” Jeremic said.

Kreshnik Gashi, managing editor of KALLXO.com and Author of the TV show Justice in Kosovo, told the conference that journalists and the general public face many problems when it comes to freedom of information in Kosovo.

“The law on the classification of official documents in Kosovo is not implemented by all institutions and as a result we have problems when documents are requested by various parties. One of the problems is whether or not the official is allowed to provide the document to the journalist or the party, as it is not clear whether that document is public or not,” he said.

“In consequence, all the required documents have to go through this process always, because there is no clarity on what is confidential and what isn’t”, he added.

However, there are signs that things might be changing for the better.

“I should mention as a very good model and practice that Kosovo has decided to open all contracts in public procurement, an action that has helped our work a lot and makes monitoring and reporting on public contracts management possible,” Gashi said.

Sandra Pernar, Senior Regional Coordinator – Europe, at Open Government Partnership, OGP, told the discussion that there are many similarities between the regional countries that are part of the initiative – implementation being one of them.

“In general for the region, I can say that the conclusion is very much the same as the one many [speakers] said several times today, and that is: there is not so much of a problem with bad regulation, it is really about the implementation. This is something that should be addressed,” Pernar said, adding that the region should pay more attention to proactive transparency, “which is obviously not there yet”.

The report’s findings were further discussed with other BIRN journalists, civil society members and public institutions’ representatives, which was followed by a Q&A session.

The report, Freedom of Information in the Western Balkans in 2020: Classified. Rejected. Delayed, which covers 2020, is part of BIRN’s ongoing project, A Paper Trail to Better Governance, with the main aim of exposing wrongdoing in government and public and private companies and among powerful individuals through country-based and cross-border investigations.

Besides analysing a total of 358 FOI requests submitted by BIRN journalists, the report also examines legislation, governments’ partnerships and progress in international organisations in dealing with transparency and open data, the work of regional public information officers as well as regional governments’ treatment of freedom of information during the pandemic.

The report in Albanian.

The report in BCHS.

The report in Macedonian.

Southeast Europe Civil Society Must Cooperate to Combat Digital Violations

Posted on July 2, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Digital rights violations have been rising across Southeastern Europe since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic with a similar pattern – pro-government trolls and media threatening freedom of expression and attacking journalists who report such violations.

“Working together is the only way to raise awareness of citizens’ digital rights and hold public officials accountable,” civil society representatives attending BIRN and Share Foundation’s online event on Thursday agreed.

The event took place after the release of BIRN and SHARE Foundation’s report, Digital Rights Falter amid Political and Social Unrest, published the same day.

“We need to build an alliance of coalitions to raise awareness on digital rights and the accountability of politicians,” said Blerjana Bino, from SCiDEV, an Albanian-based NGO, closely following this issue.

When it comes to prevention and the possibilities of improving digital competencies in order to reduce risks about personal data and security, speakers agreed that digital and informational literacy is important – but the blame should not be only put on users.

The responsibility of tech giants and relevant state institutions to investigate such cases must be kept in mind, not just regular cases but also those that are more complicated, the panel concluded.

Uros Misljenovic, from Partners Serbia, sees a major part of the problem in the lack of response from the authorities.

“We haven’t had one major case reaching an epilogue in court. Not a single criminal charge was brought by the public prosecutor either. Basically, the police and prosecutors are not interested in prosecuting these crimes,” he said. “So, if you violate these rights, you will face no consequences,” he concluded.

The report was presented and discussed at an online panel discussion with policymakers, journalists and civil society members around digital rights in Southeast Europe.

It was the first in a series of events as part of Platform B – a platform that aims to amplify the voices of strong and credible individuals and organisations in the region that promote the core values of democracy, such as civic engagement, independent institutions, transparency and rule of law.

Between August 2019 and December 2020, BIRN and the SHARE Foundation verified more than 800 violations of digital rights, including attempts to prevent valid freedom of speech (trolling of media and the public engaged in fair reporting and comment, for example) and at the other end of the scale, efforts to overwhelm users with false information and racist/discriminatory content – usually for financial or political gain.

The lack of awareness of digital rights violations within society has further undermined democracy, not only in times of crisis, the report reads, and identifiers common trends, such as:

Democratic elections being undermined
Public service websites being hacked
Provocation and exploitation of social unrest
Conspiracy theories and fake news
Online hatred, leaving vulnerable people more isolated
Tech shortcuts failing to solve complex societal problems.

The report, Digital Rights Falter amid Political and Social Unrest, can be downloaded here.

Western Balkans Roaming Charges End – With Internet Use Warning

Posted on July 1, 2021January 26, 2023 by Ivana Jeremic

Starting from Thursday, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo are dropping all roaming charges.

This means that citizens of these countries can make phone calls and send messages across the Western Balkan region without restrictions, paying the same prices as if they are in their home country.

However, the scrapping of roaming fees comes with a caveat, a warning for travelling citizens not to get too comfortable with their internet usage while abroad as there still might be some restrictions applied depending on their provider.

“Users are advised to always check their internet plans with their telecom providers, before travelling,” North Macedonia’s Agency for Electronic Telecommunications, AEK, said.

When it comes to internet traffic, in practice this means that some restrictions might apply, meaning that with some plans users might not be able to use all of their internet traffic from their home plan while abroad, the AEK explained,

Serbia’s Telenor provider explained that the use of the internet abroad will depend on the plan the users have.

“The amount [of internet traffic] depends on the monthly subscription for the tariff plan that users have, so there is no single unified amount, but it varies depending on the plan,” Telenor told N1 media outlet Thursday.

To prevent possible misuse of potentially lower prices in neighbouring countries, authorities across the region also said that while users can buy SIM cards in the neighbourhood, they will be able to use them only four months before they expire.

Roaming charges in the Western Balkan region were abolished in accordance with the Regional Roaming Agreement signed in 2019 at the second Western Balkans Digital Summit in Belgrade.

Countries from the region signalled that the next step would be mulling ways to reduce roaming charges between Western Balkans and the EU. For that purpose, a draft is expected to be prepared by the end of this year.