SARAJEVO, 08.12.2020. – False information during the COVID-19 pandemic and parallel infodemic has revealed itself to be persistent, resilient, strategic, and adaptive. Over these many months, certain topics have resurfaced under the guise of current events. At EU DisinfoLab, they have been tracking how misogynistic narratives have been retrieved and adapted to fit within the mis- and disinformation landscape around COVID-19 – an event which has had a disproportionately negative impact on women’s rights. The report adopts a disinformation methodological lens to look at examples of gendered disinformation – specifically disinformation that relies on negative depictions of women – circulating during the pandemic.
Some of the main takeaways from the analysis are that COVID-19 has confirmed the tendency of disinformation to adapt to the surrounding context and this stickiness applies to gendered disinformation in a transversal manner that affects various countries. Also, misogynistic narratives tend to produce either a negative representation of women as enemies and opponents in public debate or a pitiful depiction of women as victims, often in order to push a social or political agenda, and character-related disinformation has been leveraged systemically to undermine women’s political commitments.
As COVID-19 has created economic hardships that call for emergency financial measures, disinformation has sought to present female politicians as incapable of prioritising relevant policies and thus unfit for decision-making. The research also showed that misogynistic disinformation is often combined with different audience-dividing topics in order to polarise public opinion.
The most important recommendations of the authors of the analysis are to acknowledge the phenomenon of gendered disinformation, maintain gender as a lens when analysing disinformation, address less visible agendas beneath gendered disinformation and challenge the double standard underlying gendered disinformation. Disinformation plays on beliefs present in society, and so addressing this kind of disinformation also requires a social approach. It remains necessary to address the root causes of misogyny in addition to its echos in the information landscape.
PRISTINA, 08.12.2020 – The Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, supported by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, yesterday on December 7th held the workshop “Hate speech and hate crimes in the media during reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The main speakers included Dren Gërguri (lecturer in the Department of Journalism at UP), Jehona Zhitia (journalist at Radio Television of Kosovo), Arbreshë Uka (journalist at Klan Kosova) and Ibelinda Halili (psychologist). The other participants were journalists from various media, as well as students of the Department of Journalism at the University of Pristina.
The spread of hate speech in the media when reporting on the COVID 19 pandemic, journalistic reporting of hate speech, and the impact of hate speech on the mental state of journalists and ways to deal with it, has been discussed on this workshop.
Due to the epidemiological situation, the workshop was held online on the “Zoom” platform.
The Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) condemns the inappropriate public communication with elements of hatred of the current MP and leader of the political party “Left,” Dimitar Apasiev to the journalist Gabriela Dimkovic – Mishevska from the online media “A1on”.
MP Apasiev on his Facebook page publicly labels and disparages colleague Dimkovic because of her previous articles regarding the amendments to the law on financing of political parties.
Through this inappropriate communication, apart from the attempt to publicly discriminate against the journalist Dimkovic, her editor Meri Jordanovska and the media in which they work, MP Apasiev publicly provoked other people to share abusive words threats against colleagues and this media. The fact that these threats, as well as the speech with elements of hatred, remain in response to the previous announcement of the MP Apasiev, they can incite additional hatred but also violence against journalists.
According to the Criminal Code, we emphasize that anyone who promotes or incites hatred, discrimination, or violence in public against any person or group is a crime and will be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years. AJM will report this incident to the Sector for Computer Crime and Digital Forensics and will request additional measures to be taken by the Ministry of Interior in this case.
This is not the first time MP Apasiev has publicly confronted journalists and media outlets that he does not like how they are reporting. As a reminder, last month, AJM filed a complaint about a violation of the Code of Ethics of MPs to the Parliament of the RSM due to the public humiliation of MP Apasiev to the journalist Bobi Hristov from Telma TV.
SARAJEVO, December 4, 2020 – Civil society organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina have limited knowledge and capacity to advocate for and promote media literacy, as well as to educate citizens on how to recognize manipulation through information, political censorship and fake news. This is the result of a research conducted on the level of media literacy and the capacity of civil society to advocate for media freedoms in BiH, which was presented today in Sarajevo through the Zoom platform and with the participation of 28 civil society activists, journalists and representatives of media and international organizations. The main researcher, Borislav Vukojević, MA, said that the research included a total of 48 organizations from all over BiH that primarily deal with civic activism, democracy, human rights and social issues.
More than half of the employees in the NGO went through media literacy trainings, which is an encouraging result, says Vukojević.
– When asked what they consider to be the biggest obstacle to improving media literacy within the organization, the most common answer was lack of time and funds. It often happens that the value of media literacy is neglected and funds are, of course, a precondition for this training to be of high quality and to work systematically. When it comes to encouraging employees to use digital technologies, over 93 percent of organizations encourage their employees in this regard. Also, from the point of view of the organizations themselves, two thirds of their employees should have more training in media literacy, and only 16.7 percent of them are not adequately trained – said Vukojević.
Most of the organizations that participated in the research inform their users about the dangers of fake news. Almost half of them reacted to the violation of media freedoms, while almost 21 percent of them did not, but with the intention of doing so in the future. Eight out of ten organizations are familiar with the situation of media freedoms in the country and the region, the research showed.
NGO employees most often follow web portals and television. Most of them believe that fake news is most often hidden by manipulating sources and hiding identities, and more than 95 percent of respondents believe that it is possible to detect censorship and self-censorship in the media they follow. More than 77 percent of respondents believe that political propaganda is present in these media.
The connection between civil society organizations and the media community and their willingness to cooperate in joint activities, which was shown through this research also, is especially encouraging, said Borka Rudić, Secretary General of BH Journalists.
Lea Čengić from CRA says that it is indisputable that NGOs currently have the greatest importance in BiH when it comes to the development of media literacy.
– Earlier, there were maybe a dozen large NGOs in BiH that were primarily engaged in media education and work with young people and had really quality projects. However, the situation has changed a lot now and in BiH today we have a large number of organizations that work on media literacy projects for different target groups and that is very important – Čengić emphasized.
She added that the media outlets in BiH did very little to promote media literacy, which is a commitment to the media in many countries around the world.
Denis Telić from the Resource Center for BH civil society in EU integration says that everyone in civil society organizations is aware that lack of time and lack of resources are the main problems when it comes to improving media literacy.
– That can’t be an excuse for us. We must be maximally involved and find time and funds for this very important issue – Telić emphasized.
Participants in the discussion concluded that it is necessary to create a long-term strategy aimed at the systematic implementation and development of media literacy in all segments of society, as well as the development of the capacity of civil society organizations in this regard.
This research is part of the project “Free Media, Free Society”, implemented by the BH Journalists in cooperation with the Association of Electronic Media in BiH (AEM BiH), with the financial support of the European Union and with the aim of strengthening independent and free journalism in local communities, as well as the application of European standards of freedom of expression and access of citizens to quality and objective information.
PODGORICA, 04.12.2020. – Lists of persons who were issued a decision on mandatory self-isolation for a period of 14 days were published on the Government’s website on March 21. The lists contained the names and surnames of the citizens and the address of residence. “Let everyone know which of the neighbors and fellow citizens is putting them in danger,” it was stated, among other things, in the Twitter announcement of the Government, announcing that they will start publishing the names of those who violate self-isolation measures. The first list contained 1.022 names.
An angry and threatening tone was accompanied by the announcement of the Government that they have the consent of the Agency for Personal Data Protection and free access to information for this act.
Even before this decision, Vijesti wrote about how the list of persons in self-isolation with social security numbers circulated on social networks and the Internet by means of communication. The Government admitted that a large number of citizens are in possession of the list with personal identification numbers, and that they published screenshots from it on social networks, but that they are not to blame for the “mistake”. They called on the institutions to react and investigate the case.
Two days after the disputed decision of the Government, on March 23, the Civic Alliance submitted to the Constitutional Court an initiative to assess the constitutionality and legality of the Government’s decision to disclose the names of persons in isolation.
foto: gov.me/S. Matić
To the numerous negative reactions of non-governmental organizations and individuals, Prime Minister Dusko Markovic responds that they assessed that “the right to health and life is above the right to unconditional protection of personal data.” Sharing the Prime Minister’s opinion in Pobjeda, on March 24, a list of over a thousand names and surnames of persons in self-isolation is printed on four pages, with their addresses and house numbers, all neatly sorted by municipalities.
The initiative is also taken by zealous individuals accustomed to new technologies, so the same week when the Government and the National Coordination Body (NKT) published their list, a website was created on which the author, using this information, “helps” citizens see how far they are from those in self-isolation.
“The goal of this application is prevention and insight into the new epidemic. The distance is not 100 percent accurate and depends on your device and on the addresses that we take from the Government’s website,” it is written on the page, whose internet address was registered on March 22, the day after the Government made the decision to publish the lists. The page, as well as the public lists of the Government, contains names and surnames, addresses and dates when these persons were ordered the self-isolation measures”, Vijesti wrote at the end of March.
In July, the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, Sinisa Bjekovic, requested a detailed investigation from the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) in the case of the web page crnagorakorona.com/home in order to prevent unjustified interference with the personal data of individuals.
It is interesting that the Government came up with the same idea: “The line ministry of Suzana Pribilovic asked the AZLP Council for an opinion on whether there are obstacles to using citizens’ data name and surname, address of self-isolation, date of self-isolation, phone number, email address, which would be processed on servers outside Montenegro in one of the EU member states”,Vijesti learned in October with explaination from the Government that it was only an idea “which was considered in the first wave of coronavirus, and which was abandoned”.
Encouraging from the government to publicly designate neighbors and the “irresponsible” has had effects for some media, so Dnevne novine, on March 28, published an article informing the public that “Marina Medojevic, the wife of one of the DF leaders Nebojsa Medojevic and the president of the NGO The food bank violates the orderd of the Government of Montenegro and, not only leaves her apartment, but also gives statements to the media, although she should be in self-isolation in the period from March 17 to 31.” They explained that this information was reported to Dnevne novine by readers: “and as proof of accuracy, it is possible to see the report on poverty in Montenegro on the TV Vijesti, which was broadcast on March 19.”
At the beginning of April, Pobjeda reported as scandalous the information that a list with data from more than 60 people who had the coronavirus was forwarded to many telephone numbers. “According to the first findings, the list did not leak from the security services, nor was the communication system hacked,” Pobjeda writes, explaining that the government strongly condemned this act.
At the beginning of May, the NKT and the Government abruptly stopped publishing the list of patients. Precise data on how many people were on the list from March 21, when the Government published the first names, until May 7, when it withdrew it from the official website, do not exist. The list is updated on a daily basis. And according to the data of the Health and Sanitary Inspection, only in the period from March 15 to April 24, more than 10,000 people were issued a decision on mandatory self-isolation or quarantine.
On July 23, the Constitutional Court ruled positively on the initiative of the civil sector and issued a decision officially revoking the decision to publish lists of persons in self-isolation. The Constitutional Court initiated the procedure for assessing the constitutionality of the NKT decision, at the initiative of the NGO Civic Alliance, at its session on May 29. The Judge Rapporteur is of the opinion that the publication of personal data on persons in self-isolation has created a precondition for their stigmatization, as well as that their data can be used by an unlimited number of citizens. It could also deter those who needed medical help from seeking help.
Even after the decision of the Constitutional Court, various media coverage continues. Thus, Pobjeda integrally conveys the explanation of the President of the Council of the Agency for Personal Data Protection, Sreten Radonjic, in which he claims that the NKT’s request to publish the names of people in self-isolation is not contrary to the Law on Personal Data Protection, and that the positive opinion was based on provisions of international law and domestic legislation, while Dan writes that Radonjic opposes the Constitutional Court.
Dan wrote at the end of August that even after a month they did not receive answers from the Government on how many names they published, and whether they will sanction those who proposed and adopted the decision to publish lists, what sanctions can be expected for violating the Constitution, and who will be sanctioned?
The scandal on the publication of the lists will have an epilogue in court. Due to the publication of the list of persons who were ordered to self-isolate and part of the list of those infected with the coronavirus, about 250 victims announced a lawsuit against the Government and the state.
* This article is published within the program Union to Union 2020, financed by International federation of journalists.
SARAJEVO, December 2, 2020 – The decision of the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office not to investigate the attack of Huso Cesir, the current president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Novi Grad and his son Muamer on the photographer of Žurnal Adi Kebo, is another “slap” to journalists and other media workers who tried to seek justice before the judicial institutions of BiH.
The fact that despite the video of the attack on Kebo that happened on March 28, 2019, when he photographed the building of the company “Bosnaplast” from a public area as part of an editorial assignment, from which father and son Cesir ran out and attacked Kebo, there is no order to conduct an investigation, shows that media employees cannot, unfortunately, receive satisfaction for the attacks suffered during their work in the form of an investigation, let alone expect an epilogue in the form of a court verdict.
When asked by Fokus how the OSCE Mission to BiH comments on the fact that the KS Prosecutor’s Office decided not to investigate this case and if this is another discouraging message for media workers in BiH that they can be attacked with impunity in this country, OSCE reminded how important it is to investigate all threats and attacks.
– The authorities must quickly and efficiently investigate all threats and attacks on journalists, especially if there is any suspicion of involvement of a public official. As the Mission emphasized in a recent joint statement with the ambassadors of Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, journalists play a key role in preserving the integrity of a democratic society, the rule of law and creating conditions for a secure and prosperous society. They must be free to do their job without fear of retaliation. At the same time, politicians and other public officials are obliged to be an example of respect and ethical behavior and must be held accountable for their actions – stated the OSCE Mission to BiH.
The OSCE also added they are monitoring developments in connection with the attack on Adi Kebo, as well as criminal proceedings involving attacks on the media.
– Unfortunately, it turned out that BiH institutions are either not capable or do not want to protect the critical space in which journalists operate. In recent years, journalists in BiH have been exposed to increasing political pressure, as well as regular threats and violence. The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina stands by journalists and media professionals, takes all attacks on journalists seriously and condemns the continuing attacks and undue pressure on the media in BiH. The Mission continues to call on all levels of government in BiH to create an environment conducive to freedom of the media and freedom of expression. The Mission continues to monitor criminal proceedings involving attacks on the media, including developments related to the incident – the OSCE Mission to BiH concluded.
PRSITINA, 01.12.2020 – The Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, considers completely unacceptable the offensive language and threats from the member of the Democratic League of Kosovo – LDK, Melihate Tërmkolli, towards the journalist of Television 7, Arsim Lani.
Tërmkolli yesterday through an electronic message sent after the show ‘Frontal’ led by Lani, called him “junk” and “impudent”, because as the journalist told AJK, she had not been notified in advance for the other guest in the studio. In addition to the insults, she also threatened the journalist, saying that “he will pay for the effort and the cold she got to go there” that, according to her, Lani caused.
AJK finds it concerning that journalists are still victims of such insults by political officials. Such denigrating language used by Termkolli is completely unacceptable and violates the freedom of expression and the media.
AJK calls on political officials to recognize the role of journalists in a democratic society and to refrain from insulting them.
PODGORICA, 01.12.2020. – The training “Protection of Journalists – Council of Europe Standards, Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights and the European practices”, organized by the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM) and the Council of Europe Program Office in Montenegro, was held on November 26 and 27 in Podgorica.
The training gathered about 15 participants, predominantly members of the Commission for Monitoring Investigations of Attacks on Journalists and Journalists Dealing with the Safety of Media Employees.
The local expert, lawyer Dalibor Tomovic, presented to the participants the legislative framework in the field of protection of journalistic sources, while the consultant of the Council of Europe, Jonathan Price, spoke about the standards of the Council of Europe in the field of protection of journalists. In addition to the case study, Tomovic also showed examples of the (in) efficiency of investigations into attacks on journalists and / or the media.
Jonathan Price pointed to the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights, while Council of Europe consultant Mark Gruber presented significant experiences of European countries in the field of professional risks and protection of journalists.
There was a special interest of the participants in the standards regarding the restriction of the protection of journalistic sources, experiences regarding the detention of journalists for false news, and the experts especially emphasized the vulnerability of female journalists when it comes to online harassment.
This training is the first in a series conducted by the TUMM, in cooperation with the Program Office of the Council of Europe in Montenegro, within the JUFREX 2 program.
PODGORICA, 30.11. 2020 – The Trade Union of Media of Montenegro (TUMM) has published, for the fifth time in a row, the research Indicators on the level of media freedom and journalists’ safety for 2019. Identical research was done during 2019 in Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia, but due to problems caused by the corona virus, its presentation was postponed. The authors of the research are Marijana Camovic Velickovic and Bojana Lakovic Konatar, within the regional project Safejournalist.net, which was financed by the European Endowment for Democracy.
Recommendations relates to the necessity of adopting media laws have emerged from the three units covered by the research – the legislative framework, working conditions in newsrooms and the safety of journalists, so that the proposals and suggestions of TUMM, media associations and non-governmental organizations are taken into account as much as possible. It would ensure the strengthening of journalistic independence within newsrooms and thus try to influence the reduction of censorship and self-censorship, the strengthening of journalistic and financial independence of public services, especially local ones, and the increase of transparency of advertising from public funds.
“It is necessary to clearly legally oblige all media to register before the competent authorities. The state should abandon the proposed amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information in order not to further complicate the work of journalists in the public interest. The announced state assistance to private media through the Media Pluralism Fund should be based on clear and measurable criteria and should be conditioned by the fact that part of that assistance is felt by media employees through improving their economic position because they will be the ones to produce media content for which their media will receive money from this Fund ”, is part of the recommendations from the research that you can read and download here.
The necessity of the fight against censorship and self-censorship was emphasized, which should be the obligation of every journalist, as far as possible, because these phenomena have a very bad effect on the position of journalists and the overall media environment. Therefore, as stated, it is necessary to formally separate newsrooms from marketing services in the media and fight against the strong influence of large advertisers and owners.
“Due to the failure to resolve cases of attacks on journalists, it is necessary to finally determine the individual responsibility of police officers and prosecutors who were involved in the investigations. Cases in which some progress has been made must be fully processed. It is especially necessary to determine the perpetrators and motives of the attack. Journalists’ associations (trade unions and associations) should insist on all these proposals, because only in that way media environment in Montenegro can be improved. Even if all these proposals are adopted, the implementation will be a great challenge, so it cannot be a guarantee that the situation will really improve,” the research states.
The authors made a cross-section of the situation in areas related to the media and in addition to media and related laws that affect the environment and freedom of work of journalists, they published several testimonies of colleagues from newsrooms, who were their interlocutors within focus groups.
“The position of employed journalists did not change significantly in 2019 either, and they face the same problems as before: they easily lose their jobs, work during the holidays and overtime, and they are not paid for it, they are censored and prone to self-censorship. Those who dare to write articles about the main advertisers are punished and fired, which further increases self-censorship, and some journalists openly testify about that. There are no special rules for work in private / commercial media, while in the Public Service there are rules but they are not respected, ie. journalists were not able to work without pressure and censorship, which is confirmed by several cases that have been publicly exposed, “the research states.
There is a limited amount of data and research relating to women in journalism and their position. It can be concluded from them that women are discriminated against in the media on several grounds, although their number in leading positions has increased. Female journalists claim that they are not paid as much as their male colleagues in the same positions, that they are discriminated against because of motherhood and that it is difficult for them to return to the position they were in before their absence due to childbirth, and there are cases of sexual harassment.
When it comes to security, the statistics of the Police Administration show an increase in the number of cases of attacks on journalists, and according to those data, there were 11 of them in 2019, and a few years before that number was in single digits. Although there were no serious attacks on journalists and media property, there were threats via social networks but also physical attacks. Previous cases of attacks remain unresolved and attempts by police and prosecutors to change something are not effective enough and are not yielding results.
Encouraging from the government to publicly designate neighbors and the “irresponsible” has had effects for some media, so Dnevne novine, on March 28, published an article informing the public that “Marina Medojevic, the wife of one of the DF leaders Nebojsa Medojevic and the president of the NGO The food bank violates the orderd of the Government of Montenegro and, not only leaves her apartment, but also gives statements to the media, although she should be in self-isolation in the period from March 17 to 31.” They explained that this information was reported to Dnevne novine by readers: “and as proof of accuracy, it is possible to see the report on poverty in Montenegro on the TV Vijesti, which was broadcast on March 19.”
