Hate speech, spinning and fake news are increasingly present in the media in Kosovo and the region, guests of the talk show “Sporazum” agreed, including Jelena Petkovic from the Association of Journalists of Serbia Management Board, Besa Luci, editor of Kosovo 2.0 portal and Tanja Vujisic, Radio Belgrade correspondent from Kosovo, RTV KIM reports.
There is no good mechanism that could stop hate speech which is lately increasingly present in some media, Jelena Petkovic noted and recalled that lately more often news announcing war in Kosovo, among other things, can be seen on the front pages.
“When it comes to the laws, our laws are not bad, but the thing is they are not being implemented. Therefore, it is about a person bypassing and misusing some shortcomings in the law. The responsibility of each individual should be a signature under the article, the responsibility of the journalists, in case the editor changes the text, should be to say – I do not want my name to be signed under this article,” Petkovic added.
Kosovo 2.0 portal editor, Besa Luci claims that in Kosovo media “there is no classic hate speech, that would include the use of derogatory terms.”
“I think we have much more things in common, than the ones that divide us. However, the media reporting usually covers the topics aiming to divide us, topics that include emotions. If we would have more media dealing with civic issues and real life, we could have avoided easier the topics that divide us,” Luci added.
Participants in the show also warned, that in addition to the hate speech, lately a trend of spreading fake news and spins is getting stronger.
“I definitely think the visit of President Thaci to Gazivode lake was a spin. That information came as something unexpected, because previously entire attention was directed towards protest of the opposition, and with his visit that attention got divided. I think that tactic was used, and spin is openly being used in Kosovo,” Luci noted.
“In general, I can talk about entire Balkans, because I know the situation here and the media as well. The spinning exists from the lowest officials of some political party all the way to the party leadership. Spin for some politicians became a legitimate tool in their struggle for power,” Tanja Vujisic said.
They also warned that today one can rarely hear different opinions and criticism in the media, and it is often difficult to find an interlocutor who would publicly say his/her stance.
NGO Aktiv research was also presented during the show. The research indicated that citizens in the north of Kosovo create their political stances based on the information they receive from the media, and that the highest percentage of respondents said they trust the most Belgrade-based media.
