Role of Serb media in the 1991-1999 wars in the former Yugoslavia
Encyclopedia
During the Yugoslav Wars
propaganda
was used as a military strategy
by governments of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia
and Montenegro
) and, to a lesser extent, Croatia
. Mostly it was used in the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina
. However, propaganda was used in Croatian war and Kosovo war
as well.
indictments of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević
, one of his contributions to the joint criminal enterprise
to ethnic cleansing of Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
was use of the Serbian state-run media
to create an atmosphere of fear and hatred among Yugoslavia's Orthodox
Serbs
by spreading "exaggerated and false messages of ethnically based attacks by Bosnian Muslims and Catholic
Croats
against Serb people..."
, a process which was complete by summer of 1991. In 1992 Radio Television Belgrade, together with Radio Television Novi Sad (RTNS) and Radio Television Pristina (RTP) became a part of Radio Television of Serbia
, centralized and closely governed network aimed to be a loudspeaker for Miloševic and his policy. During the 1990s, Dnevnik (Daily news) was used to glorify "wise politics of Slobodan Milošević" and to attack "servants of Western powers, forces of chaos and despair", i.e., Serbian opposition
.
According to the witness called by the ICTY's Office of the Prosecutor, Professor Renaud De la Brosse, Senior Lecturer at the University of Reims, Serbian authorities used media as a weapon in their military campaign. "In Serbia specifically, the use of media for nationalist ends and objectives formed part of a well thought through plan - itself part of a strategy of conquest and affirmation of identity." According to de la Bosse, nationalist ideology defined the Serbs partly according to a historical myth, based on the defeat of Serbia by the Ottoman
forces at the battle of Kosovo
in 1389 and partly on the genocide
suffered by Serbs during the Second World War at the hands of the Independent State of Croatia
. Croatian will for independence fed the flames of fear, especially in Serb majority regions of Croatia. According to de la Bosse, the new Serbian identity became one in opposition to the "other" - Croats (collapsed into Ustashe) and Muslims (collapsed into Turks). Even Croatian democracy was dismissed since ‘Hitler came to power in Germany within the framework of a multi-party mechanism but subsequently became a great dictator, aggressor and criminal’
While Milošević, until the run up to the Kosovo war
, allowed independent print media to publish, their distribution was limited. His methods of controlling the media included creating shortages of paper, interfering with or stopping supplies and equipment, confiscating newspapers for being printed without proper licenses, etc.. For publicly owned media, he could dismiss, promote, demote or have journalists publicly condemned. In 1998, he adopted a media law which created a special misdemeanor court to try violations. It had the ability to impose heavy fines and to confiscate property if they were not immediately paid.
According to the report by de la Brosse, Milosevic-controlled media reached more than 3.5 million people every day. Given that and the lack of access to alternative news, de la Brosse states that it is surprising how great the resistance to Milosevic's propaganda was among Serbs - evidenced not only in massive demonstrations in Serbia in 1991 and 1996-97 both of which almost toppled the regime, but also widespread draft resistance and desertion from the military.
De la Brosse describes how RTS (Radio Television of Serbia
) portrayed events in Dubrovnik
and Sarajevo
: "The images shown of Dubrovnik came with a commentary accusing those from the West who had taken the film of manipulation and of having had a tire burnt in front of their cameras to make it seem that the city was on fire. As for the shells fired at Sarajevo and the damage caused, for several months it was simply as if it had never happened in the eyes of Serbian television viewers because Belgrade television would show pictures of the city taken months and even years beforehand to deny that it had ever occurred." The Serbian public was fed similar disinformation about Vukovar, according to former Reuters correspondent Daniel Deluce, "Serbian Radio Television created a strange universe in which Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, had never been besieged and in which the devastated Croatian town of Vukovar
had been 'liberated'."
ICTY sentencing judgement for Milan Babić
which has been first president of Republic of Serbian Krajina, a self-proclaimed Serbian dominated entity within Croatia will declare:
"Babic made ethnically based inflammatory speeches during public events and in the media that added to the atmosphere of fear and hatred amongst Serbs living in Croatia and convinced them that they could only be safe in a state of their own. Babic stated that during the events, and in particular at the beginning of his political career, he was strongly influenced and misled by Serbian propaganda, which repeatedly referred to an imminent threat of genocide by the Croatian regime against the Serbs in Croatia, thus creating an atmosphere of hatred and fear of the Croats. Ultimately this kind of propaganda led to the unleashing of violence against the Croat population and other non-Serbs."
Željko Kopanja
, editor of the independent newspaper Nezavisne Novine, was seriously hurt by a car bomb after publishing stories detailing atrocities committed by Serbs against Bosniaks during the Bosnian war. He believed the bomb was planted by Serbia's security services to stop him from further publishing stories. An FBI investigation supported his suspicions.
, Serbian newspaper "Večernje Novosti
" reported that about 40 Serb civilians were killed in Pakrac
on March 2, 1991 by the Croatia
n forces. The story was widely accepted by public and some ministers in Serbian government (e.g. Dragutin Zelenović). Attempts to confirm the report in other media from all 7 municipalities with the name Pakrac throughout the former Yugoslavia failed.
. Dr. Vesna Bosanac, the head of Vukovar
hospital from which the Croatian POW's and civilians were taken, said she believed the story of slaughtered babies was released intentionally to make Serb nationalists more angry thus inciting them to execute Croats
.
, JNA officers (namely Pavle Strugar
) made a concerted effort at misrepresenting the military situation on the ground and exaggerated the "threat" of an Croatia
n attack on Montenegro
by "30,000 armed Ustashas and 7000 terrorists, including Kurdish mercenaries". This propaganda was widely spread by the state-controlled media of Serbia and Montenegro.
Actually, Croatian military forces in the area at September were virtually non-existent. The defenders included just one locally conscripted unit, numbered less than 1,500 men and had no tank
s or heavy guns. Also, there were no mercenaries on the Croat side.
in 1991, while the Yugoslav army
shelled the Croatia
n port town, Radio Television of Serbia
showed Dubrovnik
with columns of smoke explaining that the local people burning automobile tire
s to simulate destruction of the city.
bombed Jewish cemetery
and Jewish Community Center
in Zagreb
in August 1991, Serbian media repeatedly made false accusations in which Croatia
was connected with World War II
, nazism
and anti-Judaism
with the aim to discredit the Croatian demands for independence in the West.
and Milan Martić
also frequently resorted to that alleged Tuđman quote in order to prove their innocence.
However, the ICTY prosecutors obtained the integral tape of his speech and played it in its entirety during Martić's trial on the 23 October 2006, proving that Tuđman never said that Croatia "wanted the war". Upon playing that tape, Borislav Đukić had to admit that Tuđman did not say that. The quote is actually the following: "Some individuals in the world who were not friends of Croatia claimed that we too were responsible for the war. And I replied to them: Yes, there would not have been a war had we given up our goal to create a sovereign and independent Croatia. We suggested that our goal should be achieved without war, and that the Yugoslav crisis should be resolved by transforming the federation, in which nobody was satisfied, particularly not the Croatian nation, into a union of sovereign countries in which Croatia would be sovereign, with its own army, own money, own diplomacy. They did not accept."
portrayed the Bosnian Muslims as violent extremists and fundamentalists. After series of massacres
of Bosniaks
, a few hundreds (between 300 and 1,500) of Arabic-speaking volunteers from the Middle East
and North Africa
, called Mujahideen
, came into Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Muslim brothers. Serb media fabricated much bigger numbers of mujahideens presenting them as terrorists a huge threat to Europe
, in order to inflame anti-Muslim hatred among Serbs. Although Serbian media created much controversy about alleged war crimes committed by them, no indictment was issued by ICTY against any of these foreign volunteers.
of Bosniak and Croat civilians, Serb propaganda characterising prominent non-Serbs as criminals and extremists who should be punished for their behaviour. Dr. Mirsad Mujadžić, Bosniak politician, was accused of injecting drugs into Serb women making them incapable of giving birth to male children, thus reducing the birth rate
among Serbs, and dr. Željko Sikora, a Croat, referred to as the Monster Doctor, was accused of making Serb women abort if they were pregnant with male children and of castrating the male babies of Serbian parents. Moreover, in a "Kozarski Vjesnik" article dated June 10, 1992, Dr. Osman Mahmuljin was accused of deliberately having provided incorrect medical care to his Serb colleague dr. Živko Dukić, who had a heart attack.
Mile Mutić, the director of Kozarski Vjesnik and the journalist
Rade Mutić regularly attended meetings of Serb politician
s (local authorities) in order to get informed about next steps of spreading propaganda.
were two artillery
attacks on civilian
s at the Markale marketplace
, committed by the Army of Republika Srpska
during the Siege of Sarajevo
. Encouraged by the initial UNPROFOR
report, Serbian media claimed that the Bosnian government had shelled its own civilians in order to drag the Western powers to intervene against the Serbs. However, in January 2003, the War Crime Tribunal concluded that the massacre was committed by Serb forces around Sarajevo. Although widely reported by the international media, the verdict was ignored in Serbia
itself.
, Serb propaganda was trying to justify the siege at any cost. As the result of that effort Serbian national television gave a report about Serb children being given as a food for lions in Sarajevo ZOO called Pionirska Dolina by Muslim extremists.
fascists", "Mujahedin fighters", "fundamentalist warriors of jihad
", and "Albania
n terrorists", became part of common usage. Unverified stories, presented as fact, were turned into common knowledge, for example, that Bosniaks were feeding Serb children to animals in the Sarajevo zoo. According to de la Brosse, the easier it was to fear other ethnic groups, the easier to justify their expulsion or killing.
Two members of the Federal Security Service (KOG) testified for the Prosecution in Milosevic's trial about their involvement in Milosevic's propaganda campaign. Slobodan Lazarevic revealed alleged KOG clandestine
activities designed to undermine the peace process, including mining a soccer field, a water tower and the reopened railway between Zagreb and Belgrade. These actions were blamed on Croats. Mustafa Candic, one of four assistant chiefs of KOG, described the use of technology to fabricate conversations, making it sound as if Croat authorities were telling Croats in Serbia to leave for an ethnically pure Croatia. The conversation was broadcast following a Serb attack on Croatians living in Serbia, forcing them to flee. He testified that the propaganda war was code named "Operation Opera, see Opera orientalis
which included bombing of a Jewish cemetery
and the Jewish Community Center in Zagreb
, Croatia
." He also testified to another instance of disinformation
involving a television broadcast of corpses, described as Serb civilians killed by Croats. Candic testified that he believed they were in fact the bodies of Croats killed by Serbs, though this statement has not been verified.
, head of the Serbian Radical Party
and an active player throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia. According to the indictment, Seselj bears individual criminal responsibility for instigating crimes, including murder, torture and forcible expulsion on ethnic grounds. It reads, "By using the word 'instigated', the Prosecution charges that the accused Vojislav Seselj's speeches, communications, acts and/or omissions contributed to the perpetrators' decision to commit the crimes alleged."
During the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
, building of Radio Television of Serbia
in Belgrade was targeted.
When Milošević's regime was finally overthrown in October 2000, RTS was a primary target of demonstrators. After attacking the Parliament, the demonstrators headed for the RTS building.
In Serbia, journalists are still being threatened and some were even killed. Mostly investigative journalists are targeted.
.Serbian state media were used by Milosevic as a war tool for inciting hatered and deceiving his people in order to get support needed to continue with the wars in the Balkans.
Croats
also used propaganda against Serbs throughout and against Bosniaks during the 1992-1994 Croat-Bosniak war
, which was part of the larger Bosnian War
. During Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
Croat forces seized the television broadcasting stations (for example at Skradno) and created its own local radio and television to carry propaganda, seized the public institutions, raised the Croatian flag over public institution buildings, and imposed the Croatian Dinar as the unit of currency. During this time, Busovača
's Bosniaks were forced to sign an act of allegiance to the Croat authorities, fell victim to numerous attacks on shops and businesses and, gradually, left the area out of fear that they would be the victims of mass crimes. According to ICTY Trial Chambers in Blaškić case Croat authorities created a radio station
in Kiseljak
to broadcast nationalist propaganda. A similar pattern was applied in Mostar
and Gornji Vakuf
(where Croats created a radio station called Radio Uskoplje). Local propaganda efforts in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Croats, were supported by Croatian daily newspapers such as Večernji list
and Croatian Radiotelevision
, especially by controversial reporters Dijana Čuljak
and Smiljko Šagolj who are still blamed by the families of Bosniak victims in Vranica case for inciting massacre of Bosnian POWs in Mostar, when broadcasting a report about alleged terrorists arrested by Croats who victimized Croat civilians. The bodies of Bosnian POWs were later found in Goranci mass grave. Croatian Radiotelevision presented Croat attack on Mostar, as a Bosnian Muslim attack on Croats in alliance with the Serbs. According to ICTY, in the early hours of May 9, 1993, the Croatian Defence Council
(HVO) attacked Mostar using artillery, mortars, heavy weapons and small arms. The HVO controlled all roads leading into Mostar and international organisations were denied access. Radio Mostar announced that all Bosniaks should hang out a white flag from their windows. The HVO attack had been well prepared and planned.
During the ICTY trials against Croat war leaders, many Croatian journalists participated as the defence witnesses trying to relativise war crimes committed by Croatian troops against non-Croat civilians (Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbs in Croatia). During the trial against general Tihomir Blaškić
(later convicted of war crimes), Ivica Mlivončić
, Croatian columnist in Slobodna Dalmacija
, tried to defend general Blaškić presenting number of claims in his book Zločin s pečatom about alleged genocide against Croats (most of it unproven or false), which was considered by the Trial Chambers as irrelevant for the case. After the conviction, he continued to write in Slobodna Dalmacija against the ICTY presenting it as the court against Croats, with chauvinistic claims that the ICTY cannot be unbiassed because it is financed by Saudi Arabia
(Muslims).
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
was used as a military strategy
Military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...
by governments of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia
Republic of Serbia (federal)
The Republic of Serbia was a federal unit of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1992 to 2003 and the state union of Serbia and Montenegro between 2003 and 2006...
and Montenegro
Republic of Montenegro (federal)
The Republic of Montenegro was a federal unit of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1992 and 2006...
) and, to a lesser extent, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. Mostly it was used in the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. However, propaganda was used in Croatian war and Kosovo war
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
as well.
Serbian propaganda
In the International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
indictments of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
, one of his contributions to the joint criminal enterprise
Joint Criminal Enterprise
Joint criminal enterprise ' is a legal doctrine used by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to prosecute political and military leaders for mass war crimes, including genocide, committed during the Yugoslav wars 1991-1999....
to ethnic cleansing of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
was use of the Serbian state-run media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
to create an atmosphere of fear and hatred among Yugoslavia's Orthodox
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
by spreading "exaggerated and false messages of ethnically based attacks by Bosnian Muslims and Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
against Serb people..."
Background
- Đorđe Martinović story published by Politika in May 1985
- Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsMemorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and ArtsThe Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was a draft document produced by a 14-member committee composed by members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1985 to 1986, presided by Kosta Mihailović...
published by Večernje Novosti in September 1986
Milošević's control of media in Serbia
Milošević began his efforts to gain control over the media in 1986-878th Session of the Serbian Communist Party
The 8th Session of the League of Communists of Serbia took place on 22 September 1987 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. This session proved to be a turning point in Serbian politics, as it marked the rise of Slobodan Milošević as a key force in Serbian politics....
, a process which was complete by summer of 1991. In 1992 Radio Television Belgrade, together with Radio Television Novi Sad (RTNS) and Radio Television Pristina (RTP) became a part of Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
, centralized and closely governed network aimed to be a loudspeaker for Miloševic and his policy. During the 1990s, Dnevnik (Daily news) was used to glorify "wise politics of Slobodan Milošević" and to attack "servants of Western powers, forces of chaos and despair", i.e., Serbian opposition
Opposition (politics)
In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government , party or group in political control of a city, region, state or country...
.
According to the witness called by the ICTY's Office of the Prosecutor, Professor Renaud De la Brosse, Senior Lecturer at the University of Reims, Serbian authorities used media as a weapon in their military campaign. "In Serbia specifically, the use of media for nationalist ends and objectives formed part of a well thought through plan - itself part of a strategy of conquest and affirmation of identity." According to de la Bosse, nationalist ideology defined the Serbs partly according to a historical myth, based on the defeat of Serbia by the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
forces at the battle of Kosovo
Battle of Kosovo
The Battle of Kosovo took place on St. Vitus' Day, June 15, 1389, between the army led by Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I...
in 1389 and partly on the genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
suffered by Serbs during the Second World War at the hands of the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
. Croatian will for independence fed the flames of fear, especially in Serb majority regions of Croatia. According to de la Bosse, the new Serbian identity became one in opposition to the "other" - Croats (collapsed into Ustashe) and Muslims (collapsed into Turks). Even Croatian democracy was dismissed since ‘Hitler came to power in Germany within the framework of a multi-party mechanism but subsequently became a great dictator, aggressor and criminal’
While Milošević, until the run up to the Kosovo war
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, allowed independent print media to publish, their distribution was limited. His methods of controlling the media included creating shortages of paper, interfering with or stopping supplies and equipment, confiscating newspapers for being printed without proper licenses, etc.. For publicly owned media, he could dismiss, promote, demote or have journalists publicly condemned. In 1998, he adopted a media law which created a special misdemeanor court to try violations. It had the ability to impose heavy fines and to confiscate property if they were not immediately paid.
According to the report by de la Brosse, Milosevic-controlled media reached more than 3.5 million people every day. Given that and the lack of access to alternative news, de la Brosse states that it is surprising how great the resistance to Milosevic's propaganda was among Serbs - evidenced not only in massive demonstrations in Serbia in 1991 and 1996-97 both of which almost toppled the regime, but also widespread draft resistance and desertion from the military.
De la Brosse describes how RTS (Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
) portrayed events in Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
and Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
: "The images shown of Dubrovnik came with a commentary accusing those from the West who had taken the film of manipulation and of having had a tire burnt in front of their cameras to make it seem that the city was on fire. As for the shells fired at Sarajevo and the damage caused, for several months it was simply as if it had never happened in the eyes of Serbian television viewers because Belgrade television would show pictures of the city taken months and even years beforehand to deny that it had ever occurred." The Serbian public was fed similar disinformation about Vukovar, according to former Reuters correspondent Daniel Deluce, "Serbian Radio Television created a strange universe in which Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, had never been besieged and in which the devastated Croatian town of Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
had been 'liberated'."
ICTY sentencing judgement for Milan Babić
Milan Babic
Milan Babić was from 1991 to 1995 the first President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a Croatian region at the time of the war largely populated by a Serbs of Croatia that wished to break away from Croatia.He was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former...
which has been first president of Republic of Serbian Krajina, a self-proclaimed Serbian dominated entity within Croatia will declare:
"Babic made ethnically based inflammatory speeches during public events and in the media that added to the atmosphere of fear and hatred amongst Serbs living in Croatia and convinced them that they could only be safe in a state of their own. Babic stated that during the events, and in particular at the beginning of his political career, he was strongly influenced and misled by Serbian propaganda, which repeatedly referred to an imminent threat of genocide by the Croatian regime against the Serbs in Croatia, thus creating an atmosphere of hatred and fear of the Croats. Ultimately this kind of propaganda led to the unleashing of violence against the Croat population and other non-Serbs."
Željko Kopanja
Željko Kopanja
Željko Kopanja is a Bosnian Serb newspaper editor and director of Nezavisne Novine, one of Bosnia's main paper published in Banja Luka.Kopanja holds a degree in economics from University of Banja Luka...
, editor of the independent newspaper Nezavisne Novine, was seriously hurt by a car bomb after publishing stories detailing atrocities committed by Serbs against Bosniaks during the Bosnian war. He believed the bomb was planted by Serbia's security services to stop him from further publishing stories. An FBI investigation supported his suspicions.
"Pakrac massacre" case
During the Battle of PakracBattle of Pakrac
The Pakrac clash was a bloodless skirmish that took place in the eastern Croatian town of Pakrac in March 1991...
, Serbian newspaper "Večernje Novosti
Vecernje novosti
Večernje novosti is a Belgrade-based daily newspaper. Founded in 1953, it quickly grew into a high-circulation daily.It first appeared on stands on October 16, 1953 edited by Slobodan Glumac who set the newspaper's tone for years to come...
" reported that about 40 Serb civilians were killed in Pakrac
Pakrac
Pakrac is a town in western Slavonia, Croatia, population 4,852, total municipality population 8,482 . Pakrac is located on the road and railroad connecting the regions of Posavina and Podravina.-Name:...
on March 2, 1991 by the Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n forces. The story was widely accepted by public and some ministers in Serbian government (e.g. Dragutin Zelenović). Attempts to confirm the report in other media from all 7 municipalities with the name Pakrac throughout the former Yugoslavia failed.
"Vukovar baby massacre" case
Day before the execution of 264 Croatian prisoners of war's and civilians in the Ovčara massacre, Serbian media released the news of 40 Serb babies being slaughterd in VukovarVukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
. Dr. Vesna Bosanac, the head of Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
hospital from which the Croatian POW's and civilians were taken, said she believed the story of slaughtered babies was released intentionally to make Serb nationalists more angry thus inciting them to execute Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
.
"Dubrovnik 30,000 Ustashas" case
Before the Siege of DubrovnikSiege of Dubrovnik
The Siege of Dubrovnik is a term marking the battle and siege of the city of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area in Croatia as part of the Croatian War of Independence. Yugoslav People's Army invaded the Dubrovnik area in October 1991 from Montenegro, Bosnia and even parts of Croatia, surrounding...
, JNA officers (namely Pavle Strugar
Pavle Strugar
Pavle Strugar is a retired Montenegrin general in the Yugoslav People's Army who was found guilty of war crimes for his role in the siege of Dubrovnik....
) made a concerted effort at misrepresenting the military situation on the ground and exaggerated the "threat" of an Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n attack on Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
by "30,000 armed Ustashas and 7000 terrorists, including Kurdish mercenaries". This propaganda was widely spread by the state-controlled media of Serbia and Montenegro.
Actually, Croatian military forces in the area at September were virtually non-existent. The defenders included just one locally conscripted unit, numbered less than 1,500 men and had no tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s or heavy guns. Also, there were no mercenaries on the Croat side.
"Dubrovnik burning tires" case
During the Siege of DubrovnikSiege of Dubrovnik
The Siege of Dubrovnik is a term marking the battle and siege of the city of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area in Croatia as part of the Croatian War of Independence. Yugoslav People's Army invaded the Dubrovnik area in October 1991 from Montenegro, Bosnia and even parts of Croatia, surrounding...
in 1991, while the Yugoslav army
Yugoslav Army
Aside from the Yugoslav People's Army, the terms Yugoslav Army, Army of Yugoslavia, or Military of Yugoslavia may refer to:* Yugoslav Partisans , the Yugoslav resistance army during World War II...
shelled the Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n port town, Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
showed Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
with columns of smoke explaining that the local people burning automobile tire
Tire
A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...
s to simulate destruction of the city.
Operation Opera Orientalis
During the secret intelligence Operation Opera Orientalis, while the Serb-controlled Yugoslav Air ForceYugoslav Air Force
The Yugoslav Air Force may refer to:Kingdom of Yugoslavia*Yugoslav Royal Air Force, active from 1918 to 1941.Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia*SFR Yugoslav Air Force, active from 1945 to 1991....
bombed Jewish cemetery
Jewish cemetery
A Jewish cemetery is a cemetery where members of the Jewish faith are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition....
and Jewish Community Center
Jewish Community Center
A Jewish Community Center or Jewish Community Centre is a general recreational, social and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities...
in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
in August 1991, Serbian media repeatedly made false accusations in which Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
was connected with World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and anti-Judaism
Anti-Judaism
Religious antisemitism is a form of antisemitism, which is the prejudice against, or hostility toward, the Jewish people based on hostility to Judaism and to Jews as a religious group...
with the aim to discredit the Croatian demands for independence in the West.
1992 Tuđman quote about "Croatia wanting the war"
The Serbian media emphasized that Croatian president Franjo Tuđman started the war in Croatia. In order to corroborate that notion, the media repeatedly referenced his speech in Zagreb, on the 24 May 1992, claiming that he allegedly said: "There would not have been a war had Croatia not wanted one". During their trials at the ICTY, Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
and Milan Martić
Milan Martic
Milan Martić is a Serbian politician, former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina...
also frequently resorted to that alleged Tuđman quote in order to prove their innocence.
However, the ICTY prosecutors obtained the integral tape of his speech and played it in its entirety during Martić's trial on the 23 October 2006, proving that Tuđman never said that Croatia "wanted the war". Upon playing that tape, Borislav Đukić had to admit that Tuđman did not say that. The quote is actually the following: "Some individuals in the world who were not friends of Croatia claimed that we too were responsible for the war. And I replied to them: Yes, there would not have been a war had we given up our goal to create a sovereign and independent Croatia. We suggested that our goal should be achieved without war, and that the Yugoslav crisis should be resolved by transforming the federation, in which nobody was satisfied, particularly not the Croatian nation, into a union of sovereign countries in which Croatia would be sovereign, with its own army, own money, own diplomacy. They did not accept."
"Bosnian mujahideen" case
Serbian propaganda during the Bosnian warBosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
portrayed the Bosnian Muslims as violent extremists and fundamentalists. After series of massacres
Bosnian Genocide
The term Bosnian Genocide refers to either the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995 or the ethnic cleansing campaign that took place throughout areas controlled by the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War....
of Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
, a few hundreds (between 300 and 1,500) of Arabic-speaking volunteers from the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, called Mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
, came into Bosnia in the second half of 1992 with the aim of helping their Muslim brothers. Serb media fabricated much bigger numbers of mujahideens presenting them as terrorists a huge threat to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, in order to inflame anti-Muslim hatred among Serbs. Although Serbian media created much controversy about alleged war crimes committed by them, no indictment was issued by ICTY against any of these foreign volunteers.
"Prijedor monster doctors" case
Just before the Prijedor massacrePrijedor massacre
The Prijedor massacre, also known as the Prijedor ethnic cleansing or the Prijedor genocide, refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Serb political and military leadership mostly on Bosniak civilians in the Prijedor region of Bosnia-Herzegovina...
of Bosniak and Croat civilians, Serb propaganda characterising prominent non-Serbs as criminals and extremists who should be punished for their behaviour. Dr. Mirsad Mujadžić, Bosniak politician, was accused of injecting drugs into Serb women making them incapable of giving birth to male children, thus reducing the birth rate
Birth rate
Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...
among Serbs, and dr. Željko Sikora, a Croat, referred to as the Monster Doctor, was accused of making Serb women abort if they were pregnant with male children and of castrating the male babies of Serbian parents. Moreover, in a "Kozarski Vjesnik" article dated June 10, 1992, Dr. Osman Mahmuljin was accused of deliberately having provided incorrect medical care to his Serb colleague dr. Živko Dukić, who had a heart attack.
Mile Mutić, the director of Kozarski Vjesnik and the journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
Rade Mutić regularly attended meetings of Serb politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s (local authorities) in order to get informed about next steps of spreading propaganda.
"Markale conspiracy" case
The Markale massacresMarkale massacres
The Markale massacres were two bombardments carried out by the Army of Republika Srpska targeting civilians during the Siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War. They occurred at the Markale located in the historic core of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.The first happened on February...
were two artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
attacks on civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
s at the Markale marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
, committed by the Army of Republika Srpska
Army of Republika Srpska
The Army of Republika Srpska ; Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian Vojska Republike Srpske ) also referred to as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of today's Republika Srpska which was then the "Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina", a self-proclaimed state within the internationally recognized...
during the Siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
. Encouraged by the initial UNPROFOR
United Nations Protection Force
The United Nations Protection Force ', was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav wars. It existed between the beginning of UN involvement in February 1992, and its restructuring into other forces in March 1995...
report, Serbian media claimed that the Bosnian government had shelled its own civilians in order to drag the Western powers to intervene against the Serbs. However, in January 2003, the War Crime Tribunal concluded that the massacre was committed by Serb forces around Sarajevo. Although widely reported by the international media, the verdict was ignored in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
itself.
Lions from Pionirska Dolina case
Lions from Pionirska Dolina case is the most bizarre case related to propaganda during Yugoslav wars. During the Siege of SarajevoSiege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
, Serb propaganda was trying to justify the siege at any cost. As the result of that effort Serbian national television gave a report about Serb children being given as a food for lions in Sarajevo ZOO called Pionirska Dolina by Muslim extremists.
Executions of Tuzla
Shortly after the events of the Tuzla column, the Serbian national television, reported the gathering and execution of Bosnian Serbs living in Tuzla at Stadium Tusanj, and disposal of the bodies in the nearby river Jala. No pictures of the selections, executions or carcasses, have been given by the Serb television, nor have been ever found. However the majority of Serbs during and after the war, still believe it happened.Propaganda as part of the indictment against Milošević
According to the prosecution at the ICTY trial of Milosevic, Serbian television and radio's repetitive use of pejorative descriptions, such as "Ustashe hordes", "VaticanHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
fascists", "Mujahedin fighters", "fundamentalist warriors of jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
", and "Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
n terrorists", became part of common usage. Unverified stories, presented as fact, were turned into common knowledge, for example, that Bosniaks were feeding Serb children to animals in the Sarajevo zoo. According to de la Brosse, the easier it was to fear other ethnic groups, the easier to justify their expulsion or killing.
Two members of the Federal Security Service (KOG) testified for the Prosecution in Milosevic's trial about their involvement in Milosevic's propaganda campaign. Slobodan Lazarevic revealed alleged KOG clandestine
Clandestine operation
A clandestine operation is an intelligence or military operation carried out in such a way that the operation goes unnoticed.The United States Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines "clandestine operation" as "An operation sponsored or conducted by governmental...
activities designed to undermine the peace process, including mining a soccer field, a water tower and the reopened railway between Zagreb and Belgrade. These actions were blamed on Croats. Mustafa Candic, one of four assistant chiefs of KOG, described the use of technology to fabricate conversations, making it sound as if Croat authorities were telling Croats in Serbia to leave for an ethnically pure Croatia. The conversation was broadcast following a Serb attack on Croatians living in Serbia, forcing them to flee. He testified that the propaganda war was code named "Operation Opera, see Opera orientalis
Opera orientalis
Operation Opera Orientalis was a false flag operation carried out during the Yugoslav Wars. In August 1991, the Jewish cemetery and Jewish community center in Zagreb, Croatia were bombed...
which included bombing of a Jewish cemetery
Jewish cemetery
A Jewish cemetery is a cemetery where members of the Jewish faith are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition....
and the Jewish Community Center in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
." He also testified to another instance of disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
involving a television broadcast of corpses, described as Serb civilians killed by Croats. Candic testified that he believed they were in fact the bodies of Croats killed by Serbs, though this statement has not been verified.
Propaganda as a war crime in the Šešelj's case
Propaganda as a war crime (incitement to genocide) is the subject in the recent indictment of Vojislav ŠešeljVojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj, JD is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000...
, head of the Serbian Radical Party
Serbian Radical Party
The Serbian Radical Party is a far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia, founded in 1991. Currently the second-largest party in the Serbian National Assembly, it has branches in three of the nations that currently border Serbia – all former federal republics of Yugoslavia...
and an active player throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia. According to the indictment, Seselj bears individual criminal responsibility for instigating crimes, including murder, torture and forcible expulsion on ethnic grounds. It reads, "By using the word 'instigated', the Prosecution charges that the accused Vojislav Seselj's speeches, communications, acts and/or omissions contributed to the perpetrators' decision to commit the crimes alleged."
Backlash
1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999...
, building of Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia
Radio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
in Belgrade was targeted.
When Milošević's regime was finally overthrown in October 2000, RTS was a primary target of demonstrators. After attacking the Parliament, the demonstrators headed for the RTS building.
In Serbia, journalists are still being threatened and some were even killed. Mostly investigative journalists are targeted.
Serbian State TV Apology
On 23 May 2011 Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) issued an official apology for the way their programming was misused for spreading propaganda and discrediting political opponents in the 1990s, and for the fact that their programming had "hurt the feelings, moral integrity and dignity of citizens of Serbia, humanist-oriented intellectuals, members of the political opposition, critically minded journalists, certain minorities in Serbia, minority religious groups in Serbia, as well as certain neighbouring peoples and states."It also states that there was no doubt that the state media were under direct control of the late President of Serbia Slobodan MilosevicSlobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
.Serbian state media were used by Milosevic as a war tool for inciting hatered and deceiving his people in order to get support needed to continue with the wars in the Balkans.
Croatian propaganda
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
also used propaganda against Serbs throughout and against Bosniaks during the 1992-1994 Croat-Bosniak war
Croat-Bosniak war
The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia supported by the Republic of Croatia, that lasted from June 19, 1992 – February 23, 1994...
, which was part of the larger Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. During Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing
The Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, also known as the Lašva Valley case, refers to numerous war crimes committed during the Bosnian war by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership on Bosnian Muslim civilians in the Lašva Valley region of Bosnia-Herzegovina...
Croat forces seized the television broadcasting stations (for example at Skradno) and created its own local radio and television to carry propaganda, seized the public institutions, raised the Croatian flag over public institution buildings, and imposed the Croatian Dinar as the unit of currency. During this time, Busovača
Busovaca
Busovača is a small town and municipality in the heart of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is from Sarajevo, from Zenica, and from Travnik.-History:During the Bosnian War, the city saw heavy fighting between the Bosnian Army and the Croatian Defence Council...
's Bosniaks were forced to sign an act of allegiance to the Croat authorities, fell victim to numerous attacks on shops and businesses and, gradually, left the area out of fear that they would be the victims of mass crimes. According to ICTY Trial Chambers in Blaškić case Croat authorities created a radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Kiseljak
Kiseljak
Kiseljak is a small town and municipality in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, located northwest of Sarajevo and south of Zenica. Kiseljak lies in the valley of the rivers Fojnica , Lepenica and Kreševka, which are a tributary of the Bosna, and it is on the intersection of roads from Visoko, Fojnica,...
to broadcast nationalist propaganda. A similar pattern was applied in Mostar
Mostar
Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...
and Gornji Vakuf
Gornji Vakuf
Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje is a town and municipality in Central Bosnia , located between Bugojno, Prozor, Kupres, Novi Travnik and Konjic. It is under the administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
(where Croats created a radio station called Radio Uskoplje). Local propaganda efforts in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Croats, were supported by Croatian daily newspapers such as Večernji list
Vecernji list
Večernji list is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Zagreb.The newspaper was started in the 1950s and it is today one of two largest daily newspapers in Croatia...
and Croatian Radiotelevision
Croatian Radiotelevision
Croatian Radiotelevision is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite...
, especially by controversial reporters Dijana Čuljak
Dijana Čuljak
Dijana Čuljak is a Croatian television host. She began to work as a reporter for Croatian Radiotelevision during the Croat-Bosniak war. Later, she started to host Motrišta Show characterized by its unreserved support for Franjo Tuđman's regime. She was also an editor of Otvoreno talk show. Today...
and Smiljko Šagolj who are still blamed by the families of Bosniak victims in Vranica case for inciting massacre of Bosnian POWs in Mostar, when broadcasting a report about alleged terrorists arrested by Croats who victimized Croat civilians. The bodies of Bosnian POWs were later found in Goranci mass grave. Croatian Radiotelevision presented Croat attack on Mostar, as a Bosnian Muslim attack on Croats in alliance with the Serbs. According to ICTY, in the early hours of May 9, 1993, the Croatian Defence Council
Croatian Defence Council
The Croatian Defence Council was a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War.-History:...
(HVO) attacked Mostar using artillery, mortars, heavy weapons and small arms. The HVO controlled all roads leading into Mostar and international organisations were denied access. Radio Mostar announced that all Bosniaks should hang out a white flag from their windows. The HVO attack had been well prepared and planned.
During the ICTY trials against Croat war leaders, many Croatian journalists participated as the defence witnesses trying to relativise war crimes committed by Croatian troops against non-Croat civilians (Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbs in Croatia). During the trial against general Tihomir Blaškić
Tihomir Blaškic
Tihomir Blaškić is a Bosnian Croat army officer who was sentenced in 2000 to 45 years imprisonment at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for war crimes as part of the Lašva valley ethnic cleansing...
(later convicted of war crimes), Ivica Mlivončić
Ivica Mlivončić
Ivica Mlivončić is a controversial Croatian author and columnist in Slobodna Dalmacija from Split. He became unpopular among liberal and left wing circles while working for BH Danas, a weekly newspaper based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to the fact he publicly attacked his colleagues who were...
, Croatian columnist in Slobodna Dalmacija
Slobodna Dalmacija
Slobodna Dalmacija is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split.The first issue of Slobodna Dalmacija was published on June 17, 1943 by Tito's Partisans in a cave on Mosor, a mountain near Split, which was occupied by the Italian army during that time. The paper was later published in various...
, tried to defend general Blaškić presenting number of claims in his book Zločin s pečatom about alleged genocide against Croats (most of it unproven or false), which was considered by the Trial Chambers as irrelevant for the case. After the conviction, he continued to write in Slobodna Dalmacija against the ICTY presenting it as the court against Croats, with chauvinistic claims that the ICTY cannot be unbiassed because it is financed by Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
(Muslims).
See also
- PropagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
- Bosnian WarBosnian WarThe Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
- Kosovo WarKosovo WarThe term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
- Milovan DrecunMilovan DrecunMilovan Drecun is a Serbian journalist of Montenegrin descent. He was a candidate for the presidency of Serbia in the Serbian presidential election, 2004, as member of the Serbian Revival.-Career:...
, journalist from Radio Television of SerbiaRadio Television of SerbiaRadio Television of Serbia or Serbian Broadcasting Corporation is the public broadcaster in Serbia. It broadcasts and produces a variety of news, drama, and sports programming through radio, television and the Internet. RTS is, since July 2001, a member of the European Broadcasting Union. RTS is...
in the 1990s - Joint Criminal EnterpriseJoint Criminal EnterpriseJoint criminal enterprise ' is a legal doctrine used by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to prosecute political and military leaders for mass war crimes, including genocide, committed during the Yugoslav wars 1991-1999....
- Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars
Sources
- EXPERT REPORT OF RENAUD DE LA BROSSE "Political Propaganda and the Plan to Create 'A State For All Serbs:' Consequences of using media for ultra-nationalist ends" in five parts 1 2 3 4 5
- BIRN Bosnian Institute, Analysis: Media Serving the War, Aida Alić, 20 July 2007
- Milosevic's Propaganda War, by Judith Armatta, Institute of War and Peace Reporting, February 27, 2003
- British Journalism Review, Too many truths, by Geoffrey Goodman, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1999