The Kurir files
Then we have Kurir – the tabloid with the biggest circulation in Serbia, and with securitatea-style immunity that allows them to write about whatever they want without any fear of having to pay for it in court. Apparently Kurir has a team of very internet-keen reporters that thrive on stories they find on the web and this is often a dangerous game because they often fall as a victim of a prank.
Two last examples: the joke pulled by a group of Croatian pranksters that made Kurir’s journalist think there is a Croatian hardcore supporter of Partizan Belgrade. Kurir printed a fake interview with the fake fan across the whole page thinking it’s a real thing.
More recently, an user at a Serbian gay forum posted a fake ad where he pretended to be necrophiliac and wandering if there is anybody who can recommend some good ways of getting some fresh bodies for him. Poster later claimed it was some kind of experiment, but before he did that, Kurir already had an ‘exclusive’ story about ‘shocking necrophiliac forum’.
Couple of days ago: a story about a guy in Kosovska Mitrovica who looks like Hitler recently found way to their front page – directly stolen from Ed’s Balkanbaby blog, without mentioning the source. The story in Kurir is also spiced up by some made-up details, probably to make it look even more sensational. Ed’s story has also been published in a several other newspapers, only one of them asked for a permisssion and made a link to the source. Hopefully this will at least help close that restaurant down and teach the owner some responsibility.
After these couple of stories it is pretty clear that Kurir is a bunch of amateurs when it comes to journalism, but unfortunately a bunch very well protected against responsibility and ethics, too.
Do you also know about any blog stories that ended up in some other media in a distorted way? Please share.
Coming up: The Stormfront case
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Admittedly, this is an ignorant question but what exactly are the libel laws in Serbia? Given their “high quality” standards of journalism, I’m assuming that Kurir has violated even the most lax libel laws.
There are laws Shaina but the problem is both implementation plus the court process.
I think that a special independent comission should be set up to investigate issues such as libel, civil and criminal court case coverage and the media. Of course its unlikely such a body would be independent or it would be a fluke if it was…
Well I’m holding my hands up to this exclusive. Think its just as well I wasnt the first to cover this Kosovo Albanian Adolf or heaven knows what would have followed. I imagine people would be lining up to accuse me of working for BIA or something. But I’m thinking of setting the record straight and doing a little blog entry at B92 about it.
By the way Viktor this guy doesnt look like Hitler, he claims he is Hitler!
Libel law works but is applied selectively. It is relatively easy to win a case against a newspaper, presuming they don’t have state security to support them. Kurir currently has about one hundred complaints against them in the court but nobody can touch them until they lose that support.
Bganon, i know – the guy is obviously not in his right mind, but that doesn’t let him go off the hook that easily. I wonder if we will ever get to know what happened to him after the story came out on Ed’s blog? Hopefully if we have some readers from Kosovska Mitrovica they can let us know about it.
‘I wonder if we will ever get to know what happened to him after the story came out on Ed’s blog? ‘
I suspect nothing, why would anything happen?
Well i was kinda hoping he will no longer be able to have swastikas in the restaurant logo etc.
Keep hoping but bear in mind if minorities cant even be protected in Kosovo its pretty unlikely that swastikas and such things will be removed.
I’m not suggesting fascism is flourishing down there – just lawlessness and under the governance of the internationals