Global Voices » Serbian

Balkans: Online Platform Tracks Reports From Areas Hit by Record Snowfall

Danica Radisic — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:12:22 +0000

Since last week, the Balkans have been hit by massive snow storms, the likes of which have not been seen in over a decade, if not longer. After an unusually long period of nearly no real signs of a typical Balkan winter, last week brought what seems to be non-stop snowfall throughout the region, including the seaside areas around the Adriatic that seldom get any snow.

Men shoveling snow from a street in Sarajevo. Record snowfall has paralyzed transportation in the Bosnian capital, where a state of emergency has now been declared. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12).

Serbia's national television network, RTS, and other media reported on Friday 3 February, 2012, that a state of emergency has been declared by the government, while citizens have been reporting critical situations throughout the country and that municipal services have been doing a poor job of tackling the snowfall in many urban areas.

In an article titled “Serbia Blocked by Snow, State of Emergency in 27 Municipalities, Recommendation to Call Off School Attendance” [sr], the Head of the State of Emergency Sector of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Predrag Maric, is reported to have stated on Friday:

27 municipalities in Serbia have declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. Maric has told Beta news agency that the most difficult situations are in Sjenica, Ivanjica, Prijepolje, Crna Trava and Surdulica, where the height of snow has reached approximately 2 meters. According to him, power supply is “relatively good,” outages are being fixed quickly and there have been no long power outages.

Maric also announced the possibility of declaring a full state of emergency nationwide, which the Government did on Sunday evening, cancelling school throughout Serbia at least until Friday, February 10, among other things.

Several actions have been organized by the online community in Serbia and the region to fend off the snow and to attempt to regain a functional state in urban areas at least, such as a #lopataup (”#shovelup”), organized by one online community leader, Zoran Torbica, and other local Twitter users.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans, the recently established regional office of Al Jazeera news network in the region, has joined forces with the team from Ushahidi to set up a platform for tracking verified information on everything from road blocks, power outages to other critical points and information in the entire region.

Ushahidi is an open-source platform for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping, which was also used in Serbia just after the earthquake in Kraljevo in November 2010 to map and track damage in the area.

Haris Alisic, who heads the New Media team for Al Jazeera Balkans, launched the platform on Sunday evening, and many members of the online community, including some of the region's GV authors, have joined the Al Jazeera-Ushahidi team in curating, tracking and verifying reports from the region.

The adapted Ushahidi platform can be located on Al Jazeera's official site, while reports can be sent in by anyone using the following channels:

- via SMS to +387644218661
- via Twitter by using the hashtags #kolaps #sneg #snijeg #lopataup #iskljucenje
- via email to oluja2012@aljazeera.net
- or by entering information directly into the form on the”pošaljite izvještaj” tab on the Al Jazeera page

If you would like to volunteer your time to help map critical areas and are familiar with using online tools, please contact the author of this article, or Haris Alisic via Twitter, or leave a comment here on Global Voices, and we will contact you for more information on what you can do to help. We also ask that you all begin reporting from your area on Twitter and using the above-mentioned hashtags on Twitter, which are automatically collected by the platform and then reviewed and verified by Al Jazeera and volunteers.

Serbia: The Media War Against Angelina Jolie

Sasa Milosevic — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:15:37 +0000

Not so long ago Angelina Jolie was “more concerned” about the reception of her directorial debut movie, ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey‘, in Bosnia and Serbia than in the United States. She was eagerly awating the reactions of local audiences, whom she had portrayed in her war drama, and some of her fears turned out to be justified.

While the Bosnian public has warmly welcomed this war love story of a Serbian policeman and a Bosnian Muslim woman, the Serbian media have launched a war on the American actress, accussing her of spreading hatred toward Serbs.

Serbian daily Kurir initiated a series of articles [sr] that have seriously harmed Jolie's good reputation in Serbia:

Angelina claims in the movie that 300,000 Muslims were killed in the Bosnian war and 50,000 Muslim women were raped. The actress intends to seek the abolition of Republika Srpska as a genocidal creation. All of this was commissioned by the extreme Islamic policies, presenting Serbs as criminals, killers, murderers and rapists, and Muslims as the only victims.

Explaining the reason for Jolie's alleged pro-Muslim bias, the newspaper claimed [sr] that the movie was financially supported by Saudi direct investments of $10 million:

It is generally known that Jolie is very close to politicians in Washington. Maybe she would like the public to think it is an art film, but it is actually pure anti-Serbian propaganda. The director sends a message to the audience that Serbs are crazy wild beasts, while Muslims are innocent victims.

Momir Stojanovic, former director of the Serbian Military Intelligence Agency, also supported Kurir's claim that Muslim extremists had funded Angelina's project, saying “it is very close to the truth.”

The Serbian newspaper has triggered thousands of negative, pro-Serbian votes on imdb.com, one of the most reputable film rating sites, causing the film's score to drop drastically to 3.3 from an average of 5.4.

A screenshot of Jolie's film page on imdb.com.

Very quickly the page of Jolie's film at imdb.com turned into a virtual battlefield between Serbs and Muslims. (In the past few days, however, 11 pages of comments have somehow been reduced to five).

Sanja_Cancar says:

Angelina needs to stick to the topics she knows about, ei: ruining marriages, stealing husbands, adopting children from around the world, wearing blood. Instead, she chose the ironic path of a “peace-ambassador” that gets involved in politics she knows nothing about and creates movies that will only create more hatred… […]

Vitezbg observes:

Movie is full of political manipulations, lies, false informations etc.[…] Also 50.000 raped Muslim women is very disputed. It is famous case when ‘raped Sarajevo woman', gave birth of African child. Actually the father in this case was member of UN personal. […]

Johnny NT concludes:

Well done Angie, Goebbels and Hitler would be proud of you and your fascinating work on this movie. […]

rudeedee2 asks:

How could these people dare think to make a movie (”entertainment”) of such a horribly devastating situation ??? Seems only money is important. […] Would Angelina Jolie want to think her family has gone through hell and lost every semblance of normalcy, experienced fear, heartbreak, death and devastation only to find a so-called movie producer sees it as an artistic capital?

psysd3 reminds Angelina of the crimes of her own people:

[…] From the very beginning, by coming to America's soil on which it is estimated that, in 1500s, there were about 12 000 000 Native Americans whose number is reduced to nearly 237 000 by 1900s […]

Alex_Michael writes:

I guess I expected too much of Angelina. She might have black hair, but the movie sure look like put together by a blonde. Serbian Nazis who don't have problem killing anything from pets to babies on one side, and good Muslims on the other side… Example is Srebrenica where Serbs committed crimes by taking revenge after number of Serbian villages around Srebrenica were completely wiped out, and their inhabitants killed by Muslims from Srebrenica. This was well described in Norwegian documentary “Srebrenica a Town Betrayed”.

The Bosnian Muslim online community opposes the Serbian comments and supports Jolie's movie.

f_s is grateful to Angelina:

[…] Thank you Ms. Jolie for being the voice of the women depraved, humiliated and tortured. I recommend to everyone to see the movie especially women around the globe, to hear the unspoken, to witness the hidden. […]

Sibaak adds:

[…] We, the Bosnians do not hate. We are the most peaceful nation in the world, and thats why the facts of that war are so brutal! Because we didn't believe it could happen. We didn't believe that our friends would turn against us, rape us, kill our children, take over our houses. But they did. We that lived to tell, still, just like me, believe there are good Serbs. But what really hurts is to see how many people, just like on here, people that do not have even slightest idea of the truth, are so blind, and so hateful, because it tells me that they would do it all over again. In a way I feel its good that they are showing their real faces. Showing how ignorant they are. […]

Mela Fatkic expresses gratitude to Jolie on the movie's Facebook page. She writes:

Angelina thank you for this film, but we can not forget what it was. Thank you for the truth which not many people to reconcile, and nobody believes until they see…

Dino Gligic shares this opinion:

Angelina, thank you so much for telling the torld the truth about what Serbs did. It was worse than in that movie…

Nat Taschetti Garcia Angie admits ignorance and asks :

I just graduate on high school and i never learned about Bosnian war as i never learned about refugee camps. Do you feel like something has to be done in education, as a mom and as an activist?

Frustrated by the Serbian furious reaction, Jolie responded on Twitter:

Is it possible that the entire nation believes a concocted story from trash @KurirVesti magazine based on fake email from imaginary person?”

However, a few days later this tweet was deleted, and a new one appeared:

Don't express your love for own nation, race, religion, etc… by hating others.

On other side, Kurir pulled off the article of threatining tone: “Serbs declared war on the actress: you do not know what awaits for you Angelina” from the newspaper official site published as respond on Jolie's offensive tweet.

Jolie also tweeted this appeal:

Don't believe everything you read… “They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers.”

In an interview with Slobodna Evropa, Jolie expressed her affection for Bosnia, saying that “it is easy to be in love with Bosnia”:

I would not have created this film if Bosnikas hadn't agreed with the screenplay. I would have burned it…

Zeljko Mitrovic, the owner of Pink TV, is one of the most influental Serbs who had initially condemned Jolie because of her anti-Serbian prejudices and had even withdrawn from the movie project. Now, however, he has changed his mind:

It is wrong to attack Angelina now when the movie is finished. We could have changed something before they started making the film. Now it is pointless to generate hostility. That thing cannot be changed by additional antagonisms. She should be invited to Belgrade because people like her can help us in the future to improve the image of ourselves in the world. I invite Angelina to come to Serbia and to be a guest of TV Pink.

Macedonia: Comparing Steve Jobs to Tito

Filip Stojanovski — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:17:07 +0000

“Comrade Apple died” - the anonymous Taen bloger (= Secret Blogger) used the language imitating the original 1980 TV announcement [sr] of the death of the beloved Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito to comment [mk] on the reactions following the death of Steve Jobs.

Serbia: Discussing Report on ICT Use by State Statistical Office

Filip Stojanovski — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:59:19 +0000

Slobodan Markovic has initiated [sr] a Twitter discussion (#ICTSrbija) about the report on the use of ICT issued by the State Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (noted in an earlier GVO article). A recap is available in English, Macedonian, and Albanian language.

Macedonia: Celebrating Basketball Win Over Lithuania

Filip Stojanovski — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:09:46 +0000

The celebration of the Macedonian entry in the semifinals of the European basketball championship has spilled over from the country's streets, balconies and town squares into the blogosphere.

Ogledalo na edna dusha (Mirror of a Soul) blog posted [mk] photos and videos from the celebration of the victory of the Macedonian national team over the host, Lithuania, at the EuroBasket 2011, with levels of euphoria higher than the precedent with Greece.

Barabass considers [mk] this win as a defining moment of his generation, “something to tell the grandkids about.”

Ruling politicians have scrambled to get on the basketball victory bandwagon. The president already gave a medal to the national team in absentia, while the government used taxpayers' money to buy tickets for 150 hand-picked “professional fans” [mk] to go to the game.

Citizens privately voiced frustration over the brazen lack of transparency and accountability, especially because some of the pro-government media used the phrase “at its own expense,” as if the ministers were paying from their own pockets. The charter flight for this allegedly politically-connected group was sponsored by the Turkish company TAV, a a major investor in Macedonia. According to Netpress [mk], the “select” mob had a fight on the plane and compromised its security, and the airliner refused to accept 11 of them on the return flight.

The state budget also funded celebratory fireworks at Skopje's main square:

Social media users spread the following joke, referring to the general low level of knowledge about Macedonia in geographic terms outside of the Balkan region (most Macedonians who have been abroad can share a story about meeting people who had no clue where it was, or said it was an island in Africa or something to that effect).

- Where are you from?
- From Macedonia.
- And where is Macedonia?
- In the semifinals!!!

Twitter user Biljana also noted [sr] that the celebrations also spread to Serbia [sr] - a historic first gesture of “reciprocity.” Most Macedonian sports fans traditionally root for all ex-Yugoslav teams that make it to international competitions, when they don't compete against Macedonia.

Twitter users in the past few days have however, expressed aggravation due to the uncalled-for demeaning comments in some media from these countries.

Russia, Italy: Andrei Tarkovsky's Polaroids

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:40:34 +0000

Jana writes [sr] about Instant Light, a collection of 60 Polaroid photographs by film director Andrei Tarkovsky, and posts some sample photos from the book.

Croatia, Serbia: A Flag of Friendship

Sinisa Boljanovic — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:22:05 +0000

Just a few weeks after Croatia officially marked the 16th aniversory of the military operation “Oluja” (the Storm), when more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs were expelled from their century-old homes, two young adults from Croatia and Serbia created a mixed Serbo-Croatian flag, as a gesture of reconciliation between the two countries.

Anja Blazevic and Stefan Guzvica, who are taking part in a regional art camp in Gvozd, Croatia, where the flag has recently been created, explained [hr] to Vecernji.hr, a popular newspaper in Croatia, their motivation to do it:

We’ve had enough conflicts based on nationalism […] permanently evoking the past bothers us, while no one is thinking about the future. We feel frustration because of that, and so we decided to make an effort in order to build, at least symbolically, more friendly relationships between the two countries.

We have created the flag in order to call our peoples to love and tolerance. We are aware that the flag will provoke a lot of reactions and polemics, but it is so desirable in democratic societies. We have made a few copies of the flag. One of them is fluttering in our camp in Gvozd, one copy will be taken to Serbia and others have been given to our friends.

More than 850 readers have commented on the article. Below is a selection of some of these comments.

pLoto* wrote:

Behind that are NGOs financed from abroad aiming at some new community to Croats’ disadvantage. But, after two former Yugoslavias that were a failure in blood, they who are working on it did not learn anything. I have nothing to do with Serbs, I’ve never been to Serbia… and I don’t want someone uniting me with them.

Jolly-Roger wrote:

The first step is that Serbs recognize Croatia, especially those who have lived in Croatia for a long time.

The second step is that they ask for forgiveness for all the crimes that they commited in Croatia, not only during the last war.

The third step is that all of them are moved out of Croatia.

Then we can have good relations, and the flag of Croatia will not be changed. We were fighting and dying for it.

cro1com wrote:

[…] We don’t need to be friendly people at all. We have to be very cautious of each other, especially Croats toward Serbs, because Croats have never waged a war against Serbs in Serbia but all of us have witnessed the aggression from the East […]

bilikamen wrote:

They should be killed immediately so that our children and grandchildren are not killed later.

21 KK Kobra wrote:

You are stupid… do you think that we like the flag and that it is OK? I have no words.

Andreeejjj wrote:

[…] Why so, my dear Croats? It will not be excused by anyone from the world! […] The future is the most important, not the past, whatever it was. If the politicians from all former Republics [of Yugoslavia] had wanted to prevent the war, it would have been done. Unfortunately, there was no interest in it because no one of them could become so rich. That’s all and brutally true, my people, be wiser just once. It’s the time.

Serbian daily Blic re-published [sr] the news, which has generated more than 600 comments. Below are some of them.

Persa wrote:

I support each initiative which contains a desire for well-being of the people, for mutual understanding, for love, for kindness, for offering aid… I’d like that everything that was bad does not happen anymore […]

Nikola Radovanovic wrote:

Hey, people, what’s the matter with you? Let’s forget once what happened! Look into the future and allow our children to live in peace and without hatred.

per-aspera-ad-astra wrote:

It should allow everyone, regardless of nationality, who hates and chokes in their own hatred, but I don’t understand how they want to go to Europe?

Serbian blogger Strongman also re-published [sr] the news and more than 80 people commented on it.

Mariopan wrote:

Bravo to the young people. A little bit normalcy in the crazy Balkans.

Looping wrote:

I believe the motive is good, but the creators should be taking care of their lives.

ivanivica wrote:

I am only reading and thinking of how many times the young Israelis and Palestinians meet up. And?

newyorkcity.boy wrote:

All honors for maturity and courage. I support it. Finally, someone has tried to make an effort of reconciliation. I hope the move will be just the beginning. All honors to you. How much further will we hate each other?

This issue has drawn attention of several thousand people from Croatia and Serbia, as well as the rest of the region, who have left their comments on many other internet platforms and forums in the past few days.

The Balkans: Travel Blogs

Veronica Khokhlova — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:20:27 +0000

At Balkan Travellers, Sarah Hucal writes about Yugo Yoga performance that took place on a makeshift stage at Belgrade's Museum of Yugoslav History in July 2011; more of Hucal's Balkan travel writing and photos are at her blog, Solo in the Balkans. Jana Orsolic's Istria Week travel photos and journal [sr] are here, here, here, here, here and here. Piran Café's latest entry on the June 2011 trip to Sarajevo (plus links to earlier posts) is here; the blogger also links to the New York Times' recent travel piece on Slovenia, Slovenian Rhapsody.

The Balkans: Over Half of the Population Uses the Internet

Danica Radovanovic — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:09:01 +0000

There are over 10.5 million Internet users in the Balkans/the former Yugoslavia, which makes up 51.7 percent of the region's population, according to a recent report [sr; see the table below].

The findings [.zip, sr] cited by Huge Media, in collaboration with Marko Tomić, a student from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, show that Slovenia has the highest Internet service penetration (63.29 percent), while Bosnia and Herzegovina has the lowest (51.76 percent of Internet users).

It is interesting that over a half of the Serbian and Croatian population is on the Internet, and the authors of these findings consider [sr] that there's an incomplete research evaluation of Internet usage by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS):

…As for the Internet users, we think that the RZS assessment is incomplete and does not include users of mobile internet. […they are] only examining a particular set of data that gives us information about a particular topic, but not the complete story that interests us.

Facebook is the most popular destination: over 70 percent of Internet users have a Facebook account in Serbia, and 63 percent - in Croatia:

The average time spent on Facebok is 25 minutes (both for Serbia and Croatia), and the average user in Serbia checks his/her Facebook account 16 times a day, while in Croatia it is 13 times a day.

[…]

The increasing number of Facebook users can be explained by non-residents of Serbia and Croatia using this social network during their travels.

The online social dynamics and the activities on Facebook do not differ much in other Balkan countries. Last year, we published the data on the Serbian young adults who spend the most of their time on Facebook, communicating with their friends (61 percent), “like”-ing their statuses (66 percent), sharing content and information (56 percent), writing private messages (47 percent), and playing games (22.4 percent).

Statistical and educational institutions in each of the Balkan countries could generate and use the data on the relevant online activities to detect and focus on their critical users, to adjust their policies and action plans based on the data.

It would be also interesting to see age distribution among users and other relevant demographics, as well as the analysis of online social interactions on other Internet services and social media sites.

Currently, research is being conducted on the social media usage among young adults, students, educators, and scholars in Serbia, but it is limited, in a way, as it cannot be considered a sample for the entire Balkan population. Each country could work on their local national data for cross-statistical area analyses for the future.

Serbia: Government Officials and Social Networks (Interview)

Danica Radisic — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:51:06 +0000

No sooner had the original satirical Twitter account @vookjeremic mocking Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vuk Jeremic, been shut down by Twitter administrators at the behest of Serbian authorities, than more fake accounts bearing the Minister’s name and those of other Serbian government officials, began popping up and spreading through the microblogging site like wildfire.

New phenomenon

The online edition of Serbian daily newspaper Blic has covered this new phenomenon [sr] and sparked comments from influential members of the online community, as well as politicians active in social media, most of whom have similar advice to offer those like Minister Jeremic.

Nebojša Radović, an Internet marketing consultant and probably one of the most popular regional Twitter users in general, explained that there are ways to verify and label an account instead of shutting down fake accounts and was quoted as saying:

… This freedom is precisely the beauty of the Internet, the censorship of which represents the carrying of habits of other media [into this medium] and a particular kind of inquisition toward all those who disagree with the system. Thus, the criticism directed at the Counter-Organized Crime Service (SBPOK) and the general disatisfaction of the local Twitter community isn’t surprising. - Radović explains and adds that criticism is a good thing and that politicians should be listening, instead of censoring.

Oliver Dulic, Serbian minister of Spatial Planning and Environment, who is as of recently another avid user of the social network, gave an interview on this subject to the popular Trojka portal, titled ‘All Significant Politicians on Twitter Soon‘ [sr], in which he says:

I believe that since I’ve been using Twitter I am much better informed as to what is happening in society. Instead of opening Internet sites I now have all this information in one place. Aside from that, it’s a pleasure to be able to communicate directly with people, even those that have an issue with my work.

Minister Dulic experienced his own fair share of online criticism and uproar when news leaked several months ago, that the site for one of his Ministry’s campaigns had cost around 26,000 euros, or the equivalent of some 75 average Serbian monthly salaries.

Criticism on the matter was continued recently on Twitter and Minister Dulic not only engaged in conversation with other Twitter users, but accepted the idea of publishing the details and specification for said site [sr], which he then proceeded to do on the Ministry’s official site www.ekoplan.gov.rs and published to Twitter, saying [sr] “I am at your disposal for more information…”.

Interview with Serbian Minister of Telecommunications, Jasna Matic

Among the first Serbian government representatives to be highly active on social networks were two women - Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Gordana Comic, and then Minister of Telecommunications and Internet Society, Jasna Matic.

While Ms. Comic is a regular at community conferences and events, Ms. Matic was even the organizer of the first tweet-ups sponsored by a Serbian ministry last year. Matic is on a first-name basis with many members of the community and, when asked to give a statement to Global Voices, she offered instead to meet for coffee and give a face-to-face exclusive interview.

Jasna Matic talking to Serbian high school girls interested in pursuing careers in ICT.

Global Voices (GV): By taking a look at your tweets from just the past month or so, I can learn that you like Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Alicia Keys and Jay-Z, you seem to spend most of your days working or traveling for government related matters, the airline you flew to New York and back with lost your luggage twice and you enjoy being around people. That’s quite an open profile for an active politician and member of government. Today I’d like to talk about the matter of satirical, or “fake”, Twitter accounts of politicians and other public figures. Global Voices, as have many others, has covered the story of the fake Vuk Jeremić account that the Minister requested be shut down. We couldn’t help but notice that you, knowing this was a fake account, exchanged a tweet with said account saying: “@vookjeremic Because @jasnamatic doesn’t feel the need to blend in. And because the point is to be cool in the summer and hot in the winter :)”. It would seem you feel this was all in jest and were having fun with it, like others on the network?

Jasna Matic (JM): I didn’t really know that there was a Twitter account with that name and at first I was upset with his tweet to me, then looked at it and realized it wasn’t a real account and thought “Why not? Let’s have fun with it.” Clearly, to some extent I can sympathize with Vuk Jeremic and you can’t always react the way you otherwise would when you’re a public figure.

GV: In a very recent interview on this matter with the online edition of the Serbian daily Blic, you were quoted as saying: “I am of the opinion that the Internet allows us to return to direct democracy, such as existed in ancient Greece, where all citizens participated and voted on what was to be done. The advantages of this should be exploited.” Isn’t that a rather idealistic way of looking at both the image of democracy in ancient Greece, which wasn’t always so pretty, and an idealistic way of looking at use of the Internet that many believe does need laws and regulation?

JM: That is clearly not, as they say in courtrooms, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but it is what the Internet brings. It does bring a voice to everyone and that is how I think it should be used.

GV: There are currently two Twitter accounts other than your own bearing your name, but both are inactive and we can’t tell whether they were meant to impersonate you in any way. Other than that, the local online community seems to be satisfied communicating with you directly, or not, rather than mocking you and you have several tweets to this effect: “I thought it might be a good thing when people can approach politicians and talk to them. Or, if they choose, ignore them. I could be wrong…” Why do you think that is, that the vast majority of your online audience is willing to talk instead of mock?

JM: I generally think, and it might be inappropriate for me to quote Obama and his team on this, but I do believe that when you treat people as adults, they behave as adults. That has been my experience and I try to do that. If anything, I think that applies to the online community. I’ve been in government for over ten years and have communicated with thousands of people. This [open communication] applies especially to the online community which is often more passionate, rational, opinionated and open. Whatever you give them, they will give twice as much back.

GV: We also ran into this tweet of yours: “So different than my everyday life: I do different things,talk to different people,think different thoughts, I feel like it's a different me.” Was it in reference to social media and being a part of the local online community?

JM: [smiling] No, it was in reference to me being somewhere else where nobody knows me and being in a situation where I wasn’t being viewed, analyzed and criticized. For three weeks I was able to enjoy the freedom and anonymity that it allowed. I decided to share that with my Twitter followers because it felt so good.

GV: And finally, how do you see the role of social media and the Internet in the economic, political and cultural development of Serbia and the region? What would your advice regarding that be to your peers, both in politics and business?

JM: I think it’s like any new technology. It provides a lot of opportunity, but you need to invest in it. I think it’s more difficult here than in other countries because we don’t have the habit of being that socially active. There is a very small percentage of people that enjoy being that active online. The Digital Agenda is working on that, trying to make the Internet more popular and more beneficial to everyone.

I think we all want to reach out to the people we serve (and I actually do believe in that - we serve) and this is a good platform to use for that. I use it with joy and satisfaction. There are good points and advice to be heard from various people that I otherwise never would have had the opportunity to interact with.

We thank Ms. Matic for giving her time for this interview.

Serbia: First Reactions to Acquittal of Sandor Kepiro

Sinisa Boljanovic — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:49:15 +0000

On Monday July 18, 2011, a court in Budapest acquitted 97-year-old Sandor Kepiro, a Second World War Hungarian police captain who served in occupied Serbia and, until recently, was “the most wanted Nazi.” He was charged with war crimes against Serbs, Jews and Roma during the Novi Sad Raid - a massacre perpetrated by Hungarians in January 1942.

Serbian B92 news portal published an article about it. It reports:

According to the indictment, he participated in the crime that took place in Novi Sad and surrounding locations. At least 1,200 Serbs, Jews and Roma were thrown in the river between January 21 and 23, 1942.
At the end of the war, Kepiro was sentenced to 10 and 14 years in prison for those crimes, but he avoided prison by fleeing to Austria and then Argentina in the summer of 1948.
He returned to Hungary in 1996 to spend his remaining days in his home country.

Monument to the victims of the 1942 Novi Sad massacre. Image by Zoran Jevtovic.

Not only members of victims’ families but also Serbian society on the whole have been shocked by the news. The court decision caused many reactions in both mainstream and social media.

Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s deputy war crimes prosecutor, reportedy said to TANJUG news agency:

This is a first-degree verdict and we can not comment on it. Of course, we are not happy with it and expect the Hungarian prosecutor to appeal it.

He added that it was important to deliver justice to the victims.

Efraim Zurof, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said [sr] to Radio Free Europe:

I expected that he would be sentenced by the court… the only question was: whether and how he would be punished. That is what I expected, and I think they who support him expected the same. The acquittal was a total shock! That is a travesty of justice and a terrible result that will leave a stain on the Hungarian court. There is no doubt the verdict is an insult to the victims of the Raid

Ivan Ivanji, a Jewish novelist who lost many family members during World War II and who personally survived Holocaust, said [sr]:

…He will die in prison, in hospital or as a free man… maybe I surprise you, but I don't care about him at all. The road taken by our neighbor, Hungary, a member country of the European Union, is a much more serious problem.

Ana Frenkel a member of the Jewish Community of Novi Sad described how Kepiro committed the crime. She said, to the same media source:

He organized, and was going from house to house with his units, where he was personally killing and destroying the population… but, unfortunately, there is not a living eyewitness who would be able to recognize Šandor Kepiro from that time. We have him, but they unfortunately died.

Blogger Velimir Mladenovic in his B92 blog quoted [sr] some pieces from the books of Aleksandar Veljic, a man who was researching the terrible massacre in Novi Sad and published a lot of irrefutable evidence, such as official documents from archives, photos and lists of victims' names, their home addresses etc, that point to the fact that Sandor Kepiro participated in and committed the crime.

Below are some comments on Mladenovic's post.

Sesili says:

[…] I just heard it on the news that people in the courtroom were applauding when the acquittal was pronounced. But I was freezing this hot summer day reading the list of people who were killed…

kraljmajmuna asked a question:

Is it known why he is formally acquitted? […]

yugaya responded to kraljmajmuna:

[…] During the trial, most objections were raised on objectivity and “quality” of expert witnesses provided by the prosecutor’s office, as well as on the lack of evidence that would point to individual blame of the perpetrators, inadequate translations and lost documentation in regard to preliminary verdicts pronounced to Kepiro in Hungary, and according to them, he was sentenced [to 10 and 14 years] for the crimes.

apacherosepeacock says:

[…] It means, he had been convicted, ran away, [and then] returned [to Hungary] even 15 years ago, and?
If someone's sentence was in effect, and then he avoided prison running away [from the country], why was he not arrested when he came back?
Since the country of Serbia belongs to the “invertebrates” species, I trust Israel to make some protest.

Thumbnail image shows the 1942 Novi Sad Raid memorial, where 1,300 Jews, Roma and other minorities were drowned in the River Danube by the Hungarian police. Image by Flickr user iLikeSpoons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Serbia: Disgruntled Community Vs. Disgruntled Politician on Twitter

Danica Radisic — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:53:42 +0000

While social media is becoming ever more popular in politics worldwide, the Balkan states and their officials seem to be struggling with the very notion of social networking. Just weeks after an event promoting local blogs and citizen journalism, organized by bloggers and attended by a few rare officials, Serbia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vuk Jeremić, instigated a situation that may very well seriously damage any relations that local citizen media and some politicians have been building in recent years.

Minister Jeremic not only noticed a satirical, “fake” Twitter account partially bearing his name and image, @vookjeremic, but decided to report the matter of this account to Serbian police and influenced authorities to contact Twitter's administrators and have the account removed from the network. He then proceeded to take legal action against the creator of said account. Jeremic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claim that said account and what was being tweeted from it was insulting and damaging to Minister Jeremic and his foreign colleagues.

‘Stuck in the age of unilateral media'

Twitter accounts (mis)representing politicians and celebrities, usually in a satirical, sarcastic and often comedic fashion, have been popular on Twitter and other social networking sites for a while, which is logical as these are channels that allow individuals and groups of citizens to freely state their opinions. While a few rare southeastern European political figures have taken to social networks and learned to use them to their benefit, both personal and professional, Vuk Jeremic seems to be stuck in the age of unilateral media.

It is true that insults and defamation should be sanctioned and are illegal. Dragan Pleskonjic, a b92.net blogger emphasizes that “Twitter Rules” clearly state that users “may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others.” In this blog post [sr], this blogger goes on to say:

I would rather not place myself on the side of the Twitterer Vuk or Vook, real or fake Twitter account, or analyze the humoristic, social (un)reasoning, nor the action and reaction to the writings there and closing of the account. However, what I would like to say with this text is: if a company on the Web offers its services under certain terms, then it would be advised to read those terms well, before using their service. In the end, by the very registration of an account, you have agreed to the terms of service…

This brings about another question and one that is elementary in proving whether or not Mr. Jeremic and those like him have an adequate comprehention of social networks or the way people use and understand them. Are such “fake” accounts intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others? Or are they another tool that citizens use to demonstrate lack of satisfaction with their government officials?

In February, the New York Times, published an article on the very same subject, regarding fake accounts of United States politicians. The article says that “Twitter allows parody accounts as long as they are labeled as such…”.

Would the blatantly obvious misspelling of the Minister’s name, Vook instead of Vuk, and ridiculous tweets exchanged between the @vookjeremic account and the @FakeQaddafi account be obvious enough?

Weltschmerz, a Croatian living in Serbia, commented on this matter on his blog [hr]:

I don’t understand how many permilles (aproximately) of reasonable people can’t tell the difference between ‘Vook Jeremic’ and ‘Vuk Jeremic’. Nor how that can be defined as identity theft.

The aforementioned New York Times article also carries an interesting quote from a GOP consultant, Matt Mackowiak, for whom a fake and mocking account has been created on Twitter. Mr. Mackowiak, obviously undisturbed and even a little flattered by the account and what its authors tweet, stated:

The one thing everyone in Washington can use is a check on their own ego.

From the Sisala Vesla blog

The same would apply in this case. Serbia’s government can use a check on its own ego, and Vuk Jeremic may be first in line. Mr. Jeremic is getting that check these days as Serbian bloggers are in an uproar about his reaction and the actions taken by the authorities in this matter. According to Alo.rs [sr], the portal of the local mainstream print edition of the same name:

After the request of the Minister of Diplomacy, Vuk Jeremic, to remove the profile ‘@vookjeremic’ from the social network ‘Twitter’, Twitterers have been more active than before, opening accounts with the names of almost all the leading politicians [in Serbia].

Active participation solution

In that same article, Jasna Matic, former Minister of Telecommunications and Internet Society and current Secretary of Digital Agenda of the Republic of Serbia, also a very active member of the local Twitter community, recommended that active participation on social networks is a solution, rather than closing profiles and implementing bans:

The general attitude of people who are in the business of digital communication is that the proactive system is better than banning, but it is also as important to allow less room for misinformation. Worldwide, a high level of informedness is expected, in particular of government officials. Whenever that isn’t the case, a window for manipulation is opened.

Vladimir Stankovic, an elementary school principal and one of Serbia’s most popular bloggers, wrote a post ranting, within reason, about this case. DedaBor, as he is more commonly known in the regional blogosphere, concludes in a blog post of his own [sr]:

My advice, and the advice of the larger portion of people who regularly use social networks and know anything about crisis PR, crises in communications, is for Vuk Jeremic himself to tune in and begin using social networks.

If he [Vuk Jeremic] can sit and watch Novak Djokovic [at Wimbledon], then he can ask him to explain how to tweet. [Novak Djokovic, currently world no. 1 tennis player, is an avid Twitterer with over 230 thousand followers on his official and personal @DjokerNole account]. Should Nole refuse, he has several political colleagues that are more than solid examples: @jasnamatic [Secretary of Digital Agenda], @gordanacom [Deputy Speaker of the Serbian National Assembly], @cistacica [Oliver Dulic, Serbian Minister] and a few others….

Other social media users and leaders of the local online community have similar things to say, like Zoran Torbica, co-founder and vice president of the Center for Internet Development and a formidable regional Twitter evangelist among politicians, local celebrities and high-level corporate executives, who recently gave a statement to Moja portal [sr], saying:

It [the reaction of the online community] isn’t a war against Jeremic, but simply the fact that he irritated people by the way he requested that the account [@vookjeremic] be shut down…

I don’t deny that they had the right to shut it down, it may have been better if Vuk Jeremic had been taught to run a Twitter account of his own and, in that case, all other accounts that resemble his own wouldn’t be less followed and would close with time.

Another favorite local blogger, the highly opinionated Mahlat, often uses vernacular to depict any situation and puts things into a “people’s” perspective in this case as well [sr]:

Now I wonder, how much of an optimist does a politician in Serbia need to be to think that noone will mock what they say, when they know that they say nothing. We’ve all learned the tune, we’re bored with it. And he [Vuk Jeremic] complains that someone is dragging his image and work through mud. Politician commrades, you can only ask for the respect of your image and work, whatever it is that you do, from your immediate families, those who share a bed and coalition partners with you. Those with whom you have deceived all of us.

You’re just lucky that most Serbs are still offline, were it different you wouldn’t be doing as well… Every love has a price, consider yourselves lucky that you are paying merely with mockery, it could be worse, history has already proven that.

And in regards to that, were it not sad, it might be funny. All that has been written.

Concluding with ‘Vuk Jeremic the Target of Fraud on Twitter’…

It seems that the issue of freedom of speech in the online community will remain a subject of debate in the days and weeks to come in Serbia and the region. What is clear so far is that politics, with disgruntled citizens on the one end and seemingly equally disgruntled politicians on the other, is still a hot issue in the Balkans.

One of the initial reasons that the Internet quickly became popular in the late 1990s in Serbia, was the political state in the country. Rectifying the image the world had of us, getting information out and getting information in, criticizing the regime of the time and having our voices heard outside of the walls of a damaged country and society - those were the driving forces behind the expansion of Internet usage more than a decade ago.

The current regime should know that, as many of its members were actively participating in the online conversations of the time. Many of those in power in Serbia today, employed the Web to their and our collective benefit. It may be high time they learned to cope with Web 2.0.

Serbia: A Documentary on Belgrade's 1990s Rock Scene

Veronica Khokhlova — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:34:22 +0000

Belgraded.com posts a subtitled version of Ghetto - the Secret Life of the City, a documentary about Belgrade's alternative rock scene “of the worst period in the nineties, when turbo-folk became the way of life in Serbia.”

Macedonia: Views from Abroad on Protests Against Police Violence

Filip Stojanovski — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:18:50 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.

Ordinary people's reactions to the protests against police brutality in Macedonia indicate the strength of the grip of the traditional media, which is not very keen on relaying such “unpopular” news, and highlights the opportunities for solidarity once the information gets through.

Jovana Tozija, a Macedonian woman residing in Germany, wrote [mk, en] about the reactions of her friends:

Many of my international friends asked what’s going on in Macedonia after they saw me spamming on Facebook with links to sites with strange letters and when they saw that I'd changed my profile picture. I briefly explained to them the incident with the murder of Martin Neshkovski. Here are their responses and my personal analysis of their initial instant reactions.

A Russian woman: So? The police killed a man. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? There is nothing you can do about it.

Obviously, the awareness about freedom of speech in this country is not on the highest level. I don’t know if it is because they are afraid or because it is not developed enough. But I do know that there is over-centralized power of the oligarchs and there is literally nothing you can do about it.

An Iranian man: Only one person was killed?

This was his instant reaction. It’s not easy for him as well. He has seen worse. Last year, during the green revolution in Iran, the government was killing young people, just because [Ahmadinejad] would not recognize the electoral fraud. A bunch of progressive young people were protesting and they failed. Many of them were killed and Ahmadinejad is still in power.

A German woman: How can it be that for 2 days it was not known who the boy was and the case was not reported?

The people of this country are used to the fact that the institutions do their job by default. She was not interested in how a member of the special police units could kill a young man, but how the case could stumble throughout the institutions.

A Croatian man: OMG, the police is going to send us to our graves.

I don’t have a comment on this and don’t know what to think about it. I suppose he is a proponent of the [ACAB] theory.

Bulgarian blogger Yurukov wrote [bg] on his blog several days after protests started:

Why no Bulgarian media have informed about this protest for a week? Why do I have to learn about it from Twitter, and only because by chance I follow several Macedonians? What are they waiting for? An official position from the Ministry of the Interior or from [Prime Minister Boyko Borisov]? Has it come that far? Are we afraid that the media would be blamed for inciting unrest if the protests spread to Bulgaria? Why even the publications that are considered freer keep silent? Or should we wait for the news to become popular, so we can talk about it?

Yurukov noted that in the week after the protests started, only two internet portals published information in Bulgarian: Dir.bg and News.bg. (In addition, these two exceptional media outlets did not post follow-up articles in the next few weeks.)

The website Stop police violence published an article [mk/sr] about the support for the protests from the female choir “Kombinat” [sl] from Slovenia:

We are sending a photo of support, taken during our concert in [Celje], dedicated to you, who protest against police brutality in Macedonia. We'll send you [a petition] signed at the concert. People in Slovenia have no idea what's going on in Macedonia, because the media do not write or speak about it… Accept our solidarity and support, we are with you in our thoughts and hearts…

No Pasaran!

Kombinat concert in Celje, Slovenia. Photo by Kombinat, used with permission.

Macedonian protesters keep inviting people from abroad to show their support for the protests by writing or making videos about them.

This post is part of our special coverage Macedonia Protests 2011.

Serbia: Demanding Apology From Comedian Chelsea Handler

Sasa Milosevic — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:19:18 +0000

Nearly 44,000 Serbs have joined the Facebook group ‘Boycott of Chelsea Handler until she apologizes to the Serbian people‘, demanding an apology from the popular American female comedian for the offensive remarks she made about the Serbian nation during her show Chelsea Lately, aired on June 20, 2011.

The Facebook page explains that Handler “ruthlessly attacked Serbia and its people” for some three minutes with guests Chris Franjola, Natasha Leggero and Greg Proops. The comedian began by talking about Amy Winehouse's intoxicated performance in Belgrade on June 18, and, irritated by the fact that no one had even tried to stop the singer from appearing on the stage, she attacked the whole Serbian nation.

Facebook group ‘Boycott of Chelsea Handler until she apologizes to the Serbian people‘

Commenting on the fact that as many as 20,000 Serbian fans paid 40 euros for their tickets to enjoy Amy Winehouse's performance, Handler said:

I can’t believe they even allow Serbians to go to concerts. I didn’t even know that was going on over there…

One of the show's guests, Greg Proops, chimed in, while another one laughed uncontrollably:

They’re calling it a disaster in Serbia. This is a place they’ve had ethnic cleansing and genocide. Her concert was a bigger bummer than that… […] After Serbia, where was she going, like Kazakistan [sic] or something?

One of the crucial reason for such a furious Serbian reaction was Handler's insult to Serbia's Minister of Defence Dragan Šutanovac, after a comment he had posted on his Facebook page, noting that “Amy Winehouse's concert was a shame and a huge disappointment” - to which Handler's response was:

Well, so is your country.

Šutanovac, who has some 5,000 friends on Facebook, replied:

Dear friends, the show of “comedian” Chelsea made me react the same way as you did! Not funny, arrogant, shallow, mean… Only those who do not know anything about us, or want to insult us and draw our attention and anger, can make such comments about a country and its people! Having in mind that it is a show with fake applause of paid audience and comments from people who, to their disadvantage, are not even aware how little they know about Serbia, I did not want to react in a way that is expected from “uncivilized” Serbs! The whole idea was to irritate us and make us react exactly the way we were described, but I am not going to help them with it, on the contrary! Heads up, let’s go on, since they do not know who were Tesla, Pupin, Milankovic… Novak Djoković will teach them!

Marija Rajic [sr] comments sadly:

It is so miserable to compare us to criminals. I watched the series “Criminal Minds” and in one episode they saying that we have committed ethnic cleansing, and from that chaos were created mass murderers that kill in America…

James Sullivan wrote:

Chelsea Handler isn't going to apologize. Look at her past behavior. She's often stated that she dislikes minorities (people who aren't white). Many of her comments attack entire groups of people based on their ethnic and racial heritage and not because they said or did anything wrong. She also appears to dislike Eastern Europeans (Russians and Serbs). She's basically an unrepetant racist.

Richard Alan Koons Jr concluded:

I think its going a little far, first off she's protected by the first amendment which entitles her to freedom of speech, even if it's involving racism. I love Serbian people, and when I was in Europe they treated me like a king, it was offensive to even me when she said those things. Serbs are not bad people, but its a waste of time to be honest.

Sergej Nesic wrote:

I don't understand why those people paid all that money to see that junky loser [Amy Winehouse]. For that money they could've had a great night out in Belgrade. […]

In addition to the Facebook page, Jelena Ajdarević launched an online petition also in an effort to draw attention to Handler’s remarks; so far, there are over 20,000 signatures there.

Handler's show has triggered a diplomatic reaction of the Serbian Embassy in the United States, which sent a protest letter to NBC Universal. In his letter, the Serbian Ambassador Vladmir Petrovic wrote:

[…] We urge Handler and her producers to revisit her list of “topics that cross the line” and add her slurs against Serbia and its people to it. We also urge her to think of causes dear to her heart, such as equality. Her superior tone and statements run afoul of her honorable efforts towards achieving true equality – be it between individuals, communities, or nations. […]

Handler has so far ignored the Serbian Facebook demand for apology, but Proops did apologize through Twitter:

Dear Serbs, they were jokes. Please accept my apology. I am well and truly sorry. Hvala.

While Serbians are demanding an apology from Handler, none of them mentions the fact that the Serbian comedy group ‘Kursadžije‘ has for years been insulting other Balkan nations with whom Serbia was at war during the 1990s. The group's enormous popularity shows that many Serbs do enjoy this kind of tasteless humor, as long as it is not directed at themselves.