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Willie_Garvin

Listed below are comments made by Willie_Garvin between Tuesday, 13th May 2008 and Tuesday, 13th May 2008.

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A high price for Serbia's master of spin 11:11pm on 13 May 2008 Americanica,

My 'complaint' is neither of the two options you propose.

My observation of political journalists and editors in Belgrade is that they are schooled, trained and expected to report as is. They go to great lengths to ensure accuracy in their reports. They are proud of not (apparently) showing any bias, subjectivity, or advocacy. The bias comes at the ownership level. The owner of a particular media outlet will proscribe the degree to which each party or individual is given column inches. True journalistic 'independence' is thus scarce - albeit perceived by the practitioners themselves!

Advocacy journalism is no less damaging. Whereas in Belgrade the politician can work the system to place any comment (truth or lie) directly into the public domain, the editor/journalist takes the lead in dictating the 'news' with their 'indpendent' advocacy.

I would like to see more 'informative' journalism - both here in Belgrade and elsewhere. 'Informative' journalism takes the quotations and places them into context. It doesn't make any attempt to advocate one opinion or another, it simply informs of the background.

Here's an illustration.
1) Yesterday President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, stated that, 'the SAA was a valid and binding legal document." He also said that, "blah, blah, blah..."
2) Yesterday President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, stated that, 'the SAA was a valid and binding legal document." The EU also issued a statement to the effect that the SAA would only become valid after the EU council has determined that Serbia is fully cooperating with the ICTY (ie Mladic is arrested and deported to the Hague) and that all EU member states ratify the SAA in their national parliaments.
3) Yesterday President of Serbia, and leader of the DS, Boris Tadic, maintained his stance on moving Serbia towards EU integration. The signing of the SAA was a clear indicator of this and is a "valid and binding legal document" according to him.
4) Yesterday President of Serbia, and leader of the DS, Boris Tadic, maintained his stance on misleading the Serbian citizens on their future integration with Europe. He deliberately made upbeat statements concerning the validity and legalilty of the SAA recently signed whereas the EU themselves have attached so many caveats that the document is worthless in its current form.

I'd like to seee more of the second version of the same story. Wouldn't you? The line is not that fine at all. It is artificially narrowed by ownership and editorial bias and the ability to be manipulated by outside influences.
A high price for Serbia's master of spin 3:12pm on 13 May 2008 Pozdrav Milivoje,

I am a little confused.

You spent 4 years working in Serbia for an NGO actively promoting the EU ideal to Serbs.

Now you live in the EU and all you can see is faults, problems and 'lies'.

Could it be that you were, unwittingly, one of those actively promoting some of the political 'lies' abundant in Serbia?

Mark Mardell's words above demonstrate again the poor understanding of the politics, the mentality and the fundamental realities of the Balkans by those outside the region. He is a senior BBC journalist and should know better.

I suspect he and his collegues rely on the 'informed' opinions of a far too narrow section of Belgrade's populace and do not have the inclination to substantiate those 'opinions' from a wider and more objective audiance.

He is also, I suspect, influenced by the apparent need to maintain consistency in the BBC reporting. I mean, it wouldn't do if he wrote a piece on Serbia which contradicted everything that has gone before and contrary to UK policy. That would be like saying that both HMG and the BBC have got it all wrong for the past 15 years, wouldn't it.
A high price for Serbia's master of spin 1:03pm on 13 May 2008 Milivoje,

Yes I understand Serbian. Yes I read Belgrade newspapers. Yes I even speak with Serbian politicians in their language - some don't speak English. No I am not a journalist myself.

However, I have a number of friends in the Belgrade press pack and I have had the same discussion with them that I outline above.

Generally, they are actually quite proud of the fact that they 'report' the political scene. They feel it is their 'duznost' (duty) to report verbatim what a politician says, rather than to analyse and place into background context the words.

So if Tadic says, 'it is better to fight for Kosovo from within EU than without' (my paraphrasing), the media prints it and people believe it as is. No attempt is made to qualify said words that Serbia cannot get into EU without first saying good-bye to Kosovo!

The Belgrade media has had great fun over the past two weeks 'reporting' word-for-word the spat between DSS and DS over the "lazni" SAA and the alleged 'accompanying document'. They also gleefully 'report' Tadic's words about it being a 'legal and binding document'. Almost no mention of the fact that the EU has made it crystal clear that implementation of the SAA will only be considered AFTER the EU Council declares Serbia to be "in full cooperation" with ICTY and AFTER individual EU member states ratify the document in their national parliaments. These two simple 'facts' have been depressingly absent from Belgrade print media and many ill-informed citizens remain convinced Serbia has made a great leap towards EU membership.
A high price for Serbia's master of spin 11:21am on 13 May 2008 Tadic does not use 'spin' in the sense understood in London, Brussels or Washington. Serbian politics is based upon direct lies fed through the media direct to the public. They all lie, it is expected, so the public is apathetic.

However, in the past 6 weeks, the lies emanating from Tadic and the DS faithful have been some of the most fanciful and, frankly, shameful lies of all. The notion of joining EU and 'keeping' Kosovo is preposterous; the sense of closing on the EU whilst ignoring the Mladic problem is shameful.

Generally, the Serbian daily media does not have the institutional capacity - or the integrity - to act as a check on these excesses. Thus the lies are disseminated and perpetuated.

For me, the disappointment is that the foreign media continues to give these misconceptions support and wider coverage. Is it through laziness in doing the research and analysis of the background; fundamental ignorance of the subject matter; or have you all simply been beguiled by the smooth talking Serbian politician?

Comparing CeSID independent monitoring results from yesterday to official RIK statistics of the January 2007 election...
The SRS (Radicals) remain the single largest party in parliament (78 seats) and seen a slight increase in public support - about 4,000 votes.
The LDP made minor gains given that their tally this time was almost identical to last year, but this time alone and not with LSV (Canak).
The SPS/PUPS/JS coalition (Dacic et al) lost about 40,000 from the individual returns last year.
The DSS/NS coalition (Kostunica-Ilic) saw the biggest fall of around 200,000.
And finally, the "European Serbia" coalition, a gain of about only 180,000 votes in total compared to the individual results previously. Moreover, the DS 'share' of this pie is about 1,000,000 votes and 66 seats projected.

In effect, a large chunk of less Kosovo-dogmatic DSS supporters jumped ship the the "European Serbia" coalition.

So, President Tadic, your DS is still only the second biggest in Serbia despite your protestations to the contrary. The G17 are unreliable partners: they have chose to ally with Kostunica and the DSS rather than yourself during the past 4 years. And Draskovic (SPO) is nothing but a self-serving opportunist interested only in securing some form of public life for himself and his wife. Remember, he used to be a vice-PM under Milosevic!

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