
The newspapers Informer, Alo, Večernje novosti, Kurir and Srpski telegraf published at least 1,174 manipulative headlines on their front pages last year, mostly in the form of unsubstantiated or biased claims, disinformation or fabrication of facts, according to the latest data from the Raskrikavanje analysis. The figure also shows that the number of controversial claims on headlines has increased compared to a year earlier. At the same time, the companies behind these tabloids received more than 800,000 euros from public budgets in 2022. Informer had the highest number of manipulative news stories – disinformation, biased or claims for which there was no evidence – last year, with 363, followed by Serbian Telegraf with at least 253, then Večernje Novosti with 238 such headlines, Alo with 198 and Kurir with 122 such claims.
The results of the analysis show that more manipulations were published on the headlines last year than the year before. In 2021, Raskrikavanje listed less than 1,000 controversial or inaccurate claims on the front pages of six tabloids (including Objektiv, which ceased publication last year).
This could be due to the important events that have marked the past year and have been a “treasure trove” of various manipulations for the tabloids – notably the war in Ukraine and its aftermath, the parliamentary and presidential elections in April, and the events in Kosovo.
Depending on the period and the events, different actors took turns on the headlines, but some stood out in particular. In the first half of the year, we had the opportunity to see opposition leader Dragan Đilas on the front pages more often, as well as Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, while in the second half of the year, the Kosovo Prime Minister, or Albin Kurti, appeared frequently (in a negative context). The only one who appeared continuously throughout the year, almost always in a positive context, and sometimes in a neutral context, was Aleksandar Vucic, whose face appeared on the front pages of these five newspapers at least 851 times.
The predominant form of manipulation, as we have seen, was unsubstantiated headlines, for which there was little or no evidence or argument in the text itself. In addition, biased claims in the form of comments, insults or “shouts” at the expense of various actors, at the expense of arguments, were prevalent, which led the tabloids to openly take sides. We also saw several cases of fabrication of facts and disinformation and fake news.
We did not analyse showbiz and sports news, with the exception of the events surrounding the deportation of Novak Đoković from Australia in early 2022.
Informer War Games
The pro-regime tabloid Informer was the undisputed champion of headline manipulation last year, too, according to a count by the journalists of Raskrinkavanje – at least 363 of them, i.e. more than once a day, as 306 issues were published during the year. .
The year started with a reckoning with the opposition leaders, as Serbia was facing elections in the spring. We could read articles about „Savo CIA Manojlović“ preparing ‘bloody riots’, Ponos as a ‘NATO candidate’, ‘fake environmentalists’, ‘enemies’ and ‘fools’ from the opposition. In the campaign against them, this tabloid often claimed that they had said something they had not – “spinning” other people’s statements was one of the most common forms of manipulation in Informer last year.
At the end of February, Informer opened an era of war manipulation with the now-familiar “Ukraine invades Russia” headline, and in the months to come, this tabloid will write about how Putin has “trampled” Ukraine, how his “lightning strike” has “struck” “happened and how Ukraine is on its knees “praying for mercy”. The image of the Russian President has appeared 86 times on the front pages.
During the war, the tabloids wrote about the food and energy crises, and in European countries: ‘EU asks for gas’ or ‘Switzerland – whoever heats up an apartment to more than 19 degrees goes to jail’, we found that the word was pure disinformation.
We also saw the headline: ‘World faces severe famine’, followed immediately by the claim that ‘Serbia has enough food’. This, by the way, was the usual narrative of the pro-regime media when talking about the economic consequences of war – the world is almost starving, Serbia is under control – and Raskrikavanje also wrote about this last year in a major analysis of media coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
While in the first half of the year the main negative figure was Dragan Đilas, whose picture was published at least 32 times in a negative context, as in the previous year, since the second half of the year – with the escalation of the crisis in Kosovo – the “baton” has been taken up by Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti. His face has appeared at least 49 times on the front pages of Informer, and each time Informer has minced no words – labelling him, among other things, a “ticking time bomb”, a “Siptarian scumbag” and a “psychopath from Pristina”.
The coverage of Kosovo was accompanied by frequent war declarations, especially at a time when the Kosovo government was trying to introduce RKS number plates, and then Raskrinkaanje analysed what the media-propaganda fire-mongering from Belgrade and Pristina looked like.
The word war was just one of the most frequent headlines in this tabloid.
At the same time, the personality cult of President Aleksandar Vučić was carefully maintained, appearing 142 times on the front pages, almost exclusively in a positive context – preventing declared wars and calming tensions, “defending Serbia” and “smashing” opponents.
Serbian Telegraph ‘dominated’ with Vucic photos
The Serbian Telegraph published at least 253 unfounded, biased and other manipulative claims on its front pages.
The tabloid’s main positive was, predictably, Aleksandar Vucic, whose photo appeared at least 242 times on the front page alone – by far the most of any other newspaper. We looked at his face when he was quoted, when a state visit was reported, when investment was the topic, and also when someone (unsuccessfully) tried to ‘break’ him.
The Serbian Telegraph expressed its support for the President by describing his policies as “wise” and him as a man who “leads the lion’s fight”, “knows no defeat” and “rejects all pressure like a wall”. At the end of the election campaign, he was dubbed “Alexander the Great”, and a day later the front page featured an illustration of Vucic as the Terminator, with Belgrade landmarks, cranes and construction sites in the background, with the caption “MACHINE”.
The narrative that the pro-regime tabloids “weave” around Vucic should convince readers not only of his power, but also of his vulnerability. The Serbian telegraph has presented him so often over the past year – as a victim, a man “broken by both East and West”, “enduring unprecedented pressures” and “the culprit on duty for everything” .
Vladimir Putin is the second most-featured politician – his photo has been published in this tabloid at least 162 times, significantly more than in any other newspaper. Unlike others, the Serbian Telegraph has changed its approach to reporting on Russia and Putin during the war, which you can read about in a separate analysis.
Every story needs the negative as well as the positive. Last year it was Albin Kurti, whose face appeared at least 32 times on the headlines of the Serbian Telegraph. He was said to be “primitive” and “evil”, repeatedly accused of “wanting war” and “wanting blood”.
After the meeting of the two statesmen at the negotiating table in Brussels was reported, Vučić was presented as dominant without argument. At the end of November, for example, they published a text saying that “Kurti must not look Vucic in the eye” – on the basis of an “analysis” of his body language, they concluded that he “shows extreme fear and discomfort in direct talks with Aleksandar Vucic, unlike Vucic, who acts extremely firm, determined, prepared”. As evidence, they attached several photographs of Kurti looking at papers on a table or of Josep Borel and Miroslav Lajcak, who were also at the meeting. However, there is also a photograph on the European Council’s website of the same meeting, where Kurti is looking Vučić in the eye.
The Serbian Telegraph has also taken a swipe at recent associates of Aleksandar Vučić. For example, former Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic was claimed to be “training with the opposition”, to be “blackmailing and attacking because she is losing her chair” and to be “directly attacking Vucic”. She was repeatedly accused, without evidence, of giving information to the Nova newspaper because she feared of loosing job and “paying Šolak’s media to write promotional articles about how hard-working, smart and house-keeping she is”.
Former Defence Minister Nebojša Stefanović did no better. After former State Secretary Dijana Hrkalovic’s interview with Objektiv, in which he accused Stefanovic of protecting Veljko Belivuk, the Serbian Telegraph called for his arrest: “There is no turning back now, arrest the state.” Almost every mention of Stefanovic was followed by biased or sensationalist headlines such as “Fear, Nebojša”, “Minister hid in a mouse hole”, “Stefanovic collecting debts for Šarić”, etc.
Večernje novosti and the Serbs as eternal victims of regional and Western intrigues
Third on the list of the most manipulations counted (at least 238) is Večernje novosti.
This document is very often manipulated by presenting doubts and speculations as facts, by unjustified generalisations, by statements such as “there is no doubt” and “beyond doubt” for things that are doubtful and unreliable, by subtle insertion of journalistic, suggestive comments in reports of facts, such as ‘Washington’s blackmailing tone’ or ‘hotheads in Kiev’, and it was also the case that they did not have a single source in the text, i.e. they made strong assertions without any substantiation.
While Večernje novosti did not deal specifically with the Vucic opposition or the SNS people, it traditionally dealt mainly with the “enemies” from the region – Albin Kurti, the Albanians and the Croats – in a negative context, compared to all other newspapers.
Kurti has appeared on the front pages of Večernje novosti mainly in a negative context and using inflammatory rhetoric, often without evidence for the claims made. In the black-and-white perspective of Večernji novosti, this is how things looked throughout the year: Kurti, in cooperation with his allies in the West, is preparing various atrocities and is receiving support from them against the Serbs, who are often uncritically portrayed as passive and victimised in Večernje novosti. As this newspaper has claimed all year, the Serbs have been worked on by many people – Kurti, the Albanians, Milo Đukanović, the European Union, the Croats, NATO …
The positives were Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also Milorad Dodik, who was presented as one of Serbia’s few cross-border friends. But Aleksandar Vucic was the most represented in Večernje novosti, with his photo appearing on the front page 161 times, almost every other day.
Večernje novosti has maintained his cult of personality in a similar way to Informer – by fostering tension for days with harsh and unfounded words and declarations of war, only to have him dispel this tension in a single day. For example, for ten days before the end of the year, dramatic headlines about the barricade crisis in Kosovo ran virtually every day – “Kurti wants a massacre at the barricades”, “Kurti’s terror with Germany’s approval”, “Vucic’s brother and son on the kill list”, “Kurti’s policemen shot at Serbs”, “He raised an army to attack Serbs”, “They want to kick us all out of Kosovo”. After that dramatic week, there was a resolution in the form of the President: ‘Guarantees received, remove the barricades’, with a large photograph of Vucic.
The foreign policy issue that dominated the many manipulations in this pro-regime newspaper was the war in Russia. As we wrote in last year’s analysis, Vechernye Novosti reported on the war as a Kremlin PR centre – with an overwhelming reliance on Russian sources and reporting in favour of Russia and from a Russian point of view. All possible civilian crimes in Ukraine were denied and relativised, with claims that it was a staged event “like Markale and Recak”.
In the spirit of the nationalist rhetoric of this newspaper, last year Večernje Novosti also did not miss the opportunity to deny the genocide in Srebrenica, with headlines such as “Srebrenica, Recak, Bucha, one face of propaganda”, “Serbs attacked to take revenge”. ‘NATO surrenders Srebrenica’ or ‘Signing genocide then entering Potocari’, where it was claimed that anyone wishing to visit the memorial centre in Potocari would have to sign at the entrance to acknowledge the genocide. According to the Centre, this was not the case.
Alo: Manipulation of statements and Đilas where there is no Đilas
Last year, we recorded at least 198 biased, unfounded or otherwise manipulative news stories on the front pages of the tabloid Alo.
One of the characteristics of this tabloid is that the claims of various analysts or politicians are often presented on the front pages as unquestionable truth. What appears as fact on the front page turns out in the text to be someone’s assertion (which is not necessarily true), most often unargued, speculation or opinion.
This tabloid also did not deviate from the usual reporting template followed by other pro-regime media – there are positives (Vucic) and negatives (Albin Kurti, opposition leaders, Croats).
Aleksandar Vučić appeared on the front pages of these newspapers at least 122 times last year, i.e. on average every third day, mostly as a dominant leader.
Thus, before the elections themselves, Alo described the individuals who supported Vučić as a “dream team” and his policies as “responsible and statesmanlike”. Vucic’s speech to the UN General Assembly was described by Alo as “historic”, and enthusiastically noted that it “dismantled the world’s hypocrisy” and “turned everyone’s face”. To illustrate this point, as Raskrinkavanje wrote at the time, they used a photograph of a packed hall, which was actually taken during the address by the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN, while the hall was half empty during Vucic’s speech.
Alo did not spare the hard words of Albin Kurti, the number 1 negative of the previous year. He was described as a “thug”, a “madman”, a “criminal”, a “terrorist”, a “Serb-hater” and a “Pristina clown”. The negative campaign against Kurti was most pronounced in the summer, when Kosovo announced new measures on identity documents, and at the end of the year, when Kosovo Serbs set up barricades over the arrest of a Serbian policeman.
One of the headlines from that period shows just what manipulative reporting looks like, with the claim that ‘Kurti openly announced he would kill Serbs’ and the comment ‘Horrifying’. In the newspaper, the reader learns that the reason for the text is Kurti’s statement to the Guardian, in which he actually said that “we are concerned that the removal of the barricades will not exclude the victims”. It is clear from the text that not only did he not predict the killing of Serbs, but on the contrary – he stated that ‘we want to be as careful as possible so that there is no destabilisation and relative peace and security. “But this sentence was not in the text, and the Guardian’s fictitious threats were commented on by Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, Defence Minister Milos Vučević and the Director of the Office for Kosovo, Petar Petković.
Other “enemies”, such as Dragan Đilas, who was labelled an “opposition tycoon” and a “hypocrite”, were also subjected to pejorative language and put on the front page, even though he was not mentioned at all in the text. Thus, we noted a headline in which Alo claimed that “Serbs are murderers for Đilas and Marinika”, referring to an article in Danas. This text does not mention either Đilas or Marinika Tepić, but it does relay the testimony of a witness at the Hague who claimed that Serbian forces killed civilians during the war in Kosovo. Alo “justified” the cover with the following words: “The Danas newspaper, which is controlled by (…) Đilas and his right-hand man Marinika Tepić, continued to present Serbs as murderers, rapists and criminals.”
Improved ethical standards of the Kurir: “Whoever sleeps with Đilas wakes up furious”
At least 122 unfounded or biased claims and other types of manipulation were published on Kurir’s front pages last year.
Vucic’s picture appeared on the front page on average every other day – at least 184 times – which is why this tabloid is in second place, after Srpski telegraf. The President was presented in a positive or neutral context, and positive attitudes towards him were often expressed in just one word: “Stable”, “Decisive”, “Principled”, “Consistent”, “Responsible”, “Strong”. ..
In a similar way, Kurir expressed bias towards some other actors, for example Albin Kurti, whose political moves were followed on the front pages by the epithets “Transparent” or “Perfidio”, while the actions of the opposition leaders were judged “Irresponsible”, “Powerlessness” and the like. Politicians and other actors from Croatia and Montenegro were also written about “Miserable”, “Desperate Move”, “Disgrace”, “Kompleksaši”…
Dragan Šolak, for example, was claimed to be a “money-grabber” and to be “laundering his biography”, followed by the comment “The frog saw the horse being shod”. We noted a few more examples of the use of folk sayings in a similar context (“The village is burning and Zorana is combing”), but a particularly interesting one was “Whoever sleeps with Đilas wakes up furious”. This title announced “an analysis of the political liquidations of Dragan Đilas”.
And Kurir, like other tabloids, sometimes “passed” photographs of certain actors through filters if they were “negatives”. Thus, Vucic’s face in the photographs is “smoothed” and without the contrast used in the photographs of Kurti or opposition politicians, whose faces looked tired, sick and sinister in some of the headlines.
In addition to the biased headlines, there were also unsubstantiated headlines, i.e. claims for which there was no evidence or adequate arguments in the text itself to “justify” them.
For example, an alleged statement by the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, that “Serbia occupied Kosovo” was reported, which Raskrinkavanje already at the time found to be unsubstantiated, but Klitschko himself quickly denied. It was also reported that North Korea was sending 100 000 troops to Putin, which the world’s fact-checkers judged a few days ago to be a claim for which there was no evidence – and, what is more, the Russian Ministry of Diplomacy denied such a claim to Newsweek.
Manipulations ensure readership, readership ensures earnings
At the same time, the companies behind these papers have entered into subcontracts with the state, local governments, foundations and institutions over the past year.
They have mainly served through advertising tenders and, to a lesser extent, through tenders for the co-financing of projects. These contracts have paid them more than 800,000 euros from public budgets, which you can read about in the special text Raskrinkavanje./Raskrinkavanje/