Discussion: Media and Revisionism about the 1990s Wars in Serbia

On Monday, 10 April 2023, at 6pm, in CROCODILE’s Centre (43 Karađorđeva St, Belgrade), Humanitarian Law Center is organising a discussion on the topic of Media and Revisionism about the 1990s Wars in Serbia.

At the discussion, the eponymous report will be presented, an analysis of historical revisionism of the wars in the nineties in Serbian media from 2000 to date, by author Katarina Ristić, researcher of the Leipzig University.

In the first period, until 2012, media challenged the war facts primarily following the model of “the spiral of silence”, charging the discoveries of the crimes with a deafening noise in public. After 2012, with the new government in office, revisionist narratives have been on the rise, consolidated within media controlled by the state and mushrooming tabloid press. The review also highlights that the new, revisionist history, predominant in the second period, builds on the heroic heroic remembrance of the Serbian army, which is tapped as the source of Serbian pride. This, the idea of Serbian victims is revived, discarding any accountability for crimes.

The findings of the report, as well as the general attitude of the Serbian media to the wars of the 1990s will be discussed by:

Katarina Ristić, researcher at the Global and Europan Studies Institute (GESI), Leipzig University

Svetlana Lukić, journalist and editor of the “Peščanik“ portal

Milica Stojanović, BIRN’s journalist

The discussion will be moderated by Isidora Stakić, Activities Coordinator of the Memory Program at the Humanitarian Law Center.

Simultaneous interpretation into the English language has been provided.

The report Media and Revisionism about the 1990s Wars in Serbia will be available after the event on the Humanitarian Law Center’s website.