Belgrade: Serbia's behavior towards Bosnia and Herzegovina shows we are on the brink of a new conflict

(Patria) - Columnist and writer Teofil Pančić said that there is a "silence about the past" in the media in Serbia, because "the past is not over," but rather those who participated in the war propaganda of Milošević's regime in the 1990s are still in leading positions in numerous media outlets.

"There is no confrontation with the past in society in Serbia, because confronting the past always implies confronting responsibility," Pančić said at a forum in the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV).

As an example of the failure to confront the past and responsibility, he cited the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, based on how the media in Serbia still report on it today, "as if it came out of nowhere, that is, as if wars had not already been going on for a decade before that and as if Serbia had nothing to do with those wars," N1 reports.

Pančić assessed that there is a nexus of nationalism, tribalism, and organized religion at play in Serbia.

Historian Milivoj Bešlin said that the example of the NATO bombing illustrates what happens when history is stripped of context, because then space opens up for the falsification of history.

"Serbia in 2020, whether it is Vučić's or Đilas's, is deeply identified with the crimes of the 1990s - that is a broad consensus around nationalism," Bešlin assessed.

According to his words, criminal responsibility for committed crimes is always individual, but political responsibility is borne by the entire political elite.

"Responsibility can also be moral, and it belongs to the entire Serbian society and citizens," Bešlin assessed and added that the ideology of nationalism is deeply embedded in the foundations of society in Serbia, to the extent that people no longer distinguish national identity from nationalist ideology.

He added that the media picture in Serbia today is by far the worst in Europe and stated that "re-dressed radicals in power" today on national television channels and tabloids are essentially broadcasting "Radical Waves," a show of the Serbian Radical Party from the 1990s.

"The re-dressed radicals in power have indeed fatally changed the blood picture of Serbia. Their European veneer has worn off and they have returned to what they know best," Bešlin stated.

He also assessed that Serbia's behavior towards Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that we are "again on the brink of a new Balkan conflict."

Bešlin said that he is "frightened" by the promotion by certain media of Mlađan Đorđević, a former advisor to former Serbian President Boris Tadić, as a counter-candidate to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in the 2022 presidential elections, and said that he is a "Russian man" and that he is no alternative to Vučić's regime.

He added that he is frightened by the "fascism with titles and masks" of Vuk Jeremić's People's Party and assessed that such fascism is far more dangerous than the fascism of Boško Obradović's Dveri Movement.

"Writer Mirko Kovač said that the elite is worse than the mob, and that is evident in Serbia today," Bešlin assessed.

Gruhonjić: Too little solidarity in the media

Journalist Dinko Gruhonjić assessed that among the "few" professional media outlets in Serbia there is "too little solidarity," and the social alternative boils down to "obsession with Vučić."

"Ever since 2012, when the re-dressed radicals came to power, I cannot stop being amazed at those who are amazed every day by the moves of Vučić's regime. How can they be amazed, does that mean they had some expectations from Aleksandar Vučić? Those who present themselves as a social and political alternative are constantly dealing with Vučić, instead of organizing and offering Serbia the only real alternative, and that is the fight against nationalism," Gruhonjić said.

According to his words, the constant preoccupation with Vučić is actually "an excuse for laziness, inaction, incompetence, and lack of ideas."

"So much preoccupation with Vučić has led to the whole of Serbia starting to resemble Vučić. His alleged fiercest critics have actually turned into Vučić. They have been caught by Stockholm syndrome, they have fallen in love with their kidnapper," Gruhonjić assessed.

The forum "Media silence about the past" was organized by the Forum ZFD from Belgrade, and was held in the new Media Hub of the NDNV in Novi Sad, Beta reports.