Original article (in Serbian) was published on 11/7/2025; Author: Teodora Koledin
On the 11th of July, part of the World marks the ” International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Genocide in Srebrenica 1995 “, which was established after the adoption of the Resolution about this day at last year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly. Tabloid media in Serbia used this opportunity to publish forged quotes and manipulated paraphrases of politicians, students, public figures, and organizations related to the topic of commemorating the massacre in Srebrenica.
Journalists of FN Tragač noticed several news stories on different portals with misleading titles, while some texts relied on completely fabricated quotes from certain people. The most frequently repeated manipulation in the context of this topic refers to the so-called “genocidal Serbs”, that is, to the claim that “the Serbian people are genocidal”. Accordingly, before further analysis, we will refer to the statement of
Antja Lendertse, the German representative who presented the draft resolution at the session of the UN Assembly. On that occasion, she
pointed out that the resolution “is not directed against anyone, not even against Serbia, but exclusively against the perpetrators of genocide.”
Made-up quotes
Misquoting of the newspaper Danas
Alo , Informer and Novosti published articles on the morning of 11th July in which they criticize the newspaper Danas for the published article whose main topic is the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the crime in Srebrenica. Both in the headlines and in the news itself, the following quote is attributed to the Danas:
“Our common commemoration of the genocide committed by the Serbs will be the victory of the blocking students and the defeat of the Serbian state”
Although this sentence was quoted under quotation marks (in Alo and Novosti) or as part of the headline representing a message from Danas (in Informer), we didn’t find it in the original article of the portal Danas, nor in the printed edition of this newspaper.
In an article that speaks about what would happen if students in blockades from all university towns in Serbia paid tribute to the victims of genocide, Danas conveyed the opinions of human rights activist Aida Ćorović and the councilor of the Local Front in the Kraljevo Assembly, Predrag Voštinić . Ćorović did state in her answer that “this government will be defeated when students from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kragujevac, and not from Novi Pazar, march towards Potočari in an organized manner”, adding that there are also “places where they can pay tribute to the Serbian victims” in the immediate vicinity, but that “first of all, respect must be paid to the Bosniak victims, who died due to the disastrous nationalist hunt that started from Belgrade”. However, neither she nor Voštinić mention in any segment that such an act represented a “defeat of the state of Serbia” but exclusively of the regime that is currently in power.
Misquotation of journalist Željko Veljković
Journalist Željko Veljković did not write that “only Serbs are genocidal” on his account on the X network, as reported by portals close to the authorities ( Novosti, Alo, Kurir and Informer ). In his announcement , Veljković stated that “there are no genocidal nations or states”, and that it is “just a radical lie that criminals hide behind the people”. The false quote attributed to him is combined with another statement that is authentic and refers to General Ratko Mladić, which can further confuse the public.
Misquotation of European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos
On the occasion of the “International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Genocide in Srebrenica in 1995”, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos posted on the X network, saying that today she “pays tribute to the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica”.
The tabloids, however, conveyed this statement in a malicious and misleading way (1, 2, 3, 4). Alo reported on the post of Marta Kos with the following alleged quote in the headline:
“Today we have to tell the whole world – Serbs committed genocide”
The European Commissioner – whom the tabloids referred to in their texts as “the EU’s protector of the Serbian blockaders” – did not write or say this sentence, neither in the publication, nor in the video attached to the text. Nevertheless, Alo and B92 put the fabricated quote in quotation marks, and Informer and Novosti suggested in their headlines that Marta Kos said this sentence. We conclude that it is another completely fake quote, and the same was reported by the authors of the text published on the European Western Balkans portal.
Misquotation of Pavle Grbović
But even these were not the only falsified allegations. Our partner portal RasKRIKavanje published an analysis about how the Informer portal published a false quote from Pavlo Grbović, the head of the parliamentary group of the Movement of Free Citizens, also in connection with the wording “genocidal Serbs”. Namely, he did not say that “the resolution on genocidal Serbs must be passed because of the student blockaders in Novi Sad”. You can read more about this case here.
Manipulated headlines
When it comes to manipulative headlines, some tabloids reported that the non-governmental organization “Youth Initiative for Human Rights” allegedly “called for the branding of Serbs as genocidal tomorrow on Republic Square“. In support of this claim, they attached an e-mail from the Initiative, which actually contains “a call to commemorate 30 years of the genocide in Srebrenica”. There was not a single line about “branding the Serbs as genocidal” in the e-mail tabloids published.
A student from Novi Pazar, Davud Delimeđac, was repeatedly the target of malicious and inaccurate tabloid allegations connected to the Srebrenica genocide because of his origin. It is not surprising that this has happened again. Tabloids wrote about his post on social networks on the occasion of commemorating the victims of Srebrenica, presenting him as “the head of the blockaders in Novi Pazar” (1, 2, 3). However, what this student did not say in his announcements , which are attached to the tabloids, and what the portals baselessly attribute to him, is that “Serbs are genocidal“. Also, Delimeđac did not “brand the entire Serbian people as genocidal” in his posts, as Informer wrote.
The series of deceptions does not end there either. Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, Dinko Gruhonjić, is accused of the same claim – that “he called Serbians genocidal people” (1, 2, 3). On this occasion, the tabloids refer to the texts published on the Autonomija.info portal, which is run by Gruhonjić. But even in those texts, there is no segment that is pompously highlighted in the title of the tabloids. Moreover, an article was published on this portal in May of last year, in which the phrase “genocide nation” is critically problematized, as an “excuse for not renouncing the war policy“.
