Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 08/09/2022
Political instability and disagreements in Montenegro have created a very fertile ground for disinforming the public about the views voiced by state and party officials, where their statements get taken out of context and they get attributed with something they did not in fact say.
The media and social network users have been manipulating, among others, the statements made by Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Jokovic, President Milo Djukanovic…
Dritan Abazovic’s statements were yet again subject to different interpretations, including incorrect renditions of his words.
Facebook posts with part of the statement that Abazovic gave to the media following the latest seizure of cigarettes in the Port of Bar are being shared.
The recording hears Abazovic as saying:
“When this kind of financial interest is at stake, you are then motivated to somehow eliminate these people, even physically, why not talk about it, is anyone thinking about the risk we are under?”.
The “clipped” statement soon started garnering numerous shares on Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and Facebook (1, 2, 3, 4)
“I’m really curious as to which people he was referring to when he said there was a motivation to physically eliminate them?”
“The prime minister of the outgoing government, Dritan Abazovic said: “Some people need to be eliminated, even physically.” Is the prosecutor’s office sleeping? “This guy” that cooperates with criminal clans is also announcing some eliminations!”
Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazovic today said that some journalists should be physically eliminated. Or, let me translate, the prime minister of a democratic state is openly threatening to have journalists assassinated. September 7, 2022
“Some people need to be eliminated, even physically.” Is this an invitation to murder? If something happens to one of the journalists, we’ll fuck you all up!!!”
“Today, the prime minister of a country stated that some people should be physically eliminated, and this was passed off as an everyday news story, without much attention, as if he said that today is a beautiful and sunny day. That is Montenegro of today. Abnormal became normal, standards have never been this low”.
These are just some of the interpretations of Abazovic’s words that can be seen on social media.
Abazovic uttered the words captured in the video after a journalist asked him to comment on statements made by President Milo Djukanovic, who said that this government will be remembered as the worst-ever in terms of media freedom, and was then asked whether he thinks the government needs to be more tolerant towards the work of journalists, regardless of what they may think of it.
The full recording of the press conference with the prime minister’s answer to this question was published on Abazovic’s page.
He first reflected on Djukanovic’s statements by saying that he does not encourage violence against journalists, but that he has an obligation to talk about what he sees as extremism and an invitation to conflicts, which, in his opinion, are coming from the media.
“I don’t know if my colleague Milosevic agrees, but I personally take Mr. Djukanovic’s statement as a compliment. When he was heading the government, journalists were getting killed. When he was heading the government, journalists were getting beaten up, bombs were thrown at newsrooms. I will never say anything that incites to violence against any journalist or newsroom. But I also have an obligation, both political and as a citizen, not to remain silent about what is an invitation to extremism of sorts, an invitation to a conflict, an invitation to outbursts of hate, evil and nationalism in Montenegro. That is my position,” Abazovic said.
He continued his statement by saying that certain media have been criminalized and that they want to criminalize him as well.
“I respect the right of every media to write whatever they want, but just grant the same right that you seek for yourself to others. Let us have the same right, to have an opinion about a phenomenon, nothing else, no one has to agree with it. Therefore, when we mention some media, some of them should not be given too much importance, and rightly so, because the citizens do not pay them much importance either. But what colleague Milosevic says is on point, they are trying to depict us as being the same as them, they know that they themselves have been criminalized and then what tactic should we go for, let’s criminalize everyone as if to say they are all the same. They are not the same. Their members are already being called to responsibility, and it should not be surprising if Mr. Djukanovic would also get called to responsibility in Montenegro, but that is unlikely in Montenegro as it is now, I think this would be a contribution to democracy, so he personally should also be held answerable. He certainly is politically responsible, but I am not sure that is his only responsibility, but let state authorities determine that. I’m not sure they’ve reached that level, but slowly, we’re all taking it one step at a time. And just allow us to have an opinion in relation to some public phenomena as well. Personally, when hundreds of criticisms are directed towards me, I respond once, I chose this tactic myself, and I don’t find anything wrong with it at all,” he then said.
Abazovic then reflected on the environment in which the media operate.
“When it comes to the environment for the work of the media, you create the environment for the media and the NGO sector and for citizens and health and education when you combat crime. The moment organized crime is suppressed, and it will certainly not be eliminated because no country managed to completely eradicate it, to be really honest, but when it gets brought to a level where the state is able to keep it under control so that it no longer has major influence in any sphere, then, I believe we will reach a much more acceptable atmosphere for criticisms and analyses coming from the media and the NGO sector,” the prime minister said.
Then came the most important detail, that is, the quote over which Abazovic is being attributed with a message that individuals should be eliminated physically. In this part of the statement, the prime minister was not referring to journalists, but to his colleagues involved in the seizure of cigarettes, about how they have families and their vulnerability, as well as his own. It is clear that he did not say that journalists, or anyone else for that matter, should be physically eliminated, but that there is a motivation to eliminate those involved in seizure operations, as these operations affect financial interests of those that organize the smuggling.
“When this kind of financial interest is at stake, you then have an incentive to somehow eliminate these people, even physically, why not talk about it, is anyone thinking about the risk we’re under, does it ever cross their minds that this man has a family and children, I myself am still single, as they say, but this guy has a family”, the prime minister has said.
After this, Abazovic went back to talking about the media, specifically, those that crop up before the elections and go off radar afterwards.
“Give the same right that you seek for yourself to others, you want to express some criticism and opinion, whether it is correct or not, but allow us to also use this possibility of expressing an opinion in public space. And I agree with the part about us giving too much attention to the media that were created and financed by organized crime and that’s it, and they can resent that all they want. Let’s wait for the process to unfold, and in one or two years it will be clear whether Dritan was telling the truth or not. Why did Udar shut down after 30 days of campaigning ahead of the parliamentary elections? Why is there no Udar today, so that they could push these stories of this person being code-named Shock, or this, that or the other… How come a new portal appeared before the elections in Podgorica? I’m not arguing that, maybe 10 more portals will crop up, but that’s it. If a sheep can see something whilst lying down, then this thing cannot be that far or difficult to recognize,” he concluded.
Therefore, the prime minister did say that certain media are financed by organized crime, he did mention that certain web portals crop up and then vanish, but he did not say that the journalists working at these portals, or any other, should be physically eliminated.
Upon analyzing his statement in its entirety, it becomes evident that the prime minister claimed that he and his associates engaged in suppressing cigarette smuggling are at risk, i.e. that they are under threat of being physical eliminated, as they are encroaching on financial interests of owners of the seized cigarettes.
Given that Abazovic’s statement was taken out of context, these reports are flagged as fact manipulation.
The “Fact manipulation” label is assigned to media reports that contain well-established and accurate facts, but interpret them in a misleading way. These reports generally use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thus swaying consumers of media content to make wrong conclusions, leading them astray from the actual meaning of the facts presented.