What does the right-wing media scene in Serbia look like? Who is cited most often by whom and to whom is traffic directed the most? Raskrikavanje investigated these issues on a sample of 25 nationalist or anti-globalist oriented portals that are most frequently visited by domestic audiences, and which have proven to spread unfounded claims or misinformation. The analysis of backlinks (links that lead from one website to another) and citations showed that Informer and Večernje novosti are the undisputed masters of this part of the media universe in Serbia, and at the same time greatest “allies”. Namely, although it should be a matter of fierce competition, Informer consistently redirects readers to the Večernje novosti website and vice versa, through tens of millions of backlinks recorded over the years, further strengthening each others position on the Internet and influence in society. Well interconnected through hyperlinks are also sites with Russian state ownership, which confirms the developed and coordinated strategy of disseminating information and influence.
One of the ways in which sites can be linked to each other are links that lead from one to another – backlinks. Raskrikavanje analyzed a network of about 51 million backlinks that in the last two years have directed readers to the most readable, right-oriented sites that have been proven to spread unsubstantiated claims and misinformation regarding a wide range of topics. These are predominantly sites located on the .rs domain, two are from Montenegro, one from the diaspora, but they are popular among readers in Serbia.
These are informer.rs, novosti.rs, alo.rs, sputnikportal.rs, sd.rs, politika.rs, srbin.info, pravda.rs, webtribune.rs, rt.rs, fakti.org, intermagazin.rs, in4s.net, stanjestvari.com, vaseljenska.net, happytv.rs, borba.me, vostok.rs, pecat.co.rs, serbiantimes.info, borbazaistinu.rs.
The analysis also includes srbijajavlja.rs, nacionalist.com, glas-javnosti.rs and srbijadanas.net. However, they are not in the visualization of backlinks as “hubs” because it turns out that other relevant sources do not point to them to a significant extent.
What all these sites have in common, in addition to publishing disinformation, is general ideological affiliation. Regardless of whether they are pro-regime or anti-regime editorial policies, the messages that can be found there are characteristic of what we mean by the domestic right and they include nationalism, Euroscepticism, anti-globalism, traditionalism, affirmation of authoritarian systems, militarism, criticism of Western values, promotion of conservative and heteronormative ideas, resistance to the expansion of the corpus of human and minority rights and freedoms, animosity towards the “other” and the like.
This research provides a new, different insight into the structure and functioning of the right-wing media online sphere, primarily in Serbia, but also of the part of the region, and you can see the detailed methodology here.
A large number of backlinks to these sites have been recorded in the last two years, which lead to them from hundreds of Internet addresses.
All of them, visualized in the so-called neural network, show what the right-wing media universe looks like with selected sites as hubs, while the links between them are backlinks that lead to them.
The Undisputed Rulers of the Media Sky
The analysis showed that the Informer website is the most widespread hub in this network (left), to which links lead (about 20 million of them) with the most different websites spread across the Internet. Most of the backlinks to Informer come from Večernje novosti (about 18 million), while in the opposite direction, from Informer to Večernje novosti, there are about 28 million links. In this way, the two sites are positioned as potentially the most powerful media “axis” when it comes to Internet portals in Serbia, allies whose messages reach a huge audience.
The sites are openly pro-regime, but their propaganda activities go beyond daily political door-knocking in favor of the Serbian Progressive Party authorities. These are portals that spread nationalist ideology, animosity towards the other, glorification of authoritarian Russian authorities, and advocacy of so-called traditional values versus so-called Western values.
However, although ownership is not the same, ideas and messages are, so by backlinking, they further raise visibility and influence.
According to the experts from Pikasa Analytics who did the visualization for Raskrikavanje, one of the possible sources of such a large number of backlinks is sections that could be called “Others write”(Drugi pišu). Explained on the example of Večernje novosti, these are the links below their texts, which lead to Informer’s News. The Informer itself has such a space for the headlines of the Večernje novosti daily, under its texts.
The influence of Informer is also evidenced by the fact that the network of sites that point to it is the most diverse of all. In addition to sites that do not have their own content and use someone else’s content, such as udarnavest.rs, the Informer also has alternative and popular right-wing portals such as Srbin Info and Nacionalist referencing it, as well as informative and often tabloid websites from the region.
The link between Informer and Večernje novosti is also shown by the deeper monitoring conducted by Picasa Analytics. It does not limit itself to backlinks but monitors the extent to which the media on the Internet cite each other, even when they do not link directly to each other. This monitoring shows that Informer is, in general as well, most often cited by Večernje novosti, as well as Alo, Blic, Srbija javlja, Republika, thus creating a strong network through which Informer’s messages reach a larger audience.
Večernje novosti, on the other hand, does not have such a rich network of backlinks – the most loyal traffic routers to the Novosti website in the past two years, in addition to Informer, were the sites Fakti.org and Fakti.rs, but to a negligible extent.
The analysis of quotations, however, points to the significant impact of the Večernje novosti portal on other media, especially on the portals of Srbija javlja i Srbija danas which together account for more than 20 percent of all articles in which Večernje novosti has been cited (not necessarily linked) over a period of two years. Other similar portals, Pravda and Serbian Times, are at the top when citing Večernje novosti. These data show how much conservative, shorter-range portals trust this portal.
Such connection plays a key role in disseminating information and creating narratives that support specific political or social agendas, in this case pro-Russian and conservative ones.
Russian Network
Another significant hub in the backlinks network is the website RT Balkan (rt.rs), a website launched in Serbia in 2022 in the wake of Western sanctions on Russia and censorship of Russian channels in the rest of Europe.
It has led to about 2.5 million backlinks in the last two years – readers are directed to the local affiliate in Serbia by the parent website rt.com, followed by a number of other sites from the same family in various world languages. This frequent backlinking indicates a high degree of coordination and consistency in establishing an extensive network of channels through which the Kremlin will spread its messages around the world.
Sputnikportal.rs is also on the list of influential Russian websites in Serbia, but unlike RT Balkan, it has a significantly smaller number of backlinks. Moreover, while RT Balkan draws its support from other related RT sites from around the world, Sputnik receives the greatest support in Serbia, among domestic, nationalist-oriented portals that refer to it or download its content with linking.
One of the most loyal “backlinkers” of Sputnik are right-oriented sites such as Srbin Info, Standard.rs, Stanje stvari, Srbi na okup, but also the controversial Njuzfront about which Raskrikavanje previously wrote. There are also domestic Pravda.rs, one of the oldest right-wing portals, but also Pravda-rs.com, a site that recently appeared in the research of Radio Free Europe as part of a wide Russian disinformation network through which the content of the official Kremlin is spread.
This pattern of connection indicates that Sputnik, unlike RT Balkan, is more deeply integrated into the local media ecosystem. Moreover, although RT Balkan has an incomparably higher number of links leading to it, Sputnik is far ahead in terms of readership, and a network of ideologically close domestic portals seems to contribute to it. It potentially enables more subtle and effective placement of pro-Russian views through seemingly domestic sources of information.
The Right-Wing Alternative
Less prominent are domestic alternative right-wing sites that are linked in a cluster grouped around the Pravda.rs portal.
It is one of the oldest right-wing portals in Serbia and in this sample it acts as a central point that not only receives numerous backlinks, but also actively links to other related portals.
In the last two years, Pravda has most often sent its readers to Fakti.org and Vostok, but also to Srbin Info, Stanje stvari and Vaseljenska. No less valuable part of that network was the Srbin Info, also one of the oldest and most influential right-wing websites. Links, in turn, largely went to the Pravda.rs portal, as well as to the Stanje stvari portal and Fakti.org.
This network of mutual linking points to the existence of a solidly connected media sphere that shares similar ideological positions and potentially reinforces certain narratives through mutual empowerment and circulation of content.
Sites such as Srbija javlja, Vaseljenska and Borba za istinu are some of the sources from our analysis that quote the Pravda.rs portal in their texts, so readers are directed to this site without linking to Pravda.
Another popular site among readers is Srbin info, a portal characterized by strongly expressed nationalist and conservative views, advocacy for the preservation of traditional values, as well as criticism of globalist ideas. However, unlike some other nationalist-oriented views, such as Informer, this portal is critical of the current authorities in Serbia. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that the largest number of citations of this site in the last two years came from the now non-existent portal Opozicija na jednom mestu.
Informer Most Often Cited About Srebrenica, Srbin Info About LGBT
In order to determine who is referring to whom in particularly sensitive issues, primarily those where issues of political and ideological orientation are refracted today in Serbia, we conducted an analysis of the reporting of five influential media: Informer, Alo, Večernje novosti, and the portals Srbin Info and Pravda.
We focused on topics that these media often cover, grouped around the following keywords and phrases: Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, European Union, EU, NATO, West, Kosovo, LGBT, Pride Parade, SOC, lithium, Rio Tinto, sanctions against Russia, war crimes, The Hague Tribunal, Republika Srpska, Patriarch, Srebrenica, Ratko Mladić, foreign mercenaries and patriotism.
The idea was to establish in which of these five topics each of the media is established as a kind of authority depending on the number of citations. For example, who is most often quoted by other media in connection with Srebrenica, who is quoted in connection with the issues of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the like.
Of about 57,000 articles published on 85 websites on these topics in the last two years, Informer had the most citations, which confirms its impact on public opinion and public debate. According to the monitoring agency Pikasa Analytics, it is most often referenced by Pravda, Srbija javlja and Alo, but it is also mentioned in their texts by media such as N1 or Danas, which speaks not only about the authority of this tabloid, but also about its influence and the far-reaching nature of its messages.
It is interesting that according to this part of the analysis and in the last two years, Informer had the most influence when it comes to Srebrenica, lithium and major geopolitical topics. Informer’s views on, say, Srebrenica, spread through sites such as 24sedam, Pravda, portal Pink, Novosti, Alo. When it comes to NATO, Russia and Ukraine, the messages of the Informer are further reinforced by Pravda, the anonymous website Srbija Javlja, Alo and Republika, which cited it the most on these topics.
Alo and Večernje novosti, on the other hand, were most often cited in topics concerning the Serbian Orthodox Church and the patriarch. The large volume of citations of these three sites is logical, since these are portals that are of a large scale production.
Nevertheless, smaller portals also exert some influence on public opinion and attract the attention of other media in some cases. For example, Srbin info was most often cited in topics concerning LGBT issues. It is a site that does not have a positive attitude towards this population.
I Love Serbia, Russia Is in My Heart
The differences between these portals are numerous and evident: size, reach, resources, readership, attitude towards the authorities in Serbia, as well as some socio-political issues. As explained in the methodology, the right spectrum (as well as the left) is not homogeneous and not all sites share the same characteristics and values and to the same extent – depending on the editorial policy, each of these portals has its place on a scale from the moderate to the extreme. However, the similarities between them are much greater.
Over the years, these nationalist portals have consistently spread a wide range of manipulations and misinformation regarding domestic political developments, the pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and the like. Their actions have been documented and proven countless times by factcheckers from Serbia and the region (Raskrikavanje.rs, Fakenews.rs, Istinomer.rs, (Raskrikavanje.ba, Raskrikavanje.me, Faktograf.hr and the like).
Not only concrete disinformation has been proven, but also manipulative and propaganda narratives. In some cases, the propaganda was calculated in favor of the authorities in Serbia, in some in favor of the Russian authorities and the Russian “view”, it was sometimes directed against neighbors, migrants or the LGBT population, and mostly always against the West and the so-called Western values. Skepticism towards everything that comes from the west is also reflected in a negative attitude towards the EU, globalization, values such as human rights, freedoms, equality, etc. On the other hand, Russia is a desirable alternative, as well as military and economic cooperation with the East.
This simplistic, black-and-white view of the world is often put forth through unfounded reporting without sufficient or any substantiation in facts and evidence, biased texts that predominantly rely on one side, sensationalist language of exclamations at the expense of one and insults at the expense of the other – “traitors”, “mercenaries”, “Ustasha”, “Shqiptar”, “Nazis”, etc.
The attitude towards key geopolitical players, Russia and the West, could be perfectly seen in the example of media coverage of the aforementioned Russian-Ukrainian war, but this case also revealed deeper connotative messages. Namely, not only was it reported dominantly from the Russian perspective, through the words of the spokespersons of the Russian military and political regime, and not only was the Ukrainian side marginalized and presented as a Western “puppet” without sovereignty, but every other propaganda narrative of the Kremlin could also be found in most of the analyzed media. With some differences in the strength of the claims and the language of the texts, both on the mainstream portals as well as on smaller, alternative and more extreme sites, one could find unproven claims about biolaboratories in Ukraine, alleged “false flag” operations of Ukrainians (such as the Bucha massacre that the Russian side accuses Ukraine of), precise actions of Russians within the framework of the “special military operation”, the wealth of Vladimir Zelensky, etc.
At the connotative level, the message of these media is the same: there are two world views: the good one, which is represented by Russia and in which traditional and conservative values are represented, and the bad one, which is represented by the West and in which human rights, freedoms, multiculturalism, equality are discussed. Western values, through Western “mercenaries”, Satanists, LGBT activists, journalists, installed governments such as the Ukrainian and other “agents”, aggressively penetrate the region and Serbia, endangering those good, traditional and well-known values whose strongest guardian is Vladimir Putin. In this sense, the Ukrainian fronts, in the reports of these media, are primarily the battleground of these two ideologies.
This meta-narrative is the common backbone of all the mentioned sites in this analysis.
Vučić as a Point of Disagreement
When it comes to differences, the most important one should be mentioned: the attitude towards the authorities in Serbia, primarily Aleksandar Vučić. Media committed to the regime, such as Informer or Večernje novosti, openly support Vučić’s policy, presenting him as a defender of national interests and stability of Serbia. On the other hand, portals such as Srbin.info and Pravda have a far more critical attitude and often accuse him of betraying national interests, primarily because of his policy towards Kosovo, but also other issues.
For example, the issue of lithium mining has also shown some differences in the right-wing scene. While the media sympathetic to the authorities portrayed the mine as a chance for Serbia’s economic growth and the rebirth of the local community in Loznica, others wrote about the environmental consequences, protests and claimed that Vučić sold Serbian resources to foreign interests.
