By: Maida Salkanović
Between July 17 and 20, visitors to the so-called “District of Bosnian Pyramids” will pay up to 330 euros to spend four days with some of the region’s most notorious disinformers. The event “Alter Media – Through Truth to Freedom” promises “new media for new times,” but, based on the lineup, seems to offer little more than recycled conspiracy theories, vague “presentations,” and an opportunity to mingle with the self-proclaimed discoverer of ancient energy, Semir Osmanagić.
Osmanagić rose to prominence in the mid-2000s when he declared Visočica hill in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to be the world’s oldest and largest pyramid, radiating “healing energy.” Despite overwhelming scientific rejection, he turned the claim into a lucrative business and quasi-cult bolstered by celebrity endorsements like Novak Đoković together with media coverage and political protection. On the same hill, he now offers “four days of exclusive socialising” with the fee up to 330 Euros, which is in reality a profitable ecosystem built on disinformation, distrust in institutions and systems, and digital celebrity.
A Bubble of Delusion
Billed as a historic gathering of “independent media” from across the region, the event “Alter Media – Through Truth to Freedom” promises truth, freedom, and community. What it actually offers is a four-day pseudoscience retreat in the administratively non-existent “District of Bosnian Pyramids.”
For the price of 330 euros per person in a single room, or 250 in a double, attendees get three hotel breakfasts, three “organic” lunches, and unlimited access to the so-called healing tunnels of Ravne. The package also includes guaranteed seating at a series of “presentations” by guests, though neither topics nor a schedule have been published. For those on a budget, there’s a cheaper option: 50 euros per day to join the festivities without accommodation.
In essence, this is a high-cost, low-substance festival of paranoia and self-congratulation. The only confirmed element of the program is morning tours with Osmanagić himself, who will guide participants through a personal mythology of energy fields, cosmic resonance, and tunnels that allegedly cleanse the body of viruses.
While the event is marketed as an opportunity to connect with courageous “truth-tellers,” the vagueness of its program and the heavy price tag suggest otherwise. This is a pay-to-play pilgrimage into a curated fantasy, led by a man who believes he once lived on Mars.
Common Threads: What Do They All Have in Common?
At first glance, the presenters at “Alter Media – Through Truth to Freedom” appear to come from a variety of backgrounds: some are self-proclaimed journalists, influencers, or spiritual advisors. They also come from different countries, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. But beneath the surface, they operate within the same framework: rejection of institutional authority, disdain for mainstream media, and the strategic embrace of disinformation as identity.
Marketed as “independent journalists” and “new media voices,” these individuals have built online followings by rejecting facts, ridiculing science, and offering easy answers to complex problems, usually laced with fear, paranoia, and just enough pseudoscience to sound convincing.
Semir Osmanagić
The host and spiritual center of the event, Osmanagić has previously claimed to have lived on Mars in a past life and says he once returned stolen gold in Bosnia, upsetting suspicious unnamed forces now working against him. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he called the virus a bioweapon and famously declared that negative ions in his Ravne tunnels “jump on the virus’s spikes and destroy it.” He’s also embraced the “15-minute cities” conspiracy and spread anti-migrant narratives on TikTok, including claims about concentration camps and the “importing” of migrants to suppress protests. In 2023, he was featured in SEE Check’s disinformation report as one of the few prominent conspiracy theorists from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His public attempts at scientific explanation have often resulted in confusion or outright disinformation. In one video, he mistranslated a Washington Post article, falsely claiming it proved that unvaccinated individuals have 27 times stronger immunity than the vaccinated, despite the article saying no such thing. In another, he tried to explain PCR testing using basic math, only to get the calculations completely wrong. Between pseudoscientific claims, misread studies, and failed arithmetic, it’s unclear how Osmanagić has retained the confidence of his followers, but he has, and he continues to monetize that trust.
Mario Bojić (Mario Zna/Nulta tačka)
Founder of Nulta tačka website and the YouTube channel Mario Zna, Bojić has hosted some of the region’s most notorious disinformers: from anti-vax pulmonologist Branimir Nestorović to conspiracy theorist Mila Alečković. He spread falsehoods about electric buses and the green agenda, fallen for AI-generated deepfake – a fabricated photo of Emmanuel Macron kissing a man- and positioned himself as a “censored truth teller” despite broadcasting to tens of thousands of subscribers.
Saša Borojević
A hyperactive conspiracy entrepreneur, Borojević was a prominent COVID-19 disinformer who, among others, claimed biolabs in Georgia and Ukraine were developing bioweapons. Post-pandemic, he pivots quickly to whatever’s trending: from spreading climate denialism to bizarre theories about the murder of a young girl in Serbia being part of a plot to microchip children. He showed a striking lack of empathy when discussing the case and went on to claim that women named Danka Ilić disappear every 23 years, citing an AI-generated hallucination as “proof.” He has also claimed that gay people can’t be blind from birth and frequently uses fabricated or manipulated material to support his narratives. For Borojević, the truth is whatever gains traction.
Nemanja Oblaković
Oblaković referenced the widely used slang term “ćaci” for pro-government students in Serbia, claiming that political loyalty could be recognized by looking into someone’s eyes, an eerie throwback to discredited ideologies like phrenology and eugenics. His usual rhetoric blends pseudo-psychological speculation with political messaging, all wrapped in the language of grassroots rebellion.
Dejan Lučić
A conspiracy author who pushes ethnic panic narratives, including claims that there is an active plan to commit genocide against Serbs and replace them with Palestinian refugees.
What unites all of them as well as most of the other presenters announced for “Alter Media – Through Truth to Freedom”, is not knowledge or credibility, but a shared style of communication rooted in distrust, sensationalism, and pseudoscience. They wrap their messages in the language of “truth,” “freedom,” and “alternative thinking,” but the outcome is rarely insight but rather confusion, fear, and viral engagement.
A Business Model Built on Fear and Fame
Many of the event’s speakers have, at one time or another, openly promoted right-wing ideological narratives, whether through anti-migrant rhetoric, anti-LGBTIQ+ messaging, ethnonationalist tropes, or conspiracy-laden attacks on democratic institutions. The framing is almost always populist: they position themselves as brave voices standing up against shadowy elites, mainstream media, censorship, or fabricated global plots.
For many of them, disinformation is a product they market to the masses. They encourage, and then monetize fear and paranoia, rewarded by algorithms which favor such content.
Behind the rhetoric of resistance and “forbidden truths,” “Alter Media – Through Truth to Freedom” functions as a profitable ecosystem built on disinformation, distrust in institutions and systems, and digital celebrity.
For up to 330 euros per person, attendees are offered vague “presentations,” group walks with Semir Osmanagić through tunnels said to emit healing energy, and the chance to spend time with their ideological idols. The event capitalizes on a cult-like intimacy between conspiracy influencers and their followers, offering a peek into an exclusive club of “truth seekers”.
This model isn’t new. Most of the presenters already run high-traffic platforms: YouTube channels, websites, Telegram groups, blogs, and podcasts, where sensationalism is the engine of engagement. Views translate to ad revenue, controversy fuels donations and merch sales. The event in Visoko is simply an offline extension of that economy and another way to sell the illusion of resistance to those eager to believe it.In the end, “Alter Media” isn’t just an event – it’s a marketplace. And its core product is fear, dressed up as freedom.
