{"id":11940,"date":"2025-11-19T10:59:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=11940"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:06:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T10:06:05","slug":"informers-gosi-service-a-cover-for-leaked-confidential-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/19\/informers-gosi-service-a-cover-for-leaked-confidential-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Informer\u2019s GOSI Service: A Cover for Leaked Confidential Data?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Original article<\/em><\/a> (in Serbian) was published on 12\/11\/2025; Author: Stefan Kosanovi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The pro-government tabloid Informer – frequently used by Serbia\u2019s authorities to target political opponents, activists, and journalists – has recently set up what it calls a \u201cViewer Information Service\u201d (GOSI). The tabloid says the initiative consists of its most loyal readers, who supposedly supply the newsroom with information. In mid-November, Informer published surveillance – camera footage showing Milomir Ja\u0107imovi\u0107, a bus operator who has been supporting Serbia\u2019s student movement and who was on a hunger strike at the time. The tabloid presented the recordings as proof that Ja\u0107imovi\u0107 was lying about the strike. What evidence did Informer offer – and what, in fact, is GOSI?<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milomir Ja\u0107imovi\u0107, a transport operator who for months has been driving Serbian students to protests free of charge, began a hunger strike in Novi Sad on November 10 with his minor son after authorities seized his buses and issued him numerous fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the tabloid, a reader sent them a video purportedly showing \u201ca fake striker,\u201d Milomir Ja\u0107imovi\u0107, heading to meet the lawyer of opposition politician Dragan \u0110ilas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the footage, a voice can be heard indicating that the person filming secretly is sitting in a car that is stationary, with its turn signal on and positioned in the direction Ja\u0107imovi\u0107 is walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same article also published two surveillance-camera recordings from the building of the Provincial Government and the Assembly of Vojvodina \u2014 material that an ordinary citizen would have little chance of obtaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clips show Ja\u0107imovi\u0107 and his son leaving the area in front of the state institution, where they have been gathering and staging a hunger strike, and then returning several hours later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informer uses the videos to \u201cprove\u201d that their hunger strike was allegedly staged.

They provided no additional evidence to support these claims, which is why we consider them unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is even more striking in this case, however, is Informer\u2019s assertion that the surveillance-camera footage was allegedly sent to them by a reader. The tabloid also claims to have an entire army of such readers, collectively referred to as GOSI \u2014 Informer\u2019s so-called Viewer Information Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informer\u2019s \u201cservice\u201d launched only recently<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Informer first mentioned its \u201cGOSI service\u201d in July this year, when it claimed the unit was \u201cbreaking records.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGOSI are our most loyal audience, who for years have selflessly helped Informer in its reporting work, and many pieces of information have reached the public precisely thanks to you,\u201d the newsroom said in a statement at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the bizarre and disturbing articles allegedly \u201cprompted\u201d by GOSI was one tracking the wife of oposition activist and former basketball player Vladimir \u0160timac, who was in custody at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman was photographed up close in a caf\u00e9, apparently with a hidden camera, as the person recording can be seen holding a phone in their hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Informer \/ A photograph of Aleksandra \u0160timac, which was not blurred in the original. Raskrikavanje blurred it afterward in order to avoid violating her right to privacy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Informer also published photos taken outside Belgrade\u2019s Zira Hotel, where, according to the tabloid, a group of \u201cidlers who can\u2019t stand Serbia\u2019s success\u201d had gathered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside a by-name list of around a dozen meeting participants \u2014 some of them embassy staff and foreign nationals working for international agencies \u2014 the portal ran a series of photos that appear to have been taken covertly, from a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the absurdity, Informer claimed that an ordinary passerby had managed to recognize and tip them off about several foreign officials on the street: Uwe Optenhogel from the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, Carsten Meyer-Wiefhausen from the German embassy, Thomas Maas from the Belgian embassy, and  Christian Wehrschutz, head of ORF\u2019s Kyiv bureau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging by these articles, members of Informer\u2019s GOSI service \u2014 or, as Informer portrays them, regular readers – are not only supposedly well-informed about virtually every public figure in Serbia, but,also have access to diplomatic receptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one such story, Informer published a secretly recorded video of Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime Mladen Nenadi\u0107 attending an event at the German embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informer has published similar material before, but it did not previously present it as content allegedly submitted by readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two years, there have been numerous cases in which Informer published confidential information that only state services could plausibly access – from biometric photographs and surveillance footage. Raskrikavanje reported on a comparable case earlier this year, when someone \u201cfrom a safe distance\u201d in a car surveilled participants in a youth conference in Ni\u0161. The attendees said the photographs later published by Informer were most likely taken from a police vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informer has also previously published a series of photos from both the professional and private life of KRIK editor Stevan Doj\u010dinovi\u0107, as well as a transcript of a conversation between Doj\u010dinovi\u0107 and a colleague that had been recorded inside the newsroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Doj\u010dinovi\u0107 sued him, lawyers for Informer editor-in-chief Dragan J. Vu\u010di\u0107evi\u0107 admitted that the information had been obtained from Serbia\u2019s Security Intelligence Agency (BIA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Serbian) was published on 12\/11\/2025; Author: Stefan Kosanovi\u0107 The pro-government tabloid Informer – frequently used by Serbia\u2019s authorities to target political opponents, activists, and journalists – has recently set up what it calls a \u201cViewer Information Service\u201d (GOSI). The tabloid says the initiative consists of its most loyal readers, who supposedly supply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-11940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-serbia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11943,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940\/revisions\/11943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}