As election day approaches, attacks by media outlets close to Republika Srpska on protests “Justice for David” (“Pravda za Davida”) are becoming more open – and increasingly pointless.
Last week, we wrote, among other things, about the case of Samir Sadikovic, who, due to his support to Davor Dragicevic, was targeted by “Infosrpska” and then by Srna, RTRS and Alternative television (ATV). In these articles, Sadikovic has been attributed a military rank that he never had, an avalanche of unfounded accusations of alleged war crimes against Serb civilians was made against him and his friends, and he was given the epithet “executioner”. Day by day, “Infosrpska” published new disgusting texts, based mainly on “monitoring” Sadikovic’s Facebook profile, which RTRS, Srna and ATV regularly broadcast. On the third day of the chase, Sadikovic announced that he would sue these media for defamation, after which the publications stopped.
The same team recently found a new target, also on Facebook, with one difference – this time, an anonymous article was published on Alternative television. The person they targeted was marked as “the face of the initials S.S.” and declared an “operative” on the grounds that he was a foreigner and that he supported the “Justice for David” protests. More precisely, because of the announcement in the group of the same name, in which he suggested to its members to write a letter to the OHR and the embassies in BiH.
That was enough for Alternative television to “smear” the whole spy story around him – as usual, without any evidence. Although his post in the group “Justice for David” was presented as an exclusive revelation, neither his identity nor his support for the protests is really a secret. Seven days ago, Stefan Blagic from the ReStart association published a video from Krajina Square (ATV even used it to illustrate the article), which also shows Samuel Solomon Sumanth, a man who has lived in RS for years – more precisely, since he became it says here, the native “son-in-law”.
But, let’s start from the first lie that ATV placed to portray “Banja Luka’s son-in-law” as an “expert on colored revolutions”.
Known identity of one of the experts on “colored revolutions”?
As ATV learns from sources close to an intelligence service in the region, the identity of one of the 40 experts on “colored revolutions” has been revealed, about which there has been a lot of public talk these days!
“This is a person of Indian origin who has been present in Banja Luka for about thirty days, and came to BiH from a neighboring country at the beginning of the year.
Already in the report of this article, which was sent by Raskrinkavanje’s reader on September 28, it is stated that this is a man whose wife is from BiH and who has lived here for 6-7 years: “He must have known even then that the “Soros people” would need an expert on colored revolutions. Funny,” our reader wrote. The same evening, website Istinito and BNTV announced that the “suspicious person” was named Samuel Solomon Sumanth, who in a statement for this television denied all allegations of ATV and RTRS and confirmed exactly what our reader wrote – that he has lived here for years with his wife who is from Banja Luka.
ATV’s “journalists” could have come to this information if they had done the first and basic thing that journalists do when they write about someone – contact them and ask for a comment. The information was available even without that “effort” – in fact, to find it, they didn’t have to look beyond Facebook. Solomon’s profile on this social network shows that he did not “come to Banja Luka at the beginning of the year”, nor was he “present for thirty days”, but has been there for at least three years – so much has passed since the oldest “grade” he gave to one of Banja Luka restaurants he visited.
After the first lie about the length of Solomon’s stay in BiH – evidently designed to confirm the story of “40 British intelligence agents sent to BiH” that Milorad Dodik has been talking about for months – ATV continues to fabricate his biography. One detail, however, shows that Solomon’s Facebook profile was reviewed before the publication of this text since it accurately states the information about studying in Glasgow:
This person is an expert in cyber security, he deals with the programming of microcontrollers, and he also worked for the Indian Agency for Nuclear Security on military communication systems. He was educated in Glasgow, Great Britain, and has dual citizenship of Great Britain and India, states our source.
(…)
From some members of the group “Justice for David”, we learn that the foreigner appeared suddenly, that he introduced himself as an employee of the Office of the High Representative in BiH (OHR) and that he regularly attends rallies for a month, but also organizes paid campaigns on social networks, and the so-called micro-targeting with paid ads and goals promotion.
Solomon’s profile says that he studied at “Glasgow Caledonian University”, and his working references include “Magna International” and “RT-RK”, a Novi Sad company that has branches in Belgrade, Banja Luka and Osijek. Solomon works as a software engineer in the automotive industry, and, as he himself said, he has never worked for any nuclear safety agency.
A search of the Justice for David group shows that the claim that Solomon “presents himself as an OHR employee” is also incorrect, as ATV claims. The post that ATV used to invent the whole story and whose picture it published in the article shows the claim’s meaninglessness.
On September 12, Solomon posted a document in the group – a letter addressed to the OHR – with the following description:
I will send this letter to the OHR and all embassies and diplomatic missions in Sarajevo. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, please let me know. I expect serious suggestions.
The letter sets out a chronology of events following David’s disappearance and asks the OHR to recommend and oversee an independent investigation to find his killers. Just as it bypassed the publication of his name and actual biographical data, ATV did not publish the content of this letter, which clearly shows that Solomon is neither an OHR employee (nor did he introduce himself as such), nor any “colored revolutionary” – the only thing he was interested in this case was the discovery of the perpetrator in the case of the murder of David Dragicevic.
As Facebook provides insight into all subsequent changes to published posts, it can be seen that after the initial post, Solomon came up with the idea that other members of the group could send the same letter in order for it to have a stronger effect:
I have an idea: There are more than 300,000 people in this group. Instead of leaving comments and playing “keyboard warriors” in this group, if you really want a solution, print this letter, change it however you want, and mail it to these dumb missions that waste money from our taxes and money intended for help. If they receive at least 50,000 letters, something will change. It won’t cost you much, and it will have a big impact. Davor is not only fighting for his son, he is fighting for you, your future and your future generations.
Democracy has three pillars. 1) Politics 2) Judiciary 3) Media… When all three fail, we have to fix them!
ATV published a “screenshot” of this post in its article but did not translate it, nor did it publish the content of the letter that was “attached” to it. If so, it would be clear that a person “posing as an OHR employee” would not describe the OHR and foreign embassies as pointless diplomatic missions throwing money, nor would he write a letter to his own employer.
This nonsense prepared the ground for an even more pointless conclusion that he was “a very capable operative, trained to strengthen political influence through modern channels of communication” who works on “frequent verbal calls to come to the square and overthrow the government”.
But the scarier part of the story is yet to come.
The fabrication of anonymous sources is often used in tabloids and propaganda media as a cover for fabricating fake news. Citing “intelligence sources” is a particularly common practice. Although, as usual, the only specific information published in this article is actually the result of a simple Facebook search (which certainly does not require any “source close to the intelligence service”), part of this text indicates the possibility that some “service” really engaged in data collection on the movement of Samuel Solomon, in order to obtain material for ATV’s article. Here is how ATV quoted its source “close to an intelligence service in the region”:
Our operatives have registered as many as thirty-three crossings of the state border of this person since the beginning of the year, he used three different cars, and his trips on the route Doha – Sarajevo – Qatar are interesting, as well as flights from regional airports to security interesting destinations.
In statements he gave to the media in the past two days, Solomon confirmed that he had traveled to India several times through Doha, where his family is located. If the ATV did indeed obtain information from someone about the movement of a person against whom no investigation is being conducted, nor is there any justifiable reason to monitor its movement, this would mean that this is the second case of abuse of official position to inform the media close to the authorities about the people they are targeting. Let us remind you, as part of the chase that has been going on for months against the demonstrators at Banja Luka’s Krajina Square, a few months ago, RTRS published a list with the names, addresses and ID numbers of about thirty people who were described as “criminal”. These are, like the records of crossing the border, data that this television could only get from the police – again, without any legal basis for their processing and publication. Writing a letter to the OHR, as well as attending protests, is not a criminal offense and does not constitute a basis for any “information processing”.
The reason why Doha and unnamed “security interesting destinations” are especially “interesting” and “security interesting” is not explained in the text. However, the general tone of the article and its continuation to other similar “shootings” do not leave much doubt as to what is signaled by the mention of Sarajevo and Doha. The alleged collusion between “British intelligence officers” and “political Sarajevo” has been the subject of Milorad Dodik’s public appearances for months, as well as stories about the “Islamic threat” that he occasionally spreads through the same media. A former member of the Army of RBiH, just like a foreigner who studied in Great Britain, were ideal candidates to Dodik’s media for “proving their worth.”
Solomon, therefore, is no “operative”, just as Sadikovic is no “executioner”. Both are simply people who support the protest of Davor Dragicevic, which did not violate any law and to which they have a full right. On the other hand, publishing defamation is suable. Like other people about whom they made up similar stories, Solomon announced that he would file a lawsuit against ATV and RTRS, and announced that if he wins the dispute against these televisions, he would donate the money from the compensation to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Banja Luka.
For who knows how many times, the same media get the following ratings for their articles: fake news, conspiracy theory, and biased reporting. It remains to be seen how the competent courts will assess their “reporting”.
