As part of the “prebunking” series called “Rasvjetljavanje”, Raskrinkavanje will point to disinformation and manipulative, inaccurate narratives about certain events and phenomena before they reach readers.
Photo: Raskronkavanje.ba
This analysis was originally published on July 4, 2023.
Widespread disinformation on some topics can have numerous negative consequences. In the modern world, the process of informing is almost continuous, and in this process, there are those whose goal, in fact, is not to inform correctly. Disinformation is often used to achieve different, mostly harmful goals, and the audience is often manipulated in different ways and for different purposes. To some degree, everyone is susceptible to disinformation. Consumers of media content cannot check every piece of information that comes to them. This very fact favours sources of disinformation to find fertile ground for spreading their narratives.
Based on previous experience, there are periods, events and topics within which it can be assumed that the audience will be more intensively exposed, and therefore more susceptible to disinformation. The negative effects of such disinformation can be reduced if readers are “warned” of their possible occurrence. Such a concept is called “prebunking”.
What is “prebunking” and how does it work?
”Prebunking” means the process of exposing disinformation, its sources and the tactics used before the disinformation appears and reaches the audience. This approach is based on pointing out the already confirmed disinformation, how it spread and, ultimately, the facts about the specific topic. “Prebunking” works proactively, offering the audience facts and warning them of potential disinformation, to avoid falling for them.
Therefore, this approach to the fight against disinformation is essentially equivalent to the popular saying: “Prevention is better than cure”. “Prebunking” offers the audience the knowledge and skills to prevent being manipulated for different purposes, instead of pointing out the disinformation after the damage has already been done.
Raskrinkavanje will work more on this type of fight against disinformation in the coming period. Based on the analysis of inaccurate claims that have appeared in the media space of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region for more than five years, Raskrinkavanje has identified key events and topics in connection with which the public is misinformed most often and with potentially the most harmful consequences. Within the framework of our “Rasvjetljavanje” series, we will create numerous “prebunking” content precisely to “warn” the public about disinformation that will appear, as well as inform them on how to recognize it and how to oppose it.
The first topic we will write about in this way is disinformation about the Srebrenica genocide, which appears frequently, mostly ahead of the the anniversary on July 11.
Genocide in Srebrenica: History denial based on disinformation
In July 1995, during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska army occupied the town of Srebrenica. In the period from July 11 to 22, around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed at Srebrenica.
In 2004, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts ruled that these mass murders constituted the crime of genocide. The anniversary of the genocide is marked on July 11.
During the period marking the anniversary of the genocide, but also throughout the year, the public in Bosnia and Herzegovina is misinformed about this event in different ways. Raskrinkavanje analyzed disinformation related to the genocide in Srebrenica at least eight times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Despite the differences in their content, disinformation is most often spread with the same goal – to deny that the killings at Srebrenica were indeed genocide.
This narrative is pushed by a number of prominent actors from Republika Srpska, as well as neighbouring Serbia. In fact, it has in a certain way become a part of the official politics in Republika Srpska and is very often publicly presented by holders of important positions, such as the current president of Republika Srpska and former member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik (1, 2, 3).
The genocide denial in some cases is more “subtle” and takes place through the refusal to use the term “genocide” itself; instead, expressions such as “alleged genocide”, “great atrocity” or “tragedy” are used (1, 2, 3). On the other hand, disinformation that is spread about the genocide in Srebrenica sometimes has elements of complex conspiracy theories, and its denial is “supported” by inaccurate claims that the genocide was allegedly fake or staged to portray the Serbs as a “genocidal nation”. Some, on the other hand, claim that NATO or some Western countries are actually responsible for the genocide (1, 2).
And while the public is being misinformed by such negative narratives on the one hand, Bosniak actors and the media close to them have repeatedly spread disinformation about fabricated genocide confessions by figures considered somehow important to the Serbs. An example of this is the often repeated disinformation that the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, admitted that the events at Srebrenica constituted genocide (1, 2) or that the famous tennis player from Serbia, Novak Djokovic, did the same (link).
These and numerous other incorrect claims regarding the Srebrenica genocide have been flooding the public space in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region for years. Raskrinkavanje, as explained, analyzed them on several occasions. In the coming period, as part of the “prebunking” series, Raskrinkavanje will act proactively concerning them and write about the disinformation on this topic that was spread earlier, about their sources and about the narratives that they tried to “prove”.
(Marija Ćosić, Raskrinkavanje.ba)
