Media Between Freedom and Dependence Media and Political Elites in Context of Refugees and Idps in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE MEDIA AND POLITICAL ELITES IN CONTEXT OF REFUGEES AND IDPS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND SERBIA

INSTITUT ZA DRUŠTVENA ISTRAŽIVANJA FAKULTET POLITIČKIH NAUKA SARAJEVO UNIVERZITET U SARAJEVU INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCES SARAJEVO UNIVERSITY OF SARAJEVO edition Science projects book Vi

Emir Vajzović and Ešref Kenan Rašidagić (ed.)

Media between freedom and dependence Media and political elites in context of refugees and IDPs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

Publisher Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo Institute for Social Sciences Research

For Publisher Šaćir Filandra

Editors Emir Vajzović and Ešref Kenan Rašidagić

Peer review by Davor Marko, Amer Džihana

Translation Lejsa Hećimović, Vanda Mandić, Ešref Kenan Rašidagić, Emir Vajzović

DTP Mahir Sokolija

Front page Mirza Sokolija

Print Dobra knjiga

Prepared in the framework of the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP), which is run by the University of Fribourg upon a mandate of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Aff airs. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent opinions of the SDC and the University of Fribourg. Contact: Management HQ in Switzerland

• University of Fribourg Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe Prof. Dr. Nicolas Hayoz, Programme Director Jasmina Opardija-Susnjar, Programme Manager [email protected] Phone: +41 (0)26 300 77 69; Fax: +41 (0)26 300 96 26

www.rrpp-westernbalkans.net Regional Research Promotion Programme Western Balkans (RRPP) Contact: Coordination Units in the Region

• European University of Tirana, Albania The RRPP is aimed at fostering and promoting www.uet.edu.al, [email protected] social science research in the Western Balkans (Al- bania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). Social science research • Human Rights Centre of the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina aids in the understanding of the specific needs for www.hrc.unsa.ba, [email protected] reform and in identifying the long-term implications of potential policy choices. Researchers receive support through research grants, methodological and • Centre for Political Courage situated at the Faculty of Philosophy, thematic trainings, as well as opportunities for re- University of Prishtine, Kosovo gional and international exchange and networking. [email protected] The RRPP is coordinated and operated by the In- terfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). • Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia, Skopje, Macedonia The programme is fully funded by the Swiss Agency www.soros.org.mk, [email protected] for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

• Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia www.ien.bg.ac.rs, [email protected] www.rrpp-westernbalkans.net MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE Media and political elites in context of refugees and IDPs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

SARAJEVO, 2013.

Contents

Ešref Kenan Rašidagić: Issues in Research of Phenomena of Forced Migrations and Links Between Media and Politics in the Western Balkan Countries...... 11 Hariz Halilović: Research and Conceptualization of Forced Migrations in the Western Balkans...... 19 Siniša Volarević: Analysis of daily newspaper writings in Serbia about refugees, internally displaced persons and their return between 1996 and 2012: What and How Newspapers Report about Resolution of issues of Refugees and IDPs in Serbia...... 33 Dejan Vanjek, Emina Ćosić Puljić, Lejla Turčilo: Media between Freedom and Dependence: the Role of Print Media in the Process of Refugee Return in Bosnia and Herzegovina...... 101 Emir Vajzović: Closing remarks: Media (in)dependence – Politics and Media: cohabitation arrangements ...... 151

PREFACE

he idea behind the research on the topic of the role of media in the Tprocess of return of refugees and displaced persons, as well as the existence of links between politics and media, was born in the minds of researchers from the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo. The said researchers – and authors of this publication – have already for a long time been studying issues affecting post-conflict societies in the Balkans. These issues include those belonging to the domain of traditional politics, as well as wider social issues shaping the character of societies such as those in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, which are studied in this publication, but also of other societies in the Western Balkans, which could not be subject of this research. One of the defining features when it comes to the character of society, chiefly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the problem of refugees and internally displaced persons. Circumstances under which these persons were forced to leave their places of residence, their numbers (around half of the total population of BiH!), the question of their further migrations inside and outside the country, as well as the circumstances under which the process of their (non)return is happening, significantly influence the formation of the character of postwar society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In other Balkan countries, such as Serbia and Croatia, refugees and displaced persons may have not influenced the character of society to such an extent, but the circumstances of their displacement, ethnic identity, and process of return bore significant impact on political processes in the past two decades. It is exactly this relationship and mutual influence of politics and the issue of refugees and displaced persons that is in the focus of interest of researchers of post-conflict societies which are discussed in this publication.

7 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

One of the fundamental features of the work of ethno-political elites which dominate the political scene in the Western Balkans since the early nineties, is territorial consolidation of people, as necessary precondition for realization of nationalist formula of one people-one leader (or oligarchy of leaders, as masters of life and death of people living in particular territory). Since all social science research to date demonstrated the decisive role which media play in realization of ruling elites’ goals, it has been decided that the focus of research be placed on the role that media play in influencing and controlling the process of return of refugees and displaced persons. Media represent necessary instrument of control of people, its mobilization for the purpose of realization of goals set by the political elites, media support and justify realization of goals by violent means in war, and assume leading role in post-conflict period, when the use of violent means is limited. Results of research based on jointly developed methodology and realized by the researchers from the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo, Mediacentre Sarajevo, and Group 484 and Ebart from Belgrade, represent gold mine of data and provide a number of clues for further social research of subject and related phenomena in the region. Regarding the questions posed by the main research hypotheses, the results indicate some intriguing trends in behavior and activities of media in observed time periods, as well as in attitude of political elites towards media and the process of return. It is also important to emphasize that realization of research and print- ing of this publication was enabled by the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans – RRPP, which is coordinated and managed by the University of Fribourg Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe. The entire program is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The research which resulted in this publication was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the period from June 2012 – Jun 2013, by the research consortium composed of the Institute for Social Science Research, Faculty of Political Sci- ence in Sarajevo, Center for Migrations Group 484 from Belgrade, Media- centre Sarajevo and Media Archive Ebart from Belgrade. We hope that the findings of this research, as well as the methodology and data produced as part of the research process, will be of use to researchers of the phenomena of forced migrations, role of political elites and media in society in the area of Western Balkans and beyond.

8 PREFACE

Finally, regardless of the fact that authors who are signing individual chapters are those who are the most responsible for their content, it has to be borne in mind that this study would not be what it is without the work and effort of all individuals who made up the team of the project “Media Between Freedom and Dependence – The Role of Print Media in the Process of Refugee Return”, either as researchers or as logistical support: Lejla Turčilo, Dejan Vanjek, Emina Ćosić, Selma Mameledžija, Adnan Ovčina and Vesna Hadžikarić from the Faculty of Political Sci- ence in Sarajevo, Sanela Hodžić and Maja Hadžiosmanović from Me- diacentre Sarajevo, Siniša Volarević and Miroslava Jelačić from the Center for Migrations Grupa 484 in Belgrade, and Veljko Glušćević and Larisa Ranković from the Media Archive Ebart in Belgrade. The entire team owe special gratitude to Ms. Anđeli Lalović, Local Coordinator in the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP), for her understanding and support in resolving and overcoming the challenges faced by the project. EŠREF KENAN RAŠIDAGIĆ Coeditor of the publication and Coordinator of the Research Project “Media Between Freedom and Dependence – The Role of Print Media in the Process of Refugee Return” EMIR VAJZOVIĆ Coeditor of the publication and Chief Researcher in the Re- search Project “Media Between Freedom and Dependence – The Role of Print Media in the Process of Refugee Return”

Issues in Research of Phenomena of Forced Migrations and Links Between Media and Politics in the Western Balkan Countries

EŠREF KENAN RAŠIDAGIĆ Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo

Regardless of the fact that the phenomena of refugees and generally speaking forced migrations from the area of former Yugoslavia is globally known phenomena, attracting the attention of researchers from the world, as well as the region, in the relevant literature it is still difficult to find data demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between the political elites and return process in the post-conflict period. Tendencies of the ethno-political elites towards territorial and every other consolidation of their peoples by violent means are well known to everyone, if for no other reason than for the consequences such tendencies produced: bloody conflicts caused by implementing lunatic ideas of ‘humanitarian population transfers’, which in their Balkan version introduced the new term into the political and legal vocabulary – “ethnic cleansing”. Since the historical destiny of wars in the Balkans is that their actors never fully achieve their goals, post-conflict periods are used by the same actors for completing the processes that could not be fully realized due to intervention of the international community. Such processes assume that, in accordance with the logic of territorial consolidation, that as many members of one’s people as possible is kept in the territories that the elites considered ‘theirs’. In any case, Dayton Agreement itself styles them as such. On the other side, it is necessary to do everything in order for the members of other peoples (who became minorities following ethnic cleansing of the areas where they lived) to not feel welcome in the areas in which members of different peoples are now dominant.

11 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

Great powers under whose sponsorship the Dayton Agreement was signed (General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH – GFAP), considered return as key element in securing lasting peace in Bosnia and Herzego- vina (Annex 7 of the GFAP). The problem with the international sponsors was that it, following logic of least resistance (and cost) mostly tolerated, if not indirectly participated, in preserving status quo they found, instead of reverting to far more just status quo ante (situation before the outbreak of conflict). Instead of genuine return of most refugees and displaced person that would annul the results of ethnic cleansing, preconditions were created for formal return with multiyear delay, when most potential returnees were already situated in new places of residence. Securing urgent return would require forceful involvement of international community in securing safety and implementation of property laws, for which there was not will of international actors who based their strategies for stability of postwar BiH on cooperation with ruling ethno political elites. How therefore to realize one’s goal using only non-violent means, in the conditions of imposed peace, supervised by the international community? It is necessary to mobilize the members of one’s ‘own’ people, explaining them how to act in order to enable realization of national programs created before and during armed conflicts. Such programs, among other presume remaining in ones ‘own’ territories, and preventing the ‘others’ from returning to such territories. In order to achieve the first goal it is necessary to create preconditions such as allocation of land, materials and funds for construction of houses and necessary infrastructure. Both for securing staying of one’s own people and for preventing the return of others, in the absence of violent means, ethno-political elites used the next strongest weapon they head at disposal: media. Media, the number of which exploded in postwar period, were used to explain to one’s ‘own’ people why it is necessary to remain where they currently resided; for continuing mobilization for the purpose of continuing and legitimizing resistance to return; for justifying acts of aggression towards returnees; for demonizing the ‘others’, both in case they were trying to return to their prewar places of residence or were ‘waiting’ for you in case you try to leave the current place of residence and return to live ‘among them’, etc. Despite the importance and the role that media played in instigating, inflaming and continuation of ethnic conflicts during and after the war on former Yugoslava, media for some unknown reason were not considered as priority in the process of ending the conflict and reconstructing the state

12 ISSUES IN RESEARCH OF PHENOMENA OF FORCED MIGRATIONS AND LINKS BETWEEN MEDIA... and society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Media are therefore not even once mentioned in the Dayton Agreement, nor was international community in any way involved in regulating media scene in the process of ending the war or in immediate postwar period. In Serbia, international community was not in position to intervene in media space, hence warmongering media continued its work unimpeded all the time until the fall of Milošević’s regime, indirectly caused by the armed intervention in Kosovo.

Socio-political context of research and the role of media

Such stance adopted by the international community is especially surprising in situation in which the same ethno-political elites that fought the war remained and were legitimated in power in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Key international actors must have been aware that the key role media played in creating and inflaming interethnic tensions, hatred, and finally armed conflict, was researched and documented in great detail. Without active support given by the media, politicians would have exceptionally difficult task to bring people seeped in several decades old spirit of broth- erhood and unity to openly hate and distrust the “other” in very short period of time. Only on the basis of such efficient demonization of the “other” was it possible in the short period of time for the people who were so dedicated to coexistence to accept the war as the only possible instrument of relationship towards their neighbors. To counter the role that media had in destroying former social order and inflaming conflicts, it would be logical to presume that the opposite process of construction of new society and development of democracy could not be realized without active cooperation and the role of media. There is no democracy without developed, free, professional, and responsible media. Why was the central role that media play neglected when drafting the plans for development of postwar society in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the international community was the chief responsible actor, remains a mystery. Regardless of the reason due to which media were left out of the Day- ton process of reconstruction of BiH society, its international sponsors soon realized that without active participation of media it will not be possible to lead the process of democratization of society. Some of the triggers which finally awoke international actors were the 1996 election campaigns

13 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE conducted by the media in the best warmongering fashion from the beginning of the nineties, but also the efforts by the nationalist elites to prevent return of refugees and displaced person to their prewar places of residence. Open displays of hatred and almost racist hysterical demonization of the ‘other’ threatened to annul any progress made in postwar stabilization of the country. In response to such situation, international community sponsored establishment of the Independent Media Commission – IMC, which was tasked to put some order among the electronic media in the country through licensing and control of media content. The IMC was eventually in 2001 transformed into Regulatory Agency for Communica- tion – RAK. However, both times print media were left out of the general effort to regulate the media. This was partially due to the very nature of print media which are much harder to control without invoking accusa- tion of censorship and anti-democratic meddling into editorial freedom, but also due to choice of people involved in establishment of both IMC and RAK, which basically copied British Regulatory Authority Ofcom, exclusively responsible for electronic media. Solely responsible for writing and editorial policy of print media is inef- ficient and semi-official Press Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina, devoid of regulatory or executive authorities, through which it could influence the work of print media in the country. Instead of walking the slippery slope of trying to regulate print media, international actors tried the approach of funding and caching journalists in media which were considered independent from political structures in power. The purpose of such support to media was creation of alternative media space, where news that could be found that would not fit into ‘regime-friendly’ newspapers. Outcome was mixed at best, partially due to the fact that financial support to the media basically amounted to little more than participation in already existing market in which allegiance of media was bought by the highest bidder. There are several examples of mainstream newspapers which in certain periods acted as alternative to the ruling political elite, only to switch allegiances later and become the most ardent supporters of ruling fear mongering policies. Development of professional and democratically profiled media is a task that could be realized only through strong, sustained and long-term effort, which would create not only technical preconditions for existence of such media, but also the social and political climate in which such media could survive and flourish. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other countries in

14 ISSUES IN RESEARCH OF PHENOMENA OF FORCED MIGRATIONS AND LINKS BETWEEN MEDIA... the regions, especially Serbia, which is discussed in this publication, such preconditions have not yet been created. Small, limited, and weak market makes media dependent on funding which is ultimately secured by the ruling political elites, either directly through acquisition of media, or indirectly through purchase of advertising space of awarding of grants.

Research methodology

The research is focusing exclusively on print media in Bosnia and Her- zegovina and Serbia. This is partially due to the fact that print media in Bosnia and Herzegovina – due to failure to systematically regulate them – have for a long time remained stark example of abuse of media space by the political elites. As such, they render themselves as excellent matrix for studying the issues that are in focus of this research. The other reason is that, according to the available indicators, print media in more fundamental and lasting way influence opinion forming among wider public. Electronic media probably in more efficient way occupy attention of view- ers’ or listeners’ mind, but print media represent written document which in readers’ mind carry bigger specific weight and value. In the subject area studied in this research, newspapers therefore strongly influenced opinion setting regarding the return and returnees, but were also capable of mobilizing masses for the purpose of executing political elites’ goals. Newspapers also represented an important tool in decision making by potential returnees themselves. Newspapers were read by the returnees to get information on situation in their prewar places of residence, rate of return, policies of local and central authorities and international relations, chances of receiving assistance for return, etc. Finally, there are reasons of practical nature for placing research focus on print media, which is that print media by their nature represent lasting document which could be easily studied, unlike electronic media the product of which – if not especially archived – is transient in nature. What was published (in newspapers) actually happened, goes the old motto, especially important from the viewpoint of researcher of phenomena not yet exhaustively studies and documented in literature. Lack of studies documenting the interaction between political elites and media in the problem specific to this region and period represented significant issue for this research. Special methodology had to be developed

15 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE in order to answer the research questions in the satisfactory way. Prior to detailed development of the research methodology, it was also necessary to correctly define research goal which would allow the researchers to eventually demonstrate the existence – or lack thereof – of the link between the political elites and management of the return process. At the same time, the goal must remain precise and narrow enough in order to allow its realization within the limitations of this research project. Based on these preconditions, and prior knowledge of the research subject, the research goal was defined, whereby the evaluation of media content is supposed to answer the following research questions: a) how, to what extent and in which way the print media are informing the public on the topic of refugees and displaced persons; b) to which extent the media through their work realize self-proclaimed goal of informing and assisting refugees and displaced persons, or do they, instead, serve ethno-political elites in implementation of political goals related to return or non-return. The analytical process is based on three aspects of evaluation of media content: a) context analysis; b) analysis of media practices; c) analysis of cumulative findings of research and identified trends, including recommendations for improving media practices. As part of analysis of the context in which media in BiH and Serbia work and report, the following ana- lyzes are performed: a) analysis of media scene; b) analysis of social and political context; and c) analysis of legal framework governing the media. Analysis of media practice is based on studying the frequency, form, and context of reporting on issues related to refugees and displaced persons, as well as on studying methodology used to choose issues being reported. The research, therefore, has the goal to determine how and in which way print media report on topics directly related to the process of return on refugees and displaced persons. Special attention is placed on the issue of the manner of addressing this problem and whether newspapers report only on negative events; whether and to what extent and in which context there exists sensationalism in reporting; whether the statements of political elites are the only information finding its way to media, or there predominate reports en- couraging returnees, explaining them their rights. The emphasis is therefore on distinction between reporting on return (for the purpose of media manipulation of the return process) and reporting for return (for the purpose of informing and providing assistance to refugees, displaced persons, returnees). Finding answers to these question would enable the researchers to make indirect conclusions as to whether media are in the service of political elites

16 ISSUES IN RESEARCH OF PHENOMENA OF FORCED MIGRATIONS AND LINKS BETWEEN MEDIA... whose goal is preserving status quo with the returnees and displaced persons, or whether media act as independent actors whose interpretative and reporting function is utilized to assist social progress. In order to determine whether media are acting as independent actors, it has to be determined therefore whether and to which extent did they perform their social corrective function of reporting on negative policies and social phenomena. The research utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approach, whereby inductive method is used to form conclusions on media discourse and relationship between media and political elites, as well as to manner in which this relationship is shaping dominant media discourse. For practical purposes the research, which studies the entire postwar period in BiH and Serbia, is limited to several predefined time periods centered upon events which significantly impacted the process of return of refugees and displaced persons. The overall research hypothesis, formulated on the basis of the above considerations and preconditions, is therefore: – In Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, the coverage/discourse in the media on the issue of the process of return of refugees and displaced persons was unbalanced and biased due to attested links and influence of political elites with/on media. In order to demonstrate the validity of the research hypothesis, the following research questions are formulated: – This study seeks to examine if the reporting was balanced and free from prejudice (representing equally the positive and negative sides of the return process, while taking into consideration the existing social / political divisions in societies in question). – Prior to this, the research should explore whether there exists the demonstrable mutually supporting link between the media and the ethno-political elites. This should be done by applying the context analysis to demonstrate the lack of political will to support the process of return (establishing, for example, that the entire legislation related to the return process in BiH has been imposed by the international community, the OHR. Furthermore identifying the obstructions caused by the same elites in the implementation of the imposed legislation) – The same hypothesis can be used for Serbia as well, taking only into account the specifics of the society - political divisions as opposed to ethno-political.

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– Is there a difference, in practice, between official rhetoric of political elites and media discourse about process of return of Refugees and IDP’s (Research will focus primary on media discourse and links of media with politics and the question of return will be treated in this research as “case study” - example on which hypothesis is going to be tested and not as primary research question) – Is media interpretation of return process dependent on reporting on the attitudes of political elites as primary media content? Whether the reporting deals mostly with policies and attitudes toward the return or the return itself (which would be indicated by predominance of factual articles in the newspapers)? – When it comes to process of return from the perspective of returnees and situation on the ground, is media portrayal of this topic en- couraging for those who want to return or not? (Does media reports consist mostly of favorable coverage, first-hand reports and factual articles, or interpretative articles, painting mostly negative picture of situation returnees find themselves in upon return)? Eighteen independent variables were developed for the purpose of this research, each consisting of several supporting variables. Large number of variables was necessary given the ambitious primary goal of the research, i.e. demonstrating existence of links between politics and print media studying the case of refugees and displaced persons. Research findings expounded in the chapters that follow are structured beginning with this introductory chapter signed by the author Ešref Kenan Rašidagić from the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo. The following chapter titled ‘Research and conceptualization of forced migrations in the Western Balkans’, written by Hariz Halilović from the Monash Univer- sity, Australia, aims to contextualize the entire research in the field of study of forced migrations in this region. The next is the chapter written by Siniša Volarević from G484, Belgrade, who is presenting findings that research has produced in Serbia, using identical methodology as in BiH. The following chapter, written by Dejan Vanjek, Emina Ćosić Puljić and Lejla Turčilo, presents research findings in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The last chapter, authored by Emir Vajzović, synthetizes and compares the findings from the two country research studies, and attempts to identify trends and conclusions for the purpose of demonstrating the validity of principal research hypotheses.

18 Research and Conceptualization of Forced Migrations in the Western Balkans

HARIZ HALILOVIĆ Monash University, Melbourne

Introduction

Researchers and commentators of social and demographic trends in the region, recently known as the Western Balkans, have a very unenviable position in relation to their colleagues a bit further to the west from the Western Balkans. In the modern academic tradition in the West, researchers generally deal with a single social phenomenon and they become experts, after years of detailed studies, in a very clearly defined research area whereas their counterparts in the Western Balkans, at least in the last two decades, have been simply forced to deal with a large number of burning social issues and problems. Moreover, they are not expected to just explore the complexity of the societies in which they live, but also to offer concrete solutions as to how to address the existing problems in these societies. At the same time, the ethno-political elites have politicized and ethnicised every segment of social reality to such extent that academic communities in the region barely manage to have a significant or any influence on the policy which has been created and implemented by the elites them- selves1. In addition to low research budgets, state institutions and ministries in the region are also very selective when it comes to choosing the

1 Of course, this does pardon the academic community in the region or some of its members for flirting and actively participating in the ethno-nationalist projects and policies during the 1990s and today

19 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE research topics and providing financial support to research projects. Some lingering issues are simply considered as insufficiently relevant or focusing on the “controversial” topics is considered as somewhat anachronistic, as something which will present the society in question in a negative light, which will contribute to the negative image of the country and “distance it away from Europe”. These are some of the standard excuses repeated by politicians in the region which could be recently heard in Bosnia and Herzegovina during a protest in connection with failure to adopt the law on personal identification number2. Such issues, in addition to those related to the status of various marginalized minorities (and majorities!), are still regarded as “unpopular” research topics because they prove that no significant progress has been made in addressing the troublesome issues in many segments of the society and that countries of the Western Balkans are still stuck in transition, in post-communist and post-conflict situation, in ethni- cized and divided societies... And when these “unpopular topics” become subject of research, they are often partially explored, with a focus on their apolitical aspects (if they exist), such as the economic impact (even better, economic benefit) of studied social trends on the society and the region.

From forced migration to forced identification

The issue that has been pushed under the carpet for years, although it is one of the most important problems in the region, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina (as well as in Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia) are migration and massive displacement of the population during the last two decades, primarily in the first half of the 1990s. This is not a case of any spontaneous or economically driven migration, but a case of forced displacement (ex- pulsion, deportation, exile, “humane relocation”, “ethnic cleansing”...). As such, these forced migrations are inseparable from politically motivated violence and the legacy of the recent wars in the region (Halilovich, 2011b, 2013). Therefore, the migration and displacement were not merely the result of brutal wars; it was ethnic homogenization of the territories and of the new countries of the former Yugoslavia that was the direct outcome and goal of those wars.

2 Cf. http://www.euronews.com/2013/07/01/bosnia-facing-political-inertia-jmbg- protests-call-for-civil-disobedience-/

20 RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FORCED MIGRATIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Population movement in the war and post-war period, in addition to ethnic homogenization, also resulted in a number of other demographic changes unprecedented in the recent history of the region. One of the important facts related to forced and politically driven migration is almost exclusive migration from rural to urban areas in the region and to the larger urban centres. External migration to European and overseas countries had a similar trend. Those dramatic changes, in addition to trauma, culture shock and disrupted ties among people and places of origin, resulted in changes in the abandoned places and in places of resettlement. The former lost the people that made such places the way they were, and the latter received the immigrants with different customs, dialect and a sense of local identity. Newcomers were often considered outsiders and unwanted guests (and they have remained as such), regardless of their “adequate” ethnicity in ethnically homogenized places. Their “otherness” was almost identically perceived by indigenous people throughout the region, and their identities were reduced to an informal status of “newcomers”, “new- bies”, “incomers”, “rednecks” or simply permanent refugees, highlight- ing their otherness in relation to the domiciled population. In addition, the new bureaucratic categories related to certain social welfare payments and benefits further contributed to stigmatization of those who had been forced to leave their homes. Those and similar formal and informal identification categories, although related to the everyday life of people whose internal displacement has become a permanent condition, have remained neglected in relation to their ethnic characterization while all the issues of forced migration have been insufficiently and inadequately studied.

Research challenges and barriers

Newly established ethnically homogeneous countries in the region cannot, even if they wanted, ignore the far-reaching demographic, social, cultural and political consequences caused by massive population displacements both within and beyond the borders of the region. Regardless of this fact, the study of forced migration in the Western Balkans has remained taboo to a certain extent because forced migrations cannot be discussed without mentioning the war, and the war is a risky topic which would be preferably avoided by many, if at all possible. It is therefore not surprising

21 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE that the dominant concepts and research approaches to migration in the Western Balkans have become brain gain vs. brain drain, financial remit- tances transferred from the diaspora to the homeland, the possibility of transforming the social capital of emigrants into the financial capital directed to the homeland and so on. However, publications such as this one, as well as a number of publications by authors based outside the region - such as Franz (2005), Toal and Dahlman (2011), Valenta and Ramet (2011) and Halilovich (2013) - confirm that the topics of migrations, forced and other, can be addressed by drawing attention to both the local and wider regional context without falling into national interpretive frameworks. Fi- nally, the goal of such research is not mere description and statistics, but empirical evidence for the development of recommendations, concrete policies and laws based on both the relevant theories and methodologies and on the actual situation on the ground instead of their further politicization or tabooing. My personal experience in dealing with these issues, as well as that of my colleagues in this and similar publications, shows that forced migration cannot be addressed only on higher and broader macro- and meso- levels to draw valid scientific conclusions. Specifically, in order to identify some established social patterns and morphology of migration trends in the region, it is necessary to look into lower and narrower, i.e. micro, local or homeland contexts (Halilovich, 2011a, 2011b, 2012, 2013). In addition, study and writing about migrations require continuous monitoring of the population mobility over a long period of time because migrations, forced and other, usually occur in stages and follow local patterns.

Transnationality and translocality in cross-border areas

While most of population movement in the Western Balkans occurred within the region and within the new states formed in the 1990s, a significant number of people, over three million of them, settled, at first tem- porarily and then more permanently, in other parts of Europe and the world (Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzego- vina, 2008; Valenta and Ramet, 2011).These immigrant and refugee communities have formed transnational communities or diaspora (Halilovic,

22 RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FORCED MIGRATIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

2006). Before we move to a description of some of these transnational migrations and trends, I would like to emphasize that my research primarily relates to forced migration from Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the BiH diaspora3 in Europe, North America and Australia, as well as the forced displacement and dislocation of the population in Bosnia and Herzego- vina within the country and the region. However, the similarities of migrations, especially their organizational forms, between BiH diaspora and other diasporas originating from the region are multiple and often identical. In many cases they are either complementary or they are modelled (in competition) by each other. Based on ethnographic insights into different migration contexts, it seems that, in their interpretation, we cannot simply observe the events from the perspective of transnationalism, the dominant theoretical framework within which immigration issues have been described and analysed the last two decades (Basch et al 1994, Glick Schiller et al, 1992, 1999, Kear- ney, 1995; Guarnizo and Smith, 1998). While studying transnational connections that individuals and groups in the migration context establish and maintain across the boundaries of nation-states, the researchers often remain trapped within (ethno)national patterns of thinking and representation because they rely on the analyses of national / ethnic groups by considering them primarily in terms of their ethnic homeland/national state and their national identification (Čapo and Halilovich, 2013). The dominant ethno-gaze (ethnicised view, Glick Schiller, 2005) or reliance on the ethnic group / nation as a unit of analysis (Glick Schiller, 2008), which the researchers of transnational social fields of migration apply in their research, implies that migrants are primarily determined by some form of ethno-cultural identity bound by territorialized nation-state (Glick Schiller, 2005). Such an approach reproduces a national model of thinking and writing, or, paradoxically, given the fact that the researchers are engaged in transnational phenomena, remains trapped in the methodological nationalism (Wimmer and Glick Schiller, 2003, Glick Schiller, 2005, 2006) or methodological ethnicity (Glick Schiller, 2008). Methodological

3 Although the majority Bosniak, the Bosnian post-war diaspora includes, in proportion to the number of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnian Cro- ats and fewer Bosnian Serbs as well as a large number of ethnically mixed families and those who declare themselves primarily as Bosnians without ethnic determinants.

23 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE nationalism explains the behaviour of migrants - both within the host country and in their transnational practices – based on the assumption of their ethnicity, presupposing and assuming that the entire migratory population belongs to a community of people of a certain ethnicity, culture and identity delimited by the boundaries of the nation-state of origin. Therefore, such analyses in the transnational space treat migrants primarily as dislocated members of their nation or nation-state. By privileging ethnic / national prism in transnational studies, the parallel forms of identification of migrants are overlooked - from professional, gender, family, generational, class and social to narrow territorial (homeland) identification whereas the migratory populations are perceived as uniform, homogeneous communities without internal differentiation, which are defined primarily by their belonging to a particular nation / ethnic group. At the level of practice and action, that prism disregards the activities of migrants that transcend the boundaries of ethnic organizations and ethno-national identity or the non-ethnic forms of integration into the host society and the participation in transnational social fields - family and friends, business, political, religious and narrow territorial (local ) identities (Glick Schiller, 2005, 2006, 2008; Povrzanović Frykman, 2010; Conradson and Mckay 2007; Peleikis, 2000, Wise and Velayutham, 2008; Halilovich, 2011a, 2012; Čapo Žmegač, 2003). In transnational migration space, affiliation is not necessarily linked to the nation-state of origin or ethnic / national group; it may be narrower, local, native and unrelated to the ethnicity in everyday life. This dimension of belonging to, in addition to being in a transnational space – heuristically, it seems difficult to separate the two - prevails in transnational practices of migrant groups. Therefore, my colleague Čapo Žmegač and I, in our separate and joint papers, have termed it translocality (Halilovich, 2011b, 2012, 2013, Čapo Žmegač, 2003; Čapo and Halilovich, 2013). We came to the conclusion that translocality rather than transnationality better explains the social morphology and the lived reality of migrant populations, including the forms of their social interaction, organizational patterns, cultural practices and various other activities and actions practiced in relation to their homeland and in relation to their translocal compatriots in other countries. By choosing the term translocality to describe migrant practices, as opposed to the term transnationality, we wanted to emphasize that long-term, everyday interests of migrants are not necessarily related to national or state politics (but they may become related to it in exceptional circumstances

24 RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FORCED MIGRATIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS such as those in the 1900s during the formation of new states from the debris of disintegrated Yugoslavia). They are related to quite specific local issues, especially those concerning the dislocated forms of family relationships in the so-called transnational families (Čapo Žmegač, 2007, 2003) and investments in the place of origin, thus fostering loyalty and support for the places of origin, while preserving, reviving and reconstructing local identities through the construction of “home away from home”, etc.

Conceptualization of translocalism

The forms of transnationally (in terms of transstate) contextualized relationships and practices in the ethnographically researched migrant groups of BiH indicate their primarily translocal character, demonstrating that they are grounded by their actions at the level of the locality and homeland (zavičaj), mainly related to family circumstances and invest- ment in the narrower or wider area of origin, along with the assistance, rehabilitation and reconstruction or, alternatively, through imagining the abandoned local community within the context of displacement from the original location. These ethnographies, along with other methodological approaches, demonstrate that the daily interest of migrants for their places of origin mostly focuses on the narrow, local place of origin and family circumstances. Even when they are driven by the national interest, the cross- border practices of migrants are being localized and inscribed in specific places of their origin. Translocality is not an exclusive characteristic of the Bosnian emigration and similar migrations in the region as a result of the war in the 1900s. However, the most intense forms of translocal practices are demonstrated in the very context of these forced migrations and are related to the fact that the original homes were forcibly abandoned, that they were destroyed as well as entire neighbourhoods and villages. Homes and places of origin of forced migrants are often irreversibly lost, physically and / or in the sense that the migrants no longer feel “at home” in their places of origin. Given that the places of origin remain a significant identity marker for migrants, they tend to recreate them in the new places of residence through concrete memories, narration, enactment and meetings with former neighbours, thus creating a “new home away from home” which is

25 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE at the same time similar to and different from the one they had left. The attachment to the idea of the “old” place as home is therefore not an ob- stacle to the integration in the new places of settlement (Hage, 1997: 102- 108). On the contrary, it gives them a “sense of possibility” to create their new home constructed around “the desire to promote the feeling of being there here” (Hage, 1997: 102-108). After all, their homeland, or home back there, no longer exists in the form they knew and remembered it because the homeland is not just a place but it is made out of people and relationships; homeland represents a familiarity and intimacy with the physical environment and the social and cultural environment (Halilovich, 2011b: 77). The lost community and sense of belonging can be recreated only through the memories and stories that the former residents of the former places indulge in during the idle moments of relaxation among their former neighbours in the towns they live in today. These places are no longer located in the space back there, but in the previous time and in the space here. Migrants, exiles and other travellers are finding the new home in routine practices, meetings with familiar people, in memories and stories of the past times, in the flavours and fragrances, or, as Leslie Van Gelder said, “people of diaspora do not root in place, but in each other “(Van Gelder, 2008: 58). Several authors have dealt with the question of the importance of distance in translocal and transnational practices (Cf. Portis-Winner, 2002; Baldassar 2007, Brickell and Datta, 2011). At first sight, distance is not unimportant, but it is not crucial either. Bosnian immigrants dispersed throughout Europe, America and Australia and they are thousands of miles away from their native homeland. In the search for intimacy and security of the familiar, these migrant groups intensely immerse in the translocal and they strive to create and maintain social networks among former neighbours, regardless of their present place of residence and visits to the “old country.” The distance, therefore, does not appear to be a decisive factor of translocality, especially in the era of digital telecommunications technologies such as the internet, mobile phones and satellite television (Halilovich, 2012, 2013). Finally, translocality of the diaspora can be realized as the bi-locality, the relationship between two locations, and as poly- locality, the relationship between several locations. This difference is related to the forms of cross-border practices of these populations: separate family life, native endogamy and re-territorialisation.

26 RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FORCED MIGRATIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

More than nostalgia for the lost

Many formal and informal events and connections of migrants in the host countries represent an opportunity to invoke and to share the memories of a common city/town/native place and to relive or revive a sense of belonging to a place of origin and former life. This is not a case of the reconstruction of a broader national or ethnic context. Instead, these events and connections can only be fully understood in the local or native context. Having the local context radically changed, as was the case throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, the people in a migration situation (re)create their native places through translocal practices with those with whom they share a sense of belonging and memories of the places of origin. Local and regional, that is native, ties or “identities from the bottom- up” seem to be stronger than the “identities from the top-down”, i.e. national, ethnic and religious identities. Of course, in many cases these relationships of “identities from the bottom-up” and “ identities from the top-down” are intertwined and congruent, but the former are primary because they are based on direct experiences and shared embodied memories, former social relations and statuses, dialect and manner of speech, sense of humour, cuisine and drinks and so on. To see others and to be seen are the ways of maintaining the old identities and former statuses in the context of a new life in which the old social identities and roles often become redundant. When they meet, for example, former Brčko residents living in various suburbs of Melbourne, or former Prijedor residents living in St Louis, they become “neighbours” again, and the titles and statuses from homeland are respected regardless of their lack of actual value outside the communities of former Brčko or Prijedor residents. Their mutual respect and addressing people as “professor”, “doctor” or “neighbour” have the full affective and social significance only among those who shared the past in which those titles were tied to a specific social position in the community. In many cases, this status is now largely symbolic because the social context has completely changed. One could say that former Brčko residents (Brčaci) need each other not only to socialize with each other in the present, but also to affirm, through shared memories, who they were in the past. Those shared memories of home and homeland back in the past are complemented by the lived experience of home - the new home, here and now, in the diaspora (Čapo and Halilovich 2013, Halilovich 2013).

27 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

Dislocated homelands as dynamic, mobile identities

In addition to those in Austria, Sweden and Australia, I have researched and recorded the practice of preservation, revival and reconstruction of local identities in the diaspora among the members of the Bosnian diaspora in the U.S. city of St. Louis, “the most populous town of eastern Bosnia “ where around 75,000 Bosnian immigrants have settled in the last two decades, mostly Bosniaks from Podrinje and Prijedor who had been forced to leave their homes during the war (Coughlan, 2011; Halilovich, 2012). What makes this Bosnian community “visible” are numerous restaurants, shops with products imported from BiH, social and sports clubs, and the fact that community members also have their own radio programs, newspapers and magazines, even their television station. However, the true heterogeneity of this immigrant community can only be fully detected when one peeks into the homes and neighbourhoods of Bosnian migrants, or sits at a table in one of the restaurants on Gravois Avenue in the suburb of Bevo – an area of St Louis where one can find entire Bosnian villages in a single street or in a neighbourhood. Beneath a number of layers of wider collective identities – from the American and White to the Bosnian and Bosniak - embodied, in- timate identities lived daily by the Bosnians in St. Louis are primarily native, i.e. translocal. An attentive listener will recognize a number of local dialects which Bosnian immigrants in St Louis speak. While the local dialects of immigrants (internal immigrants) in the larger urban areas in BiH are quickly replaced by standardized language and urban slang, these local dialects from the old homeland are jealously preserved and maintained in the places such as St Louis, and they represent an important factor which differentiates individuals and groups within the Bosnian diaspora. It is similar situation with other forms of embodied and sensory expressions of the local identities which are displayed through a variety of local specificities such as Kvrguša pie4, the trademark of people from Prijedor living in St Louis, or traditional music specific to Podrinje and eastern Bosnia. The taste of food and the taste in music - as well as the speech and a number of other local customs, stories and memories - are part of a range of native identities of displaced Bos- nians. The performance of the local identities takes place in various ways, both in the privacy of their homes and in the public spaces.

4 A pie made of pieces of chicken meat arranged over dough and covered with sour cream

28 RESEARCH AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF FORCED MIGRATIONS IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Everyday life in translocal communities includes a number of other activities involving relatives, former neighbours, acquaintances and friends in St. Louis and other cities in the United States as well as with those who have migrated to other countries or remained in BiH. It’s not just the nostalgia for the lost homeland, but also a matter of reconstructed native identities in a different context and it is confirmed by the almost prevalent - and certainly desirable - native endogamy; young people are encouraged to marry “their own kind” thereby referring to the people of the same local origin. This trend of marriage between members of the same local groups of Bosnians displaced around the world additionally reinforces and confirms the translocal identities in a very embodied manner.

Conclusion

While affirming the importance of the original places for various migrant populations, this interpretation does not imply the essentialist, static view of the relationship between people, places and identities. It does not imply that the translocal diaspora communities are “fixed and unchang- ing” in their identities located in a previous time and place. Practices of translocality demonstrate that the cultural place and embodied local identities transcend geographic space and chronological time and the fact that mobility and attachment to a place are not intrinsically contradictory, but can be complementary processes (Halilovich, 2011; Čapo and Halilovich, 2013). They confirm the dynamism and fluidity of the complex relationships in which identity of place as a set of embodied practices transcends its original geographic location and becomes translocal or poly-local. In the new space of the diaspora, the migrants create a place (place-making) in the sense that they adopt and appropriate it as a place of meaning and identity (Gulin Zrnić, 2009) through a translocal process that involves the intervention of other locations (of origin), networks and activities from afar. Given that the sense of location in the context of migration is necessarily created and transformed in a translocal environment - which includes at least one over here and one back there - this process occurs not only in places of settlement, but also in the places of origin, during the visits and the return of the migrants. Translocality, therefore, covers a wide range of practices and relationships in the articulation of distinctive (trans) local identities – both

29 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE in migration and in the place of origin - revealing how these practices and relationships are reconstructed, adapted and recreated in a mobile world. Such translocal practices and relationships play a significant, though not sufficiently recognized, role (also) in the socio-economic transformation and reconstruction of local places and communities in Bosnia and Her- zegovina and throughout the Western Balkans. Return migration also represents an interesting area to explore the interweaving of two or more locations and related identities, now in the double context of relocation: the first occurs as a result of emigration, and the other as a result of remi- gration. Therefore, we would like to encourage researchers of migration issue in the region to (re)focus their efforts from dominant ethno-national and transnational levels to local and regional levels.

Bibliography

Baldassar, L. (2007) Transnational families and the provision of moral and emotional support: The relationship between truth and distance. Identities, 14, p. 385-409. Basch, L. et al. (1994) Nations unbound: Transnational Projects and the Deterritorialised Nation-state. New York: Gordon and Breach Brickell, K. and Datta, A. (2011) Introduction: translocal geographies. U: Kath- erine B. and Datta, A. (ur.) Translocal Geographies: Spaces, Places, Connections. London: Ashgate, p. 3-22. Čapo J. and Halilovich, H. (2013) La Localisation du Transnationalisme: Pratiques Tranfrontalières Bosniaques et Croates. Ethnologie française, 43 (2), p. 291-301. Čapo Žmegač, J. (2003) Dva lokaliteta, dvije države, dva doma: transmigracija hrvatskih ekonomskih migranata u Münchenu. Narodna umjetnost: Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 40 (2), p. 117-131. Čapo Žmegač, J. (2007) Strangers Either Way: The Lives of Croatian Refugees in Their New Home. New York-Oxford: Berghahn Books Conradson, D. and Mckay, D. (2007) Translocal subjectivities: mobility, connection, emotion. Mobilities, II (2), p. 167-174. Coughlan, R. (2011) Transnationalism in the Bosnian Diaspora in America. U: Va- lenta, M. i Ramet, S.P. (ur.) Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in Transnational Com- munities. Farnham: Ashgate, p. 105-22. Franz, B. (2005) Uprooted and Unwanted: Bosnian Refugees in Austria and the United States. College Station: Texas A&M University Press Glick Schiller, N. (2005) Transnational social fields and imperialism: bringing a theory of power to transnational studies. Anthropological Theory, 5 (4), p. 439-461.

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Glick Schiller, N. (2006) Introduction: what can transnational studies offer the analysis of localized conflict and protest. Focaal: European Journal of Anthropol- ogy, 47, p. 3-17. Glick Schiller, N. (2008) Beyond methodological ethnicity: local and transnational pathways of immigrant incorporation. Willy Brandt Series of Working Papers, 2/8, Malmö: Malmö University Glick Schiller, N. et al. (1992) Toward a Transnational Perspective on Migration. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences Glick Schiller, N. et al. (1999) Trans-nationalism: a new analytic framework for understanding migration. U: Vertovec, S. and Cohen, R. (ur.) Migra- tion, Diasporas and Trans-nationalism. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publish- ing, p. 26-50. Guarnizo, L.E. and Smith, M.P. (1998) The Locations of transnationalism. U: Smith, M.P. and Guarnizo, L.E. (ur.) Transnationalism from Below. New Brun- swick-London: Transaction Publishers, p. 3-34. Gulin Zrnić, V. (2009) Kvartovska spika: Značenja grada i urbani lokalizmi u Novom Zagrebu. Zagreb: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku - Jesenski and Turk Hage, G. (1997) At home in the entrails of the West: multiculturalism, ‘ethnic food’ and migrant home–building. U: Grace, H. et al. (ur.) Community and Marginal- ity in Sydney’s West. Annandale: Pluto Press, p. 99-153. Halilović, H. (2006) Bosanskohercegovačka dijaspora u vrtlogu globalnih migracija: šanse i izazovi za Bosnu i Hercegovinu. Pregled, LXXXVI (3), p. 193-220. Halilovich, H. (2011a) (Per)forming ‘trans-local’ homes: Bosnian diaspora in Australia. U: Valenta, M. and Ramet, S.P. (ur.) Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in Transnational Communities. Farnham: Ashgate, p. 63-81. Halilovich, H. (2011b) Beyond the sadness: memories and homecomings among survivors of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in a Bosnian village. Memory Studies Journal, IV (1), p. 42-52. Halilovich, H. (2012) Trans-local communities in the age of transnationalism: Bos- nians in diaspora. International Migration, 50(1), p. 162-178 Hariz Halilovich, H. (2013) Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory and Trans-local Identities in Bosnian War-torn Communities. New York - Oxford: Berghahn. Kearney, M. (1995) The local and the global: the anthropology of globalisation and transnationalism. Annual Reviews Anthropology, 25, p. 547-565. Ministarstvo za ljudska prava i izbjeglice Bosne i Hercegovine (2008) Pregled stanja bosanskohercegovačkog stanovništva. Sarajevo: Sektor za Iseljeništvo (The Minis- try of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2008, Overview of the Bosnia and Herzegovinian population, Diaspora Division) Portis-Winner, I. (2002) Semiotics of Peasants in Transition: Slovene Villagers and Their Ethnic Relatives in America. Durham: Duke University Press

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Peleikis, A. (2000) The emergence of a translocal community: the case of a South Lebanese village and its migrant connections to Ivory Coast. Cahiers d’Études sur la Méditerranée Orientale et le Monde Turco-Iranienn, 30, p. 297-317. Povrzanović Frykman, M. (2010) Materijalne prakse bivanja i pripadanja u trans- nacionalnim društvenim prostorima. Studia ethnologica Croatica, 22 (1), p. 39-60. Toal G. and Dahlman, C.T. (2011) Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleanisng and Its Reversal. Oxford i New York: Oxford Univeristy Press Valenta, M. and Ramet, S.P. (2011) Bosnian migrants: an introduction. U: Valenta, M and Ramet, S.P. (ur.) The Bosnian Diaspora: Integration of Transnational Com- munities. Farnham: Ashgate, p. 1-23. Van Gelder, L. (2008) Weaving a Way Home: A personal Journey Exploring Place and Story. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Wimmer, A. and Glick Schiller, N. (2003) Methodological nationalism, the social sciences and the study of migration: an essay in historical epistemology. Inter- national Migration Review, XXXVII (3), p. 576-610. Wise, A. and Velayutham, S. (2008) Second‒generation Tamils and cross-cultural marriage: managing the translocal village in a moment of cultural rupture. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, XXIV (1), p. 113-131.

32 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES, INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS AND THEIR RETURN BETWEEN 1996 AND 2012

What and How Newspapers Report about Resolution of issues of Refugees and IDPs in Serbia

SINIŠA VOLAREVIĆ1 Center for Migration, Group 484, Belgrade

Abstract

Newspaper writing about the ways refugee and IDP issues are tackled in Serbia is the main subject of this paper. The research objectives relate to changes in the quantity and manner of writings about refugees and displaced persons, and special attention is focused on possible impact of domestic political actors on the content of newspaper articles and their position toward the ways the refugee and IDP issues are dealt with. The analysis included a sample of 530 articles found in archives, written in the period 1996-2012 and published in the daily newspapers Politika, Večernje novosti, Danas, Blic and Kurir. Statistical analyses included 18 variables, mostly nominal, defined by a common methodological framework simultaneously implemented in the Bosnia and Herze- govina and Serbia research projects. In-depth content analysis, guided by additional research issues arising from the quantitative analysis, included only a small, selected sample of articles. The results have shown that: A. over the time period covered, almost none steady changes (increase or decrease) occurred

1 [email protected]

33 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

with respect to any of the observed variables; B. between articles relating only to refugees and those referring only to displaced persons there are some significant and interesting differences; C. local representatives of institutions and political parties are important actors and sources of newspaper articles, but their influence on newspaper writings about refugee and displacement issues cannot (at least not entirely) be explained with the hypothesis about political elites being discouraging the return process. A more complete understanding of that relation (and possible influence) would require additional researching.

Keywords: refugees, displaced persons, daily newspapers, Serbia, political actors

1. INTRODUCTION

Apart from introduction to research and methodology written in introductory chapter, the research in Serbia also dealt with a distinction between refugees and IDPs, i.e. with differences between articles reporting exclusively on refugees and the ones dealing with displaced persons only. This case is specific for Serbia, since refugees on one side and IDPson the other represent two entirely separate populations. The historical and political context, including events from the recent past, the ones that pre- ceded refugee migrations, are completely different and it is not irrelevant that certain differences also exist in the approach of political elites and general public with respect to these two issues. In the next chapter, the analysis of some more significant elements of the context related to refugees and IDPs and media in Serbia has been shown. The analysis did not aim to be all-inclusive and only focused on some of the most important issues that would be of more significance for any subsequent studies of empirical material. It is followed by a short chapter on the methodology of research that pays more attention to significant specifics of methodological elements used in Serbia, leaving out all methodological details common for both national researches. They can be found elsewhere in this publication. The central chapter of this paper contains fairly detailed overview of empirical results of the research. All basic parameters defined by variables used in the research have been outlined, followed by the analyses based on certain crossings and correlations. Special attention was paid to changes of time dimension (crossing with the “time period” variable), differences between articles related to refugees and displaced persons respectively,

34 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... and crossings of variables “primary actors” and “primary sources” with variable “attitude of the article” (to refugee return and/or resolutions of refugee and IDP issues). The latter correlations were supplemented by the content analysis of certain number of articles reflecting relationships between quantitative data. Therefore, the findings of this brief and limited content analysis have been shown at the end of this chapter. The discussions (in the chapter that follows) are related to several key research findings; possible reasons are reviewed (factors standing behind clearly established facts) and limitations and needs for additional analyses and research are pointed out. The chapter with conclusions is focused on basic research questions (the ones we started from) attempting to offer con- cise and specific answers to them, taking into account all methodological limitations and all remaining ambiguities (that await some future research).

2. BACKGROUND ANALYSIS

2.1. Refugees and displaced persons in Serbia

In early 90s of 20th century, numerous refugees from the areas affected by post-Yugoslav wars found the refuge in Serbia, mostly from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Refugee migrations of August 1995 - during and in the aftermath of the Croatian military and police actions initiated on territories under the control of Serbian authorities at that time - mainly ended in Serbia marking the greatest refugee migration in Europe after the WW II. During the census conducted in 1996, almost 538,000 refugees and war- affected persons were counted in Serbia. More than two fifths of refugees found their refuge in Vojvodina, and more than a fourth in Belgrade area. Nearly the same number of refugees came from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, respectively. The last registration of refugees in Serbia was conducted in late 2004 and early 2005, and the data from Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations of December 2012 confirmed that close to 66,000 persons with a refugee status were still living in Serbia.2 More than 250,000

2 The ratio between number of refugees from Croatia and the ones from BiH, in comparison to 1996 has been significantly changed. Even the data obtained by 2004/2005 registration rendered obvious that the number of refugees from Croatia participated by 75% in the total population with refugee status. This

35 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE refugees from former Yugoslavia obtained the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia, and around 150,000 refugees returned to BiH and Croatia, while around 49,000 migrated to third countries (Krstić, 2012). In 1999, applications forms for migration to third countries, in organization of the UNHCR, were submitted by 400 refugees per week on average. That year, UNHCR facilitated migration for 1,933 refugees from Croatia and 620 from BiH. In addition to that, it was estimated that around 15,000 refugees left Serbia to third countries between 1992 until October 1999 in direct contact with foreign consular representative offices and without any mediation of UNHCR. (Dimitrijević, 2000) A new big wave of forced migrants followed after the end of armed conflict in Kosovo, i.e. after the signing of Kumanovo Agreement, during and immediately after the withdrawal of Yugoslav army and police from Kosovo and Metohija in June 1999. This was mostly due to a slow establishment and inefficiency of UN civil administration and consequently explosion of violence and anarchy. Tensions did not abate until the end of 1999. Violation of rights of minority group members had a massive and concerning extent. Serbs, Roma, Turks and members of other ethnic minorities were often exposed to threats and cruelties exclusively for the reason of their ethnic origin.3 Various estimates indicate that more than 230,000 people left Kosovo and Metohija at that time, mostly members of non-Albanian communities.4 In 2000, more than 187,000 internally displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija were registered in Serbia with new displacements (and new registrations) that followed in the aftermath as well: the official data of December 2012 speak of 210,148 IDPs in Serbia outside the area of Kosovo and Metohija.5 The majority of IDPs belong to Serbian ethnic group, and about 25% of them are of another ethnicity, out of which the most numerous group

is usually explained by the fact that the return process to Croatia faced more difficulties, and eventually was significantly less successful than the return to Bosnia and Herzegovina. 3 European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) stated that what Roma population experienced in Kosovo during 1999 was “the greatest calamity that Roma community had been struck with after the Holocaust of WW II” (Dimitrijević, 2001: 255). 4 On 15 October 1999, Yugoslav Red Cross published that 230,884 of IDPs from Kosovo were registered in Serbia and Montenegro. (Dimitrijević, 2000: 287) 5 According to UNHCR data, more than 20,000 people have been displaced in Kosovo itself.

36 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... make Roma (around 11 %). The highest number of internally displaced persons resides in Central and South Serbia (almost two thirds), and the lowest portion of IDPs are located in Vojvodina (around 6%). More than fourth of total number of IDPs resides in Belgrade.

2.1.1. In the aftermath of Dayton and years that followed: normalization of interstate relations and regional approach to refugee and IDP issues Soon after reaching the Dayton Peace Agreement in November 1995, the Erdut Agreement was signed ending the hostilities with respect to the territory of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia, the only territory in the Republic of Croatia which was still under control of Serbian authorities (and under the United Nations protection). Like the Dayton Agreement, the Erdut Agreement also contained provisions on resolution of refugee issues and the right to return.6 Less than a year later, on 23 August 1996, the Agreement on Normalization of Relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was signed. In September, the Agreement was enacted in the Croatian Parliament and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in the same month. By this Agreement, the right to return of refugees was reaffirmed.7 Several months later, in July 1997, The UN Security Coun- cil adopted the Resolution 1120,8 by which the right to return of all refugees to their pre-war homes was reiterated one more time. Moreover, the Resolution additionally reinforced the process of peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia in the Croatian constitutional and legal system. Nevertheless, the reality of return, both then and later, was unlike the promises given by political documents. In the 2000 Report, the Belgrade Human Rights Center presented the assessment that “even by 1999, prerequisites for a more substantial return of refugees to the Republic of

6 Text of the Agreement can be found under http://www.snv.hr/pdf/erdutski_spora- zum.pdf [accessed on 22 June 2013]. 7 Text of the Decision on Law Enactment (including the Agreement itself) can be found on the site of Narodne novine, in the section International Agreements: http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/medunarodni/default.aspx [accessed on 22 June 2013]. 8 UN Security Council, Resolution 1120 (1997), 14 July 1997, S/RES/1120 (1997). The Resolution was adopted on the UN Security Council session of 14 July 1997. The English version can be found at http://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00efa03b. html [accessed on 22 June 2013].

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Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were not met.” (Dimitrijević, 2000: 291). Lack of cooperation by the authorities in Croatia was pointed out as an aggravating factor, but also the inability to repossession of tenant’s rights, and limited access to funds for reconstruction of destroyed and damaged housing. UNHCR made estimates of around 20,000 returnees to Croatia and 18,000 to Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, numerous reports confirmed that these returnees, especially in case of Croatia, came back to Serbia after obtaining personal documents and regulating certain administrative issues (e.g. related to their property or retirement benefits) (s. Dimitrijević, 2000). Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina reached a bilat- eral Agreement on return of refugees in early October 2003. The respon- sibilities were defined more precisely in respect of creating conditions for voluntary, organized or mutually harmonized return of refugees by an additional protocol. (from SCG to BiH and vice versa).9 On 31 January 2005, a Declaration on Resolution of Refugee and IDP Issues was adopted in Sarajevo.10 It was a first regional agreement of such kind that was reached by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and SR Yu- goslavia under the auspices and support of UNHCR, OSCE, and Euro- pean Union. The intention of participating actors was creation of strategic framework for a joint action of closing the refuge and IDP file in Western Balkans. The Declaration anticipated each signing party respectively to pass a national action plan in the following three months and all issues to be resolved by late 2006. However, the problems occurred shortly after that mostly with regard to rights of refugees from Croatia, on which no agreement was reached which eventually lead to a total extinction of the regional process. The issue of refugee return and permanent resolution of refugee issues in the Western Balkans was reopened once more after the UNHCR ac- claimed the refugee situation in Serbia one of the five most lasting refugee crises whose resolution would require special international attention and

9 The Agreement between the Council of Ministers of Serbia and Montenegro and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Return of Refugees from Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the Protocol (Official Gazette of Serbia and Montenegro – International Agreements, No. 6/04) 10 The text of Sarajevo Declaration in Serbian language is available at: http://www. kirs.gov.rs/docs/SDeklaracija%20v2.1.pdf [accessed on 22 June 2013].

38 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... cooperation of countries in the region. The initiative was launched in Ge- neva on 10 December 2008 in the framework of a two-day Dialogue with the UN High Commissioner. Following that, the Republic of Serbia commenced major political and diplomatic activities, and in January 2009 it already published the non-paper presenting its position on outstanding issues regarding the status of refugees from the Republic of Croatia, and made commitments to resolve these issues in accordance with principles of 2005 Sarajevo Declaration.11 In March 2010, a Ministerial Conference took place in Belgrade on which four participating countries of Sarajevo Process reaffirmed the goals of Sa- rajevo Declaration and regional approach to resolution of the remaining refugee issues, whereas technical working groups had been established after the conference and started with their activities soon after: six bilat- eral technical meetings between Serbia and the Republic of Croatia and ten regional expert meetings of all four countries took place. Also, Euro- pean Union, OSCE, UNHCR, Council of Europe, and the United States of America took part in the process. Also, additional expert working groups were established to answer all outstanding issues and in the framework of technical meetings and meetings on the political level, the principles and contents of regional projects were eventually agreed with the objective to facilitate resolution of the most important refugee and IDP issues in the region. The draft of the joint regional program was presented in Vienna on June 2011 and it was finally adopted on a Ministerial conference in Bel- grade on 7 November 2011, where a joint declaration to end migration and secure permanent solutions for threatened refugees and IDPs was signed. Consequently, a donor conference was held in Sarajevo on 24 April 2012 on which most of the funds necessary for implementation of the Regional program were raised creating the basis for practical implementation of the program. The regional program was drafted with the objective to clearly focus on achievement of appropriate and sustainable housing solutions for the most vulnerable refugee families. According to the volume of funds and number of beneficiaries, the program will be mostly realized in the

11 Text of this document is available on the site of Commissariat for refugees and migrations of the Republic of Serbia, at: http://www.kirs.gov.rs/docs/regionalniproces/NON_paper_srp.pdf [accessed on 22 June 2013], and more extensive official information about the regional process on the same site at:http://www.kirs. gov.rs/articles/regionalniproces.php?lang=SER [accessed on 22 June 2013].

39 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE territory of Serbia.12 The activities in Serbia are predominantly focused on support of local integration of refugees. More information can be found in the 2011 Migration Profile of the Republic of Serbia, especially in the chapter C2: Policies in the field of integration of refugees and IDPs (KIMRS, 2012), and at the official site of Regional Housing Project.13

2.1.2. Return of IDPs to Kosovo and Metohija: policies and realities According to the UNHCR data, more than 20,000 displaced persons returned to Kosovo area until the end of 2012. Nevertheless, the sustainability of these returns is evaluated as weak or dubious while the number of returnees who remained in their places of return is only estimated to few thousands. The process of organized return of IDPs to Kosovo and Metohija started during 2000 and 2001 by assisted return projects to Biča and Grabac implemented by UNHCR and by the return project to Osojane implemented by the Coordination Center for Kosovo and Metohija First group of IDPs arrived to Osojane on 12 and 13 of August 2001. Yet, the return process, including political initiatives related thereto, did not begin with these projects. First, the cases of so called spontaneous return were even registered in 2000 (and were in a way encouraged and supported). With regard to Osojane, various activities were also been implemented after August 2001 (including new groups of returnees), and total outcome of this project including sustainability of returnee community are to the most extent the result of existing long-term (state!) support. Pursuant to the Resolution 1244 (1999), the Special Representative of the General Secretary of UN in Kosovo adopted the Constitutional Frame- work on 15 May 2001 which included detailed provisions on rights and duties of self-government authorities, but also provisions on human rights granted to all residents of Kosovo. Certain provisions of the Constitutional Framework referred to the refugee and displaced persons protection. In the preamble, the obligation to facilitate safe return of refugees and IDPs

12 The total value of the program amounts to EUR 584,000,000. A part of the program related to Serbia shall include resolution of housing issues for 16,780 families, for which international financial support of EUR 302,000,000 was pledged. 13 See in particular: Providing a home for 74,000 people: RHP Highlights 2012/2013: http://www.regionalhousingprogramme.org/uploads/news/RHP_highlights_2012_ 2013_1366809057.pdf [accessed on 22 June 2013].

40 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... was pointed out as well as to make the property restitution possible. In the chapter 3, among the provisions on human rights, there was a provision granting the right to refugees and IDPs to return and restitute their property. In course of 2002 and 2003, the UN Mission to Kosovo (UNMIK) established a special Office for Return and Communities (ORC) – and took other measures to create the comprehensive support system to IDPs. In the same process, the Handbook for sustainable return was drafted (in January 2003) and the mechanism of working groups for return was established – on municipal, regional and central level. In a way, various activities implemented for purpose of coordinating various actors and establishing procedures regarding return of IDPs to Kosovo were ended thereby. However, institutions in charge for the return process of IDPs to Kosovo, although established in 2002, were operational only during 2004, i.e. five years after displacement took place. UNMIK revised the Handbook on sustainable development in 2006, which was supplemented by the Proto- col on voluntary and sustainable development soon after, and in that process, the procedures harmonized with international standards on rights and return of IDPs have been established for the first time. (Group 484, 2011) The revised Handbook came to light after fairly extensive consulta- tions and previously adopted recommendations, and all for the purpose of improvement of existing procedures and to make the return process more active. The Protocol on sustainable return, following negotiations of 6 June 2006, was signed by Serbian and Albanian sides respectively. In March 2005, the Ministry of Community and Return was established with the mandate to supervise and support various municipal mechanisms for facilitation of IDP return established in the previous period, including adoption and implementation of municipal return strategies. During 2006 and 2007, UNMIK continued the process of transferring authorities to In- terim Self-Government Institutions, including the competences regarding return process.14 To that end, in October 2009, the Kosovo Ministry of Community and Return published the 2009-2013 Strategy for Communi- ties and Return. On the other hand, on 6 April 2009, more than a year after self-procla- mation of Kosovo Republic independence, the registration for return of

14 On 17 February 2008, the Interim Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo and Metohija proclaimed independence of the Kosovo Republic.

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IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija commenced in cooperation with the Min- istry for Kosovo and Metohija, the Commissioner for Refugees of the Re- public of Serbia, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The objective was to register IDP families who wish to return to Kosovo and Metohija in 2009 under the existing circumstances and to estimate their needs. An active public campaign was launched aiming at giving a new impetus to the return process to Kosovo and Metohija. In course of that process, 1,212 families, i.e. 4,875 persons, expressed their wish to return to Kosovo and Metohija during 2009. In 2010, additional 325 families with 1,307 members were registered. Nowadays though, statistic data on the return process evidently show that after 2003 and after a wave of violence of March 2004, the return process was almost staled while the negative trend continued despite all new activities and measures meant to enhance and facilitate the return. Conse- quently, the number of returnees of 2003 was not remotely reached (Group 484, 2011). One survey, conducted in 2009 by the Danish Refugee Council which included 858 displaced households (530 in Central Serbia and 328 in Kosovo), demonstrated that IDPs did not express the wish to return as often as in some previous survey: in Central Serbia, 24% of interviewed expressed the wish to return, while in Kosovo and Metohija that percentage was 34,1%. In reality, total of 631 persons returned to the area of Kosovo and Metohija during 2009, out of which only 187 within the registration concept. Also, nothing significantly changed to this regard in 2010. The Serbian Government adopted the Strategy of Sustainable Stay and Return to Kosovo and Metohija, but the reality of return remained marked by numerous problems related to property rights – both reconstruction and property restitution have been implemented with a whole range of obstacles and impediments. In second half of 2010, European Union announced the initiative for launching a new dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, which finally resulted in opening a dialogue about practical issues under the auspices of EU in Brussels on 8 March 2011. Two delegations were led by the political director of the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Borko Stefanović and vice-president of Kosovo Government Edita Tahiri respectively. Negotia- tions were focused on resolutions of practical issues affecting life quality of people in the entire region, but the issues of return of IDPs were not given any special attention. Nevertheless, the negotiations also included certain issues of particular importance to IDPs, which primarily referred

42 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... to issues of birth registration and cadaster records. Despite substantial political resistance both in Pristina and in Belgrade, especially related to certain issues in municipalities in Northern Kosovo (which is populated by majority of Serbian people), several technical agreements were reached and certain progress was made in their implementation by late 2011. All of that, however, did not have any obvious effects on return process and rights of IDPs in Kosovo. In course of 2011, 501 persons spontaneously returned to Kosovo and Metohija. Assisted by programs of organized return, additional 103 IDPs returned to their homes. Following that, after the Parliamentary and Presidential election and major change of political power and establishment of the new Serbian Government, in August 2011 was confirmed for the first time that the new Government of Serbia would comply and implement previously reached agreements, and soon after, i.e. mid October 2012, the first meeting Dačić- Tachi took place leading to commencement of an intensive political dialogue on a relation between Belgrade and Pristina and finally the achievement of so-called Brussels Agreement on normalization of relations in April 2013. The entire process was, in its final stage, extremely focused on agreement about the status of four municipalities (with Serbian majority) in Northern Kosovo, precisely, on reaching some specific agreements on status of certain institution on that territory and did not in any way touch the issues of return and rights of IDPs.

2.1.3. Few notes on social and economic status of refugees and IDPs in Serbia From 1992 until the end of 2010, 7,844 different housing solutions were secured with continuous support from various international donor funds providing home for 30,400 refugees and IDPs (KIRS, 2011). In 2011, the housing was provided for additional 1,469 families (KIMRS, 2012). To meet the housing needs of refugees, construction material was donated, new housing units (including housing compounds and prefabricated houses) were built, or rural houses with land were purchased. The major part of constructed housing units aimed at meeting the housing needs of collective centers’ residents following their closing. In 2001, the total housing surface of 90% of refugee and IDP households in collective centers consisted of only one room and almost half of these households in collective centers (49%) did not have a bathroom (Dimitrijević, 2002:

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213).15 Yet, collective centers in Serbia have always provided shelter to a small minority of people, which used to be less than 10% and nowadays less than 1%. Significant efforts and funds were invested in the closure of collective centers and provision of permanent housing solutions for their residents. In 1996, more than 700 collective centers existed, in January 2002 there were still 308 of them, and in May 2013 – 11 years after – 29 official collective centers have remained. Nevertheless, like at the beginning of the process so nowadays, most refugees and IDPs live in extremely dire conditions of private accommodation.16 By reducing the number of refugees in Serbia, demographic but also social structure of this population has been significantly changed. Generally, one can justifiably state that refugee status is maintained by relatively higher number of persons of weaker personal capacities for the integration or return process, i.e. persons whose existence is burdened by numerous vulner- ability factors. Therefore, a major part of refugee population today consists of elderly people and persons with lower education background compared to 1996. According to the data from a research conducted in 2008 on a representative sample of refugees in private accommodation (KIRS, 2008), the unemployment rate among refugees was much higher than among general population (amounting to 33%); less than one third of refugees secured the housing in terms of owning residential units where they lived, and 7% of refugees was living in premises which do not meet living conditions. The survey on living standard from 2007 demonstrated that the poverty among IDPs was double than among general population in Serbia. Out of total number of IDPs, 14.5% lived under the poverty line, while this percentage was 6.8%17 in total population (Vukmirović and Smith-Govoni, 2008). The unemployment rate of IDPs amounted to 36%, and more than

15 The data originate from the research on Health Status, Health Needs and Use of Health Insurance by Serbian Population. The research was conducted by the Insti- tute of Health Protection. 16 The data stated in a press release by Red Cross of Serbia from 2001 can serve as an illustration that in that period the aid of international humanitarian organizations was received by “146,000 Serbian citizens, 167,586 refugees and 80,000 IDPs” (Dimitrijević, 2002: 207). 17 The survey was conducted prior to the economic crisis which additionally im- poverished major part of Serbian population. Last available official data from 2010 speak that 9.2% of Serbian population lived in poverty. See: http://www. inkluzija.gov.rs/?page_id=1186 [accessed on 22 June 2013].

44 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES...

90% of unemployed IDPs were unemployed for prolonged period (more than one year). IDPs among ethnic communities of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians represent an especially vulnerable group that face particular difficulties in exercising their rights, mostly due to lack of personal documents, poverty, homelessness, lower education status and discriminatory attitudes of state civil servants. Among internally displaced Roma, the share of households where nobody is employed reaches 70%, while their education background demonstrates that two thirds of Roma population never even completed primary education. 10.2 % of total IDPs live in non- residential facilities, and according to all basic parameters of living quality the average situation of Roma households is less favorable in many ways. (Cvejić and Babović, 2008) Less than four years later, in the framework of the research Needs Assessment of Internally Displaced Persons in Republic of Serbia (UNHCR and KIRS, 2011) among the IDP population, more than 97,000 IDPs or around 23,000 families respectively were identified to be in welfare need. These families mostly live as tenants (48.9%) in private accommodation or reside with relatives or friends (21.6%). The employment rate amounts to 28.5%, and unemployment rate to 39%. It is estimated that some assistance with housing is required by 21,420 households, predominantly in form of construction material boxes and apartment units from welfare housing program.

2.1.3.1. Local support to integration Municipalities and cities are the important partner of the Commission- er for Refugees and Migrations and local and international organizations involved in providing support to refugees and IDPs. Among other, substantial local funds were invested in housing construction projects in the process of integration and improvement of local conditions, primarily by allocating free land lots, securing primary communal infrastructure and waiving various local taxes and contributions. Based on that established cooperation, the Refugee Commissariat, with the support of International Organization for Migration, started with the development of new local mechanisms for improvement of refugee and displaced persons status in 2008. The data from a recent report (Vučić and Kačapor–Džihić, 2013) state that local action plans were adopted by 124 local self-governments and Migration Councils were established in 128 municipalities and cities by the end 0f 2012. In the same period, the implementation of local action

45 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE plans was funded by total of 15 million EUR from national budgets and international aid funds.18 In most cases, the funds were used to support activities with regard to construction material aid or some other forms of housing assistance (purchase of houses with land or assembling prefabricated houses, for example), but also to develop income-generation activities.

2.1.4. Brief reflection on legislation and strategy framework The status of refugees from “former Yugoslav republics” is governed by the Law on Refugees adopted in 1992 in Republic of Serbia (Official Ga- zette of RS, No. 18/92). The Law was passed with the objective to create a framework for humanitarian management of persons who found a refuge in the Republic of Serbia due to war atrocities in Ex-Yugoslavia. Neverthe- less, some of its provisions, including the narrow definition of a refugee notion, were considered problematic and discriminating.19 In May 2010, the Law was amended inter alia by a new definition of a refugee, which also included “persons committed to integration” or the persons who applied for citizenship of the Republic of Serbia respectively. Actually, the main objective of adopted amendments was to regulate the refugee integration more comprehensively, in addition to humanitarian management of refugees, or more precisely to have a comprehensive legal framework in place for implementation of various support programs aiming at provision of more sustainable housing solutions. In addition to the legislation framework, defined by the mentioned regulations and some pertaining bylaws, certain strategic documents were also enacted in Serbia in order to regulate defined objectives and measures for protection and improvement of refugee status. All strategies dealing with refugee issues equally refer to IDPs (from Kosovo and Metohija), which is of particular importance since no legislative framework was in place earlier to govern the status and rights of IDPs.

18 The value of projects is significantly higher as local self-governments in a rule secure co-financing from 5 to more than 20%. 19 Generally, legal experts evaluated the law as non-complying with the Conven- tion relating to the Status of Refugees and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, inter alia because it unlawfully differentiated between refugees from the former SFRY and all other refugees. (Dimitrijević, 2000). Such situation was finally remedied by adoption of the Law on Asylum in 2007.

46 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES...

The first among these strategies – National strategy for resolution of refugee and IDP issues – was enacted by the Government of Serbia on 30 May 2002.20 It was the first national strategy document dealing with resolution of refugee issues from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (but also IDPs from Kosovo), including the issue of their return. The Strategy anticipated two general action lines: 1) to secure conditions for return (emphasizing security and legal security as well as mechanisms of property restitutions and other rights) and 2) to ensure prerequisites for local integration (paying particular attention to housing and employment issues). Eight years later, when measures anticipated by this strategy were mostly obliterated and only partially achieved, a new strategy, which mostly revised objectives and measure of the first strategy, was adopted in early March 2011.21 The National strategy for resolution of refugee and IDP issues for the period between 2001 and 201422 actually set out the same general strategic directions – return and integration, yet anticipating defined and innovated measures more precisely, taking into account changes that had happened in the meantime, but also other remaining and outstanding issues. In case of IDPs, it is clearly stated that the basic strategic objective shall be to provide support to all IDPs for a sustainable return to Kosovo and Metohija. Only after accepting the fact of a long-term displacement, other types of support are considered with no mention of integration but rather improvement of living conditions of IDPs. IDP issues are particularly dealt with by the Strategy of sustainable sub- sistence and return to Kosovo and Metohija.23 The strategy was adopted in

20 Text of the strategy is not available on the Government of Serbia web site, but it can be found on http://www.prsp.gov.rs/download/Nacionalna%20strategi- ja%20za%20REF_IDP.doc [accessed on 22 June 2013]. 21 It is important to note that institutions of Vojvodina self-government established in the meantime an important tool of support to refugees and IDPs. In December 2006, The Assembly of AP Vojvodina adopted the decision on establishing a Province Fund for Aid to Refugees, Expelled and Internally Displaced Persons. Since 2007, the Fund has been continuously implementing projects of various volumes supporting the integration on the territory of Vojvodina, but also providing support to returnees and returnee communities. 22 Document is available at: http://www.kirs.gov.rs/docs/nacionalna_strategija_ izb_i_irl.pdf [accessed on 22 June 2013]. 23 The document is available on the web site of the Government of Serbia: http:// www.srbija.gov.rs/extfile/sr/131175/strategija_odrzivog_opstanka_i_povrat- ka_na_kim0242_cyr.zip [accessed on 22 June 2013].

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April 2010 for the period between 2010 and 2015. The return of IDPs itself was only defined as one of the general objectives of the strategy in the framework of a much broader strategic context. Its measures were drafted rather generally whereas the action plan has never been developed. Since the significant portion of ID population consists of RAE24 communities, and because the status of Roma is especially problematic, the policies and measures adopted in Serbia with the objective to generally improve their status are of major importance for the progress of the overall status of Roma. Finally, a special chapter within the Strategy for improvement of the status of Roma in the Republic of Serbia adopted in April 2009,25 was devoted to issues of IDPs, so special recommendations, measures and activities were developed with regard to issues of internally displaced Roma (in the Action Plan adopted for the period 2009-201126). In addition to the afore-mentioned, the Strategy for Migration Manage- ment was adopted in July 2009.27 In context of this paper it is important to note that the strategy recognizes refugees and IDPs to belong to the population of vulnerable migration groups, and one of the three strategic objectives anticipates protection of rights of migrants and creation of conditions for their integration and social inclusion. The first action plan for implementation of the 2011-2012 Strategy for Migration Management was adopted only in 2011 (Official Gazette of RS, No. 37/11).

2.1.5. Granting citizenship for refugees in Serbia: changes in the legislative framework between 1996 and 2007 The Law on Citizenship of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Official Ga- zette of FRY, No. 33/96) was adopted in 1996, and entered in force on 1 January 1997. Pursuant provisions of that Law, granting the citizenship of Yugoslavia for citizens of the former Yugoslavia (also, for refugees from

24 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians 25 Document can be found on the web-site of the Government of Serbia: http:// www.srbija.gov.rs/extfile/sr/107688/strategija_romi0080_cyr.zip [Accessed on 22 June 2013]. 26 Official Gazette of RS, No. 57/2009. Action Plan was adopted by the Conclusion of the Government of Serbia at the session held on 2 July 2009. 27 The document can be found on the web-site of Commissariat for refugees and migrations: http://www.kirs.gov.rs/docs/strategija_upravljanje_migracijama. pdf [accessed on 22 June 2013].

48 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... post-Yugoslav wars) was resolved in various ways depending whether the applicant had the residence in the territory of FRY before or after the promulgation of the FRY Constitution on 27 April 1992 (Art. 47 and Art. 48). Provisions of the Law granted wide discretion to authorities which had decision competences over applications of those refugees who obtained the residency in the territory of FRY after 27 April 1992. Therefore, these persons were generally in a less favorable position and could (could not) be granted citizenship only upon the discretion decision of the competent authority. Soon after the democratic changes in the second half of 2000, it has become much easier to obtain Yugoslav citizenship. Amendments to the Law on Citizenship was adopted in March 2001 (Official Gazette of FRY, No. 9/01) making possible to the citizens of former SFRY republics to obtain Yugoslav citizenship without renunciation of their respective foreign citizenship. That is, the persons who are citizens of another country created on the territory of SFRY and who reside in the territory of Yugoslavia as refugees, expelled or displaced persons or who found a refuge abroad were given possibility to obtain the citizenship of Yugo- slavia (Art. 48, para. 1). Also, one could have been granted the Yugoslav citizenship “if residing in Yugoslavia or abroad, and have no citizenship of any other country established in the territory of SFRY” (Art. 48, Para. 2), i.e. an apatrid or a person who obtained the citizenship of another foreign country. The time criterion which was crucial for obtaining citizenship of Yugoslavia remained unaltered, therefore the persons, who had their residency in the territory after 27 April 1992, continued to be in an unfavorable position, but the powers of the competent authority deciding upon their application were significantly limited (Art. 48, Para. 3). (BCHR, 2002) After the Law entered into force, the refugees were in a much better position in terms of exercising their right to citizenship than it was the case in previous years. According to data of the Federal Ministry of Interior at that time, 437,077 applications for the citizenship of Yugosla- via were filed in the period between 1 January 1997 and 20 July 2002. The citizenship was granted to “527,404 persons, out of which 260,440 persons under the institute of admission into citizenship.” (Papić and Dimitrijević, 2003: 183) In the period after the changes of 5 October, “125,000 persons were granted citizenship, and 80,000 of them had dual citizenship.” (BHRC, 2002: 206)

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The Law on Citizenship of Serbia has been applied since 27 February 2005 and was additionally improved by amendments in September 2007. This Law legally regulated issues of continuity of citizenship of Serbian citizens but it also made easier to obtain citizenship for certain categories of persons. In addition to it, the options of obtaining dual, even multiple citizenships were expanded. Generally, this Law was also valued for “having adopted the principles of European Convention on Citizenship” which was not the case with the previous legal regulations in this field. (Jerosimić, 2008: 168) Art. 23, Para. 2 of the Law on Citizenship sets out that a person born in another republic of SFRY, who used to have citizenship of that republic, or a person who is a citizen of another country created in the territory of former Yugoslavia, but currently resides in Serbia as a refugee, expelled or displaced person, or a person that found a refuge abroad, can be granted the citizenship of Republic of Serbia.28 Art. 23, Para 1, also defines the requirements: it is required that a person is of full ma- turity who has not been dispossessed of his/her legal capacity who shall submit a written statement that he/she considers Serbia his/her own country. However, the renunciation of foreign citizenship is not required. (Jerosimić, 2008)

2.2. Overview of media scene in Serbia

In the period between 1992 and 1995, writing of most print media in Serbia was marked by war atmosphere whereas examples of chauvin- istic propaganda and hate speech could have been found in newspaper articles. In its analysis from 2005, Jelena Grujić concluded that between early 1990s and 5th October 2000 “pro-government media”29 violated eth- ic norms in the grossest manner including discrimination on ethnic basis and hate speech (Grujić, 2005: 18). According to the assessment of the Center of Human Rights from Belgrade, these trends became significantly

28 By Art. 23, Paragraph 2, the continuity with Art. 48 of the Law on Yugoslav Citi- zenship was established, by which these persons were admitted to citizenship by (then newly introduced) institute of citizenship admission. 29 The print media were marked as pro-government and in this work the daily Politika and the weekly NIN were analyzed. Otherwise, the analysis was based on a comprehensive sample of writings from two weeklies (NIN and Vreme) and two daily newspapers (Politika and Borba / Naša borba / Danas).

50 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... weaker after signing the Dayton-Paris Agreement, and in 1998 were reinforced again with deteriorating situation and armed conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija. The criminal law had banned ethnic hatred in that period, in reality however it was continuously present both in state and in private media close to the government and no criminal procedure for hate speech has ever been instigated. (Dimitrijević, 2000) In October 1998, the Law on Public Information was enacted in an urgent procedure. This Law introduced the measures which presented serious violation of media freedom. Perhaps the most problematic part of the Law were the provisions on offense procedure which anticipated dispro- portionally high fines while the short time period for conducting a procedure violated the right to righteous proceeding guaranteed by the SRY Constitution. The government attempted to influence editorial policies of private media by an open financial pressure and the most frequently the target was the Belgrade company ABC produkt, which printed most of the private media in Serbia (BCLJP, 2001). Nevertheless, the freedom of information in Serbia was mostly threatened by regulations related to establishment and operation of electronic media in that period. Relevant regulations were dispersed everywhere and often were not in compliance, while major powers were granted to the state radio and television, thus making the legal establishment and operation of a private radio and television station “practically impossible” (Dimitrijević, 2000: 104). Furthermore, some provision of the criminal law, particularly provisions related to broadcasting of fabricated news, clearly provided for the “opportunity to violate freedom of expression and media prosecution” (Dimitrijević, 2000: 177). After the turn of 5th October in 2000, a major change in freedom of expression occurred, the position of media however was not visible immediately. In early 2001, the Federal Constitutional Court made a verdict con- firming that numerous articles of the Law on Public Information did not comply with the Constitution, international law, and federal laws. Follow- ing that, most of the provisions of that law, save the ones related to media founding, were abolished. Yet, the new law was not adopted and a new law on radio diffusion was also not adopted in 2001, thus introduction of moratorium on granting work licenses for the media preserved the privi- leged status of those media that obtained it during the regime of Slobodan Milošević to a great extent (BCHR, 2002). With respect to regulations, the

51 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE status of media in Serbia was only improved in 2002 when the Law on Radio Diffusion was adopted. The Law set out new conditions and procedure for granting broadcasting licenses, and the main achievement of that Law was establishment of independent and non-partisan regulatory body: the Republic Radio Diffusion Agency. In general, provisions of this Law were in compliance with international standards and Recommenda- tion of the Ministerial Commission of Council of Europe on independence and operation of regulatory agencies in the field of radio diffusion. (Papić and Dimitrijević, 2003) Yet, due to resilient controversies with regard to election of members to the Agency, which later lead to amendments to the Law on Radio Diffusion, the status in the area of granting licenses, operation of media, and their ownership was marked as unregulated even three years later (Petrović, 2006). In 2003, the new Law on Public Information was finally adopted. The Law was evaluated as modern regulating also the right to public information as the right to freedom of expression. Also, the Law regulated the hate speech in detail and set out precisely the basis for exclusion of responsibility. However, the criminal law continued to contain provisions on acts against honor and respect which did not comply with contemporary standards of human rights. The main problems were that the law for offenders of such criminal acts anticipated imprisonment which was considered disproportional restriction of freedom of expression, especially if these acts were committed by media. Also, it was problematic that the Law did not differentiate whether the complainant was a private person, civil servant, or a politician. Consequently, the practice of public figures filing charges for slandering continued while on the other end, the actions and public debates were organized to emphasize such situations and required decriminalization of defamation and slander. (Papić and Dimitrijević, 2004) However, it has not been realized to date. Journalists are exposed to threats and attacks and threats are mostly addressed by politicians and other power figures of public life (Petrović, 2006: 379). In the period between 2007 and 2011, according to the data of Independent Journalist Association of Serbia, out of 212 physical and verbal attacks to journalists, only 17 cases were processed, mainly in mi- nor offence procedures, although they included death threats and serious physical attacks. (Petrović, 2012). On the other hand, a serious problem of violating standards of journalist profession is in place. The Media Center from Belgrade published

52 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... the analysis of two-month reporting of six daily newspapers in September 2004 identifying 172 articles in which journalists did not comply with professional standards. As a major issue it was found that journalists allowed to public figures to use the newspapers as platform for their “own promotion or promotion of a group they belong to” (BCHR, 2005: 252) Frequent violations of professional and ethical standards are also confirmed in the following years, and it was especially concerning that among media which had such incidences were some of the most popular local media (Petrović, 2006: 384). In March 2006, journalist associations agreed on a proposed code of ethics, and by late December the code was adopted. Nevertheless, in the coming years many violations of this Code were observed. In course of 2006, based on continuous monthly analysis by Media Center, it was confirmed that print media massively violated human and citizen rights, especially frequent was the violation of presumption of innocence and demonstra- tion of “exaggerated inclination to sensationalism and political instrumen- talism” (Dobrković, 2007: 229). In 2010, the Media Council was founded as a first self-regulatory body in the media sector with the goal to influence a more consistent application of professional standards through its activities and strengthening of respectability of media. The Council started receiving complaints to contents of print media in September 2011 and during the first year of its operation 38 complaints were received, and in six cases it was verified that the journalist code had been violated (Petrović and Joksimović, 2013). In course of 2009, many laws relevant for freedom of expression were adopted or amended. The journalist associations particularly protested against the proposed amendments to the Law on Public Information, and after the amendments to this Law were adopted, the citizen advocate filed the initiative for evaluation of its constitutionality to the Constitutional Court (Dobrković, 2010). In July 2010, the Constitutional Court of Serbia declared five out of seven amendments to the Law on Public Information unconstitutional. The onset of the economic crisis additionally aggravated an already bad status of media and in course of 2010 the situation continued to deteriorate: significant sale downfall of print media, major drop of revenues from advertising, termination of employments and journalist strikes were observed (Petrović, 2011). In 2010, the Government of Serbia adopted the Strategy for Develop- ment of Public Information until 2016. The key novelty was the guidelines

53 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE anticipating the privatization of state media, and special attention was paid to public ownership and media concentration. However, European Federation of Journalists, almost simultaneously, assessed the freedom of media in Serbia as seriously threatened and the financial status of journalists horrific. (Petrović, 2012) Moreover, the Council of Anti-Corruption in its report about pressure and control of media emphasized various issues regarding ownership structure of media and impact of state authorities to the media. The report stated that funding of media from state budget had reached one fourth of total revenue on media market and evaluated such budget funding as very non-transparent. Similarly, private capital in media has also been assessed non-transparent, and for purpose of substantia- tion of that statement it pointed out that real owners of 18 out of 30 most influential media houses in Serbia were unknown, indicating numerous details on ownership structure of these media and disclosed that the main reasons of such status often was the presence of offshore companies in ownership structure of the media. The public budget funds are also placed in media, in addition to public bids, mainly through advertising. Also, agencies for public relations and marketing and production agencies have a significant role in media funding which are mostly owned by political party activists and persons related to them (Barać, 2011). Despite continuous emphasizing of such issues by journalist associations, the appropriate legislation on prevention of illegal media ownership concentration and on public ownership over media still does not exist in Serbia. Media sphere is still marked by a delayed media legislation reform, non-transparent ownership, inadequate role of the state and deep economic crisis. Although constitutional and legal framework, as per relevant international institutions, allows for legal protection of freedom of expression, in the entire period between 2004 and 2012 in Serbia, a continuously strong trend of violation of freedom of expression had been noted in Serbia, but also violations of standards of journalist profession. In 2007, Reporters without Borders ranked Serbia on 67th place for its level of media freedom (the worst ranking of all states of the former Yugoslavia). In 2010, Serbia fell down to 85th place on this list. (Jerosimić, 2008; Petrović, 2011) The Media Organization of South-East Europe, in its analysis of 2008 evaluated the status of journalists in Serbia as catastrophic, stating that media continued to suffer from pressures of political parties and owners of major capital (Dobrković, 2009). In 2012, the index of media sustainability

54 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... in Serbia was 1.92.30 The freedom of expression was estimated to 2.03, and journalist professionalism had the index of 1.67 (IREX, 2013). Looking at the entire period of last 12 years, it can be concluded that the sustainability of media in Serbia significantly increased only between 2000 and 2003, while almost a continuously negative trend has been present ever since 2006, therefore the final result of sustainability index is only slightly higher than the one from the year 2000. Daily newspaper in this research sample. In early 2003, 14 daily newspapers were published in Serbia. Five daily newspapers, that were included in this research, are some of the most influential, but selection of these papers also reflect certain differences in editorial policies and significant diversity of various attitudes towards social reality in Serbia. Politika and Večernje novosti during the regime of Slobodan Milošević were denominated as pro-government media, while Danas (along with its predecessors Borba and Naša borba) represented consistently an independent newspaper. Politika and Novosti have the longest tradition in Serbia. Even nowadays they belong to those with highest circulation and most significantly influence the public opinion. Danas is one of the exceptional media whose owners are journalists and belongs to those daily newspapers with a very low circulation, yet it suc- ceeded to preserve certain influence and significant professional credibility. Blic has, in a certain way, arisen from civil protests of 1996-97 making it perhaps one of the most read pro-democratic dailies in Serbia until the changes of 5th October. Its popularity and impact have also been preserved after 2000 to a great extent. Kurir appeared in June 2003 and such daily newspaper is normally marked as tabloid. Writings of this newspaper are frequently marked as an example of violation of journalist ethics.

30 Generally, such index marks the countries in which basic dimensions of sustainability of independent media are averagely developed. Media system also includes elements of independence and elements that directly jeopardize media independence. The index is calculated based on research which is, according to the unique methodology, conducted by the IREX organization on annual level in the past 12 years in around 80 states. The basis of the methodology consists of evaluation of numerous indicators on the scale between 0 and 4, within five main dimensions: 1) Freedom of speech; 2) Professionalism in journalism; 3) Plurality of sources; 4) Media business operations; 5) Media institutions.

55 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

3. METHODOLOGY FRAMEWORK

In addition to objectives which are common for the entire study, i.e. for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia,31 the research in Serbia also aimed to answer an additional research question: whether and in which way the newspaper writing about refugees (from Croatia and BiH) was different compared to reporting about IDPs (from Kosovo and Metohija)?32 To answer this question, in the research the variable Origin of refugees or displaced persons (which are referred in the article) is introduced, thus the statistical analysis of data obtained in a sample of articles found in archives in Serbia were done especially within three sub-samples: first, the articles referring exclusively to refugees; second, articles referring exclusively to IDPs from Kosovo and Me- tohija; and third sample was referred to both: refugees and IDPs. The research included articles published in daily newspapers distributed in the territory of the entire Republic. These include: Politika, Večernje novosti, Blic, Danas and Kurir. These daily newspapers were selected as the most relevant in terms of most-read and their impact on the public opinion and decision makers. Simultaneously, it was assessed that these dailies were the ones that reflect relationship between society and political elites towards issues of refugees and IDPs in Serbia in the best way. Not all five dailies were published in all observed periods, i.e. Danas33 and Blic were not published during the relevant period in 1996, the issues

31 In short, two main study objectives implemented in the framework of the project referred to the volume and manner of writing about issues concerning refugees and displaced persons but also to the standpoint of newspaper articles on an imagined scale, which on one end stands for an objective information provision to refugees and returnees about return possibilities, and on the other - reporting about return and possibility of return in a way which primarily serves realization of political goals of certain political options. 32 It is important to note here that notions displaced persons and refugees are primarily used in this paper in order to mark two specific forcedly migrating populations in Serbia. The first consists of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who sought the refugee in Serbia during post-Yugoslav wars in Croatia and BiH, i.e. mostly between 1991 to 1995, while the other population is made of displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija, who left their places of origin in the province mostly during 1999. 33 Instead of Danas, for the relevant time period from 1996, available issues of the newspaper Naša borba were reviewed, from which Danas emerged later, thus we considered it entirely justified in methodological terms.

56 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... of Danas were also not available in archives from 2001 and 2002, and Kurir started coming out only in June 2003. The research on selected issues of these five dailies was conducted to the most part in electronic archives of Ebart Media Archive, and to a smaller extent, i.e. for relevant periods before 2003, in paper archives of the University Library of Belgrade. Also, for research of archive issues of Blic, the electronic archive was available on the web site of this daily for relevant periods of 2001 and 2002.34 The research studied the period between mid-1996 until the end of 2012, yet not all the issues from the given period were included, but only 11 particular periods (of various length) were defined for the needs of this research: 1. 9th August – 10th October 1996 (9 weeks) 2. 29th July – 29th September 2001 (9 weeks) 3. 16th – 17th July 2002 (9 weeks) 4. 1st January – 1st April 2003 (13 weeks) 5. 1st January – 20th May 2005 (20 weeks) 6. 1st July – 29th September 2006 (13 weeks) 7. 26th November 2008 – 14th April 2009 (20 weeks) 8. 1st April – 30th June 2009 (13 weeks) 9. 25th March – 23rd June 2010 (13 weeks) 10. 24th October 2011 – 29th April 2012 (27 weeks) 11. 1st October – 23rd December 2012 (12 weeks) Defining these observed periods was not lead by any chronological reasons (thus the difference in length and distributions, i.e. distance between periods). Periods of both national researches were primarily determined in relation to certain benchmark events (and processes) which were recognized as (tentatively) important for solution of refugee and IDPs issues.35 Within these periods, the analyzed issues were selected on the basis of the so-called rotating sample design.36 Total of 665 issues were reviewed and 530 relevant articles were found and analyzed in accordance with previously defined codifying guidelines that make the basis of this analysis.

34 The research in archives and coding of all found relevant writings - in accordance with previously defined guidelines - were conducted by researchers of Ebart Media Archive. 35 Such methodological solution was also determined by entirely practical reasons: by limitation of available time and other resources. It is completely certain that all relevant events (and periods) could not be taken into consideration. 36 It was elaborated more thoroughly elsewhere.

57 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

4. analySIS OF MEDIA PRACTICE – OVERVIEW OF KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

4.1. Basic statistical data about characteristics of newspaper articles related to issues of refugees and IDPs

The table below demonstrates how many relevant articles were found in each of the observed time periods. The number of articles in certain periods was not equal, yet it is not justified to draw any direct conclusions since individual periods were neither equally long, nor all of the five observed newspapers were available in certain periods. For example, in the period in 1996, the research observed only three daily newspapers. However, differences in frequency of relevant articles cannot certainly be explained by these methodological reasons. Primarily, this applies to the relevant period of 2005. In this period 16.4% of total number of articles was found, which is significantly higher than any number of articles in the equally long period between November 2008 and April 2009 or in an even longer period between October 2011 and April 2012.

Table 1: Number of relevant articles in 11 observed periods

Cumulative Observed Period Frequency Percent per cent August - October 1996 34 6.4 6.4 July - September 2001 31 5.8 12.3 May - July 2002 42 7.9 20.2 January - April 2003 51 9.6 29.8 January - May 2005 87 16.4 46.2 July - September 2006 46 8.7 54.9 November 2008 - April 2009 61 11.5 66.4 April - June 2009 43 8.1 74.5 March - June 2010 31 5.8 80.4 October 2011 - April 2012 66 12.5 92.8 October - December 2012 38 7.2 100.0 TOTAL 530 100.0

58 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES...

Differences in number of relevant articles in issues of five observed newspapers shall not be interpreted only by publishing length of individual dailies. On contrary, analysis at the level of individual periods demonstrates that the number of relevant texts in almost all periods between 2005 and 201237 was higher in issues of Politika and Večernje Novosti than in Blic and Kurir. Number of relevant articles in Danas is equal to those in issues of Politika and Novosti, whereas a less number of articles found in Danas (s. Table 2) was mostly the consequence of the fact that this newspaper was not available in archives from 2001 and 2002. In some periods, number of texts found in Blic is close to the one found in other three dailies, while the number of relevant articles in Kurir is almost always the least. It is justified to assume that these differences also reflect certain differences in editorial policies of observed daily newspapers.

Table 2: Number of relevant articles found in archived issues of five daily newspapers

Daily newspapers Frequency Percent

Politika 158 29.8

Blic 80 15.1

Kurir 33 6.2

Danas 110 20.8

Večernje novosti 149 28.1

Total 530 100.0

Articles dealing with refugees and IDPs, return process or any other concern related to the refugee status, are not in a rule published on first pages of newspapers. Among observed issues, only 2.3% of these articles were found on the front page. Nevertheless, more than 40 % of articles are found on one of the first five pages of the newspaper.

37 It is the case of periods for which all editions of five daily newspapers were available in archives (thus in each of these periods, the equal number of issues of all five daily newspapers were analyzed).

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Table 3: Number of articles published on certain pages of analyzed newspaper issues

Valid Page Frequency Percent Cumulative percent percent 12 2,3 2,3 2,3 1 12 2.3 2.3 2.3 2 72 13.6 13.8 16.1 3 36 6.8 6.9 23.0 4 63 11.9 12.1 35.1 5 35 6.6 6.7 41.8 6 33 6.2 6.3 48.2 7 36 6.8 6.9 55.1 8 35 6.6 6.7 61.8 9 18 3.4 3.5 65.3 10-39 181 34.1 34.8 100.0 Total 521 98.3 100.0 No data 9 1.7 Total 530 100,0

Table 4: Frequency of various newspaper forms containing references to issues of refugees and IDPs

Cumulative Form of newspaper text Frequency Percent percent Report 252 47.5 47.5 News 166 31.3 78.9 Press release 47 8.9 87.8 Interview 33 6.2 94.0 Comment 24 4.5 98.5 Other 8 1.5 100.0 Total 530 100.0

60 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES...

In terms of the form, the relevant newspaper articles appear in most cases as reports and news. All other forms of newspaper articles are far less represented (however, they make together a little over one fifth of all articles). More than three thirds (precisely 77.2%) of article headlines belong to informative type. Only 13.6% of them were marked as sensational, and 7.2 % as emotional, while all other types of headlines appear extremely rarely (2.2%). Almost two thirds of texts (62.1%) were signed by editorial journalists, while in regard to copyright texts the second largest group is made of articles taken from news agencies (17.4%). Comments (3.6%), press releases (3.4%) and articles taken from other media (0.6%) are less frequent, and articles, whose authors are unknown (unsigned articles) make 13% of total number of relevant articles. For each article, the primary and secondary theme (if any) was determined. Methodology guidelines defined 17 theme categories. Consequent- ly, the themes of all 530 articles were codified according to these categories. Among primary themes, three most represented theme categories were: housing provision and other issues related to local integration (15.7%); other issues of status and access to rights unrelated to return (12.3%); and (at last) living conditions in return areas (10.8%). However, the most numerous group of articles are made of various texts which could not be classified in any of specific theme categories: 22.6% of texts are classified in the category Other. Only in 16% of all analyzed texts, the existence of another secondary topic was confirmed and almost one third of these secondary themes belonged to the category related to the return process in another way. When the data about primary themes were classified in three broad categories, with the intention to separate the articles clearly related to return from those that exclusively contain references to processes of local integration or to living circumstances in places where refugees found their refuge, as well as from texts which do not contain direct references either to return or to local integration, the data stated in the lower table were obtained. The data clearly indicate that only slightly over one fifth of articles contain direct references to the return process of refugees or IDPs. One third of articles deal with various issues related to refugee circumstances and/or some aspects of local integration, while all other articles do not show clear link with issues of return or local integration.

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Table 5: Frequency of primary themes of relevant newspaper articles in relation to their link or absence of link with the process of return or integration

Primary theme Cumulative Frequency Percent of the article percent Related to return 118 22.3 22.3 Related to the process of integration and/or refugee 176 33.2 55.5 status Other 236 44.5 100.0 Total 530 100.0

The primary actors of analyzed newspaper articles are defined in relation to 35 specific categories described in methodological guidelines. In the table below, the data for seven categories listed in this research are presented containing more than 80% of all analyzed articles.

Table 6: Frequency of specific categories of primary actors in observed newspaper articles

Primary actors Cumulative Frequency Percent of press articles percent Individuals, group and refugee population, IDPs and/ 104 19.6 19.6 or returnees Executive power represen 79 14.9 34.5 tatives – national level (Serbia) Agencies, institutes, regulatory 56 10.6 45.1 bodies, etc. Executive power representative 53 10.0 55.1 – city or municipal level Local NGOs 51 9.6 64.7 International community 31 5.8 70.5 International organizations 30 5.7 76.2 Political parties and politicians 29 5.5 81.7 Others 97 18.3 100.0 TOTAL 530 100.0

62 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES...

However, when various categories of actors representing state authorities and institutions or local government authorities and political parties and politicians merge in one category, and when all categories representing international and foreign categories are joined into one, a substantially different picture is obtained, the one presented in Table 7. It becomes very clear that various government and political party representatives are the major actors of newspaper articles about issues of refugees and IDPs in almost 50% cases. In the same role, the refugees and IDPs or returnees – what is primarily their own concern –appear only in 20% of cases on the average. Later data will demonstrate that these people appear even less often as secondary actors in newspapers articles. Also, among secondary actors of newspaper articles, the representatives of government and political parties and various international and foreign actors make the most frequent appearance.

Table 7: Frequency of primary actors from five general categories in newspaper articles referring to refugees, IDPs and returnees

Primary actors Cumulative Frequency Percent of press writings percent Civil servants and local 240 45.3 45.3 politicians Refugees, IDPs and 104 19.6 64.9 returnees Various international and 95 17.9 82.8 foreign actors Local NGOs 51 9.6 92.4 Various other actors 40 7.6 100.0 TOTAL 530 100.0

In 60.6% of articles, the existence of secondary actors was observed; the most specific categories of secondary actors are the representatives of local executive powers (12.8%) and international community (12.8%), followed by: individuals and groups of refugees, IDPs and/or returnees (10.9%); representatives of executive power on the national level (10.6%); representatives of various foreign countries and governments and representatives of international organizations. In addition to the actors, the sources of relevant newspapers articles were also closely observed and determined. The sources were identified in relation to previously prepared classification containing 16 specific categories. Primary and secondary sources of newspapers articles were

63 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE identified and the research demonstrated that in case of primary sources, the most frequent sources of relevant newspapers articles were: (A) Executive power representatives (13.4%); (B) Individuals, groups and refugee, IDP and returnee population (11.3); (C) Agencies, institutes and regulatory bodies (10.9%); (D) Local NGOs (10.6); i (E) Representatives of local authorities (6.6%). The sources could not be established in approximately every tenth text (10.6%), and existence of secondary sources was established only in a fourth (25.1%) of analyzed texts. Among secondary sources, again, the representatives of executive governments (18%) and refugee, IDP and returnee representatives (12.8%) were relatively most frequent specific categories of newspaper sources. For almost three quarters (73%) of texts, it was established that they were based only on one source. Two sources were observed in 17.4%, and more than two in approximately every 10th text (9.6%). In order to make the picture of analyzed texts somewhat clearer, we grouped the data in five broader categories. As a result, we obtained the results shown in the Table 8. Table 8: Primary sources of newspaper articles related to refugees, IDPs and returnees Primary sources of Cumulative Frequency Percent newspaper articles percent Civil servants, representatives of local authorities and 206 38.9 38.9 local politicians Refugees, IDPs and 60 11.3 50.2 returnees Various international and 57 10.8 61.0 foreign actors Local NGOs 56 10.6 71.6 Various other sources 95 17.9 89.5 Non-identified sources 56 10.6 100.0 TOTAL 530 100.0

The results clearly demonstrate that the representatives of the state and local government and political parties were relatively dominant source of newspaper articles about refugee, IDP and returnee issues. Essentially, the

64 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... same can be applied to secondary sources: more than 40% of established secondary sources consist of government and political party representatives. We already demonstrated that more than 70% of articles were created based on only one source. Additional information about quality of analyzed newspaper themes dealt by in observed writings are obtained by analyzing relationships between the sources used in the texts as well as the extent to which various sources represented various standpoints and how they were dealt with by authors of these writings: (A) Homogeneity of sources. It was established that 35.1% of writings did not include any question to which the sources used in the text might have any standpoint (or they were not clearly expressed). On the other side, when a certain controversy existed in regard to the theme of the article, in more than half of writings (52.1%) the sources were not consistent or only one source existed. In approximately every eight text (12.9%), the use of two or more sources were recognized that have somewhat different attitudes, while the use of sources with clearly opposite standpoints were the least utilized approach (3.8%). The Table 9 demonstrates in more details the cross-sectional data on number of sources and data on homogeneity of sources. It is also important to note that more than 40% of texts containing more than one source do not demonstrate different standpoints toward the theme of the article but these formally different sources take the same attitude, i.e. the theme is not debated and actually other standpoints in the text are not shown. (B) The interrelation between standpoints expressed in an article. For 34% of analyzed texts, it was established that they did not contain any standpoint. In 58% of texts, a certain standpoint was expressed but it was only one opinion, thus we are left only with about 8% of texts in which more than one opinion was depicted regarding a specific theme: more precisely, 4% of writings contain different standpoints, however they are presented in an unbalanced manner, i.e. the author clearly showed preference to one of the standpoints, and in another 4% of writings different attitudes were presented in a balanced manner. If we look at texts which contain more than one source, we can establish that 60% of these writings contain only one standpoint, and different attitudes – equally expressed in both balanced and unbalanced manner – are present only in 29% of writings.38

38 11% of articles do not express any kind of standpoint.

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Table 9: The relation between numbers of sources used in the texts and heterogeneity of standpoints represented by these sources Sources of newspaper articles include … one or two or opposite identical more Not TOTAL interest interest interest applicable groups groups groups 215 0 0 172 387 One No. of 55.6% 0.0% 0.0% 44.4% 100.0% sources Two or 61 48 20 14 143 more 42.7% 33.6% 14.0% 9.8% 100.0% 276 48 20 186 530 TOTAL 52.1% 9.1% 3.8% 35.1% 100.0%

In terms of origin of refugees mentioned in the articles, the research pointed out some significant facts: 1) a substantially higher number of articles deals with issues of refugees from Croatia rather than issues of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina (or with both); 2) the same number of articles in daily newspapers deal with issues of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as issues of IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija; and 3) there are articles in newspapers which simultaneously deal with the issues of refugees and IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija.

Table 10: Origin of refugees and/or IDPs referred to in analyzed articles

Cumulative Origin of refugees and/or IDPs Frequency Percent percent Refugees from BiH 37 7.0 7.0 Refugees from Croatia 125 23.6 30.6 Refugees from Croatia and BiH 22 4.2 34.7 IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija 186 35.1 69.8 Refugees from Croatia and/or BiH and IDPs from Kosovo and 160 30.2 100.0 Metohija TOTAL 530 100.0

66 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES...

In the framework of this research, performed analyses aimed to establish whether any differences existed and, if any of what kind, among articles dealing with refugees and IDPs of different origin. Significant findings are presented in the Chapter 4.3. Since our research exclusively focused on media dealings with refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on one, and IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija on the other side, all the analyses were conducted following prior data pooling of articles related (exclusively) to refugees in one single category [refugees from Croatia and/or BiH].39 In course of the archive research, the relevant articles were also analyzed with respect to whether refugees or IDPs referred in the specific article were of (predominantly) the same or yet of another ethnic origin in relation to the target group of a respective daily newspaper. This analysis demonstrated that: (A) 68.7% of the articles referred mainly to refugees and/or IDPs of the same ethnic origin as the target group of the respective daily newspaper; (B) 4.5% of the articles wrote about issues related to (mostly) refugees and IDPs of other ethnic origin, and 7.2% simultaneously wrote about refugees of the same and refugees of different ethnic origin. This analysis was not applicable to almost one fifth (19.6%) of analyzed articles. Finally, the primary analysis of relevant newspaper articles included the assessment of general attitude toward the return process or in general toward resolution of refugee and/or IDP issues. The evaluation was presented by a five degree scale. The values on the scale and results obtained are presented in the Table 11. Here it should be noted that all measures of central tendency equal 3, i.e. the central value of the scale.40 For requirements of further analysis, however, we considered more important to deal with (non-)balance of total volume of negative on one and positive articles on the other side.

39 That is, three first categories from Table 10 were pooled. The obtained category of refugees from Croatia and/or BiH includes 184 articles and represents 34.7% of all analyzed articles. 40 Arithmetic mean equals to 3.09, however it is important to note that distribution significantly deviates from forms of normal distribution (it is asymmetric and narrower than usual distribution).

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Table 11: Evaluation of general attitude of newspaper articles toward the return process and/or resolution of refugee and IDPs issues

Attitude in the article Frequency Percent Cumulative

percent 8 1,5 1,5

Very positive 8 1.5 1.5

Positive 157 29.6 31.1

Not expressed (neither 190 35.8 67.0 positive nor negative)

Negative 127 24.0 90.9

Very negative 48 9.1 100.0

TOTAL 530 100.0

4.2. Differences between time periods observed: newspaper articles on refugees and IDPs in different time periods – different or identical?

The research included 11 different time periods, while the beginning and the end of the periods were defined according to certain important benchmark events that took place within these periods, i.e. the processes that began and lasted within these periods. One of the ideas in the core of such methodological approach is the assumption that new processes or new events may also cause certain changes in reporting manner about refugees and IDPs (and their return!) or bring changes in the volume of relevant newspaper articles, their contents, and some formal characteristics of texts. In order to prove this hypothesis, the analyses comprised cross-section data from all variables defined by the methodological research framework with the category time periods. Statistical significance of the correlation was verified by calculation of Phi and Cramér’s V ratio. The results demonstrated that, with respect to only few observed variables, the data observed within different time periods were significantly different,

68 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... however these diff erences did not indicate steady and obvious changes during the entire observation period (1996–2012). It was almost entirely the matt er of some signifi cant oscillations (in various directions!) from one to another time period. It will be demonstrated what kind of changes took place with respect to time periods in case of variables primary sources and press contents and article’s att itude toward the return and resolutions of refugees and IDPs. Both charts below illustrate the general fi ndings described in the previous paragraph. In case of the primary sources of newspaper articles, the chart 1 clearly demonstrates that government and political party representatives were mainly used as the source of newspaper articles (with one exception of the relevant period in 1996 when various international and foreign actors equally often appeared in this role). The chart is, however, showing that through various time periods no systematic decrease or increase of frequency of utilization of these sources, and the same applies to other categories of primary sources analyzed newspaper articles.

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The chart 2 shows somewhat a diff erent general image. It is obvious, that after 2005, a substantial decrease of frequency of newspapers articles could be observed which expressed neither negative nor positive att itude toward the return issues or issues of refugees and IDPs. On the other hand, in the entire period from 2001 to 2012, fairly constant increase of articles expressing positive att itude was present, but at the same time those in which a negative relation towards return and resolution of issues of refugees and IDPs was also (implicitly or explicitly) expressed. Similarly, it is important to note that the ratio between the number of texts with positive and those with negative att itude at the level of individual periods is fairly diff erent than the one suggested by the total sum of both of them. In general, among found articles, the number of those with negative att itude is only slightly higher than the number of articles with positive att itude toward the return and resolution of refugee and IDP issues.41 However, the Chart 2 convincingly demonstrates that this relation was diff erent in diff erent periods: in some periods the frequency of appearance of one or the other are identical, however in some other periods the texts with negative or positive att itude respectively signifi cantly prevailed.

41 See Table 11 on p. 41

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4.3. Daily newspaper writing about refugees and IDPs in Serbia: different topics and angles?

The newspaper articles in relevant daily newspapers in Serbia dealing with refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina differ from articles on issues of IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija in terms of many parameters. We came to this conclusion according to the analysis of the relation between the variable Origin of refugees and all other variables used in this research. The significance of the interdependence was evaluated based on Phi and Cramér’s V ratio. The original variable Origin of refugees was recodified and reduced to three categories: first category included texts referring only to refugees (from Croatia and/or BiH), the second one included texts referring only to IDPs from Kosovo, and the third one the texts referring to both refugees and IDPs. The most significant results are presented here. Regarding the articles published in various newspapers, the clear difference can be primarily observed between Politika and Vecernje novosti: the articles referring to refugees are mostly present in Večernje novosti (34.8%) whereas the articles referring exclusively to IDPs most frequently appear in Politika (36.6%). Relatively the highest number of articles referring to both refugees and IDPs were published in Danas (28.8%). The share of these articles was also relatively more in Blic.

4.3.1. Formal characteristics of articles. Considering various journalist forms, no major differences between articles on refugees and IDPs can be confirmed, however the articles referring to both refugees and IDPs significantly differ from the first two categories by relative share of news and reports: more than half of all articles referring to refugees or IDPs only appear in the form of reports; on contrary, 46.3% of articles referring to both of these populations are published in the form of news. The differences also exist regarding the type of headlines and to that end differences appear with all three categories of texts. The informative headlines are most frequent in texts referring to refugees and IDPs (85.6%), while headlines of sensational and emotional type appear less often. Clear differences, however, also exist between the other two categories of articles: informative headlines are relatively less represented in articles related to refugees (69% to 78% in articles on IDPs). Also, sensational headlines

71 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE appear more often in the latter articles (17.4% to 14%) as well as emotional (11.4% to 6.5%). With regard to authorship of articles, it is obvious that journalists of editorial board appear as authors relatively more frequently in texts referring to refugees and IDPs (70%). Also, more texts taken from the news agencies are observed when these texts refer to IDPs: 25.3% compared to 14.1% of texts referring exclusively to refugees. Generally, the place of articles of newspaper editions significantly depends on which refugee and IDP populations they refer to: on first nine newspaper pages, 76.8 articles referring only to IDPs appear, and 66.1% of texts referring exclusively to refugees. In addition to that, texts referring only to IDPs appear more often on pages 2 and 3 (26.5% compared to 19.4% of articles referring only to refugees), and the texts referring only to refugees appear relatively more often on pages 4 and 5 (25% compared to 18.2% of texts referring to IDPs only). Also, almost half of all articles (48.8%) referring to both refugees and IDPs in newspapers appears after the page 9.

4.3.2. Themes The articles referring to various (refugee and IDP) populations also differ by topics they deal with to a significant extent. Primarily, the articles dealing with IDPs only are considerably more devoted to topics related to return (31.7% compared to 17.4%). As opposed to this, the texts referring to refugees only deal with the status and rights more often, i.e. the themes which are not directly related to return (29.9% compared to 16.7%).42 Compared to texts that exclusively deal with refugee issues, considerably more texts related to IDPs only deal with IDPs of the same ethnic group as the target group of the respective daily newspaper, and significantly less with persons of different or simultaneously the same and different ethnic origin. In addition to that, it is interesting that articles referring to both refugees and IDPs can be analyzed more often with respect to this parameter.

42 Themes of more than 50% of articles referring to either refugees or IDPs belong to heterogenic category other themes, containing ten different specific themes (from challenging application of laws and strategies to personal stories of refugees and conflict situations that involve refugees). Unlike that, the articles referring to both refugees and IDPs deal in 56.3% cases with issues of status and rights which in no way relate to the return.

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Table 12: The differences between articles referring to refugees of various origins: ethnic origin of refugees and/or IDPs referred to in articles compared to ethnic origin of the target group of the respective daily newspaper

Refugees Both from IDPs from refugees TOTAL Croatia Kosovo and IDPs and/or BiH

Mostly 145 173 46 364 identical 78.8% 93.0% 28.8% 68.7% Ethnic origin 18 6 0 24 compared Mostly to the ethnic different 9.8% 3.2% 0.0% 4.5% origin of the target Identical 19 3 16 38 and group of the 10.3% 1.6% 10.0% 7.2% newspaper different Not 2 4 98 104 applicable 1.1% 2.2% 61.3% 19.6% 184 186 160 530 TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100,0%

4.3.3. Attitude toward resolution of refugee and IDP issues

Significant differences between articles related to forced migrants of various origins also exist with regard to the attitude of the article toward the return process or resolution of refugee and IDP issues in general. Three categories of articles differ primarily by the frequency of articles with negative attitude and articles without any attitude. The frequency of articles with positive attitude is mainly balanced. Among the articles related to refugees only, there is significantly higher number of them with negative attitude and considerably less texts in which no attitude was expressed at all. The data in the Table 13 clearly demonstrates that all 45% of articles referring only to refugees contains a negative attitude toward the return or resolution of refugee issues, while the texts with negative attitudes related exclusively to IDPs do not amount to more than one third, and among those related to refugees and IDPs simultaneously are less than one fifth.

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Table 13: The differences between articles related to refugees of various origins: article’s attitude related to return process and/or resolution of refugee and IDP issues

Refugees from IDPs Both Croatia from refugees TOTAL and/or Kosovo and IDPs BiH

Very 2 3 3 8 positive 1.1% 1.6% 1.9% 1.5% 48 55 54 157 Positive Article’s 26.1% 29.6% 33.8% 29.6% attitude Neither 50 66 74 190 toward return positive nor process and/or negative 27.2% 35.5% 46.3% 35.8% refugees and IDPs 56 48 23 127 Negative 30.4% 25.8% 14.4% 24.0%

Very 28 14 6 48 negative 15.2% 7.5% 3.8% 9.1% 84 186 160 530 TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100,0%

4.3.4. Sources and actors In writings referring to both refugees and IDPs, the existence of only one source was more frequently observed: 85.6% of these articles are written based on one source only, and less than 70% of articles referring exclusively to refugees or IDPs. There are no major differences between writings referred only to refugees or IDPs in that regard. However, other (and more interesting!) types of differences are observed in terms of the type of primary sources on which these writings were based. Among articles related to IDPs only, civil and public servants and the representatives of political parties appear as primary source significantly more often than in articles related to refugees only (44.6% compared to 32.1%). Also, local NGOs appear to some extent more often as the primary source in articles related only to refugees (13% compared to 9.1%).

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A similar image is obtained by the analysis of primary actors: in writings related only to IDPs the government and political party representatives have considerably more frequent the role of the primary actors (46.2% compared to 37%), while in writings related only to refugees, the same role is more often occupied by various international actors (22.3% compared to 17.2%) and local NGO representatives (12% compared to 7.5%). In case of writings related to both refugees and IDPs, more than 50% of articles have government and political party representatives for the primary actors.

4.4. Actors and sources as possible generator of topics in newspaper articles related to refugees and IDPs

The data presented here answer the question: Were certain topics analyzed more or less when the government and political parties’ representatives appeared in the articles as primary actors or primary sources respectively, compared to those in which some other entities and persons appeared as primary actors or sources? The variable primary actors and primary sources were re-codified in two ways. The first re-codified version of the variableprimary actors includes five categories,43 and the second is reduced to only two categories: government and political party representatives and various other actors. In almost the same manner, the variable primary sources had been recodified. On the other hand, the variable primary topics is summarized in three categories: 1) topics related to return; 2) topics related to issues (of status and exercising of rights) which are not directly related to the return; and 3) other topics.

4.4.1. Primary actors and topics of newspaper articles The results show us that an interrelation exists between the variables actors and topics which is significant only on the level p<0.05 (i.e., on a lower level of significance), and only in cases when the variable primary actors is reduced to differentiation between government and political parties representatives on one side, and all other actors on the other. The data demonstrate that between the articles in which government and political party representatives are primary actors, 39.2% of them refer to topics related to

43 1) Representatives of government and political parties; 2) various international and foreign actors; 3) local NGOs; 4) refugees, IDPs and returnees; 5) various other actors.

75 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE exercising of rights by refugees and IDPs and are not directly related to the return. Among articles in which some other entities appear as the primary actors of newspaper articles, these topics are significantly less present (28.3%). Other differences are less expressed and can be observed in the Table 14.

Table 14: The relationship between the variable primary actors and the variable primary topics of newspaper articles related to refugees and/or IDPs

Primary theme of the article Issues (of status and Related to rights) Other TOTAL return which are themes not related to return Representatives 48 94 98 240 of government and political Primary 20.0% 39.2% 40.8% 100.0% parties actors Various other 70 82 138 290 actors 24.1% 28.3% 47.6% 100.0% 118 176 236 530 TOTAL 22.3% 3.2% 44.5% 100.0%

4.4.2. Primary sources and topics of newspaper articles

The analyses demonstrate that the variable primary sources significantly correlates with the variable primary topics of newspaper articles. The nature of this relation is yet fundamentally different from the one established by the analysis of relation between primary actors and topics of newspaper articles.44 Namely, it is established that the significance of the interrelation between the two variables here is not predominantly based on differences between the categories government and political party representatives and other categories of sources, but on various differences between other categories of sources.

44 This additionally confirms the significance of differentiating between the role of source and the role of actor on occasion of analyzing of newspaper article.

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Table 15: The relation between the variable primary sources and the variable primary topics of newspaper articles related to refugees and/or IDPs Primary theme of the article Issues (of status and Related to Other rights) which TOTAL return themes are not related to the return Government 43 73 90 206 and political parties’ repre- 20.9% 35.4% 43.7% 100.0% sentatives Various inter- 18 17 22 57 national and foreign actors 31.6% 29.8% 38.6% 100.0% 16 20 20 56 Primary Local NGOs sources 28.6% 35.7% 35.7% 100.0% Refugees, IDPs 11 15 34 60 and returnees 18.3% 25.0% 56.7% 100.0% Various other 17 22 56 95 sources 17.9% 23.2% 58.9% 100.0% No other 13 29 14 56 sources were established 23.2% 51.8% 25.0% 100.0% 118 176 236 530 TOTAL 22,3 33.2% 44.5% 100.0%

The following three facts obvious from Table 15 will be emphasized here: A. Thematically, the texts whose primary sources were international actors and local NGOs were more often linked to the process of refugee return. B. Among articles dealing with issues, which are not directly related to the return, the sources could not be established in more than half of these articles (51.8%). C. In cases where the primary sources of newspaper articles are the persons or other entities from refugee, IDP and returnee population, they thematically belong to heterogeneous category other topics to a more significant extent and are seldom related to categories that refer to return and issues (of status and rights) unrelated to the return.

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4.5. Actors and sources as possible factors of newspapers attitudes towards return and resolution of issues of refugees and IDPs

4.5.1. Primary actors of newspaper articles and their attitudes toward the return and IDP and refugee migration issues The character of primary actors is substantially related to the article’s attitude to refugees and return, and the character of that relation is presented in the Table 16. Several elements of this interrelation should be especially pointed out: A. When international representatives appear as primary actors, the relevant articles have more frequently a positive attitude toward the return and resolution of refugee and/or IDP issues. B. The articles in which local NGOs have a role of primary actors have a positive attitude considerably rare and an unexpressed and negative standpoint more often. C. Significantly more often than in any other writings, an extremely negative standpoint is found in articles in which the role of the primary actors belongs to persons and other entities from refugee, IDP and returnee population. In general, the articles with positive attitude (in comparison to those with a negative one) are predominantly present in articles where international and foreign representatives appear as primary actors (+19.0%) and representatives of local institutions of government and political parties (+5.5%), while the articles with a negative attitude appear mostly when the primary actors are local NGOs (-37.3%), refugees and IDPs (-18.3%) and various other actors (-7.5). Table 16: The link between the variable primary actors and the variable attitude toward return and resolution of refugee/IDPs issues Attitude of the article towards return process and/or refugees/IDPs Neither Very Very Positive positive nor Negative TOTAL positive negative negative Government 4 76 93 55 12 240 and political 1.7% 31.7% 38.8% 22.9% 5.0% 100.0% parties International 1 39 33 19 3 95 and foreign 1.1% 41.1% 34.7% 20.0% 3.2% 100.0% actors

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Attitude of the article towards return process and/or refugees/IDPs Neither Very Very Positive positive nor Negative TOTAL positive negative negative 0 4 24 16 7 51 Local NGOs .0% 7.8% 47.1% 31.4% 13.7% 100.0% Refugees, IDPs 2 26 29 24 23 104 and returnees 1.9% 25.0% 27.9% 23.1% 22.1% 100.0% Various other 1 12 11 13 3 40 actors 2.5% 30.0% 27.5% 32.5% 7.5% 100.0% 8 157 190 127 48 530 TOTAL 1.5% 29.6% 35.8% 24.0% 9.1% 100.0%

4.5.2. Primary sources of newspaper articles and their attitudes toward the return and refugee and IDP issues The interrelation between these two variables is noteworthy, and a close cross-section analysis of the Table discloses few essential facts: A. The articles in which local NGOs have the role of primary sources have a negative attitude considerably more frequent (precisely, six times more than the positive one). The same trend is present (yet significantly less expressed) with articles in which the role of primary sources is given to persons or other entities from the population of refugees, IDPs and returnees. B. Among the articles in which the refugees and returnees are the primary sources, there is significantly less number of articles in which no attitude was expressed toward the return or to the resolution of refugee and/or IDPs issues in general. C. The articles, in which the primary sources come from various international representatives and representatives of local governments and political parties, have a balanced ratio between positive and negative attitudes to the most extent. Also, the articles with positive attitude appear more often with both these categories of primary sources. D. Significantly highest number of articles with a positive attitude and the articles with unexpressed attitude are found among articles in which the primary sources could not be identified.

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E. Generally, in comparison to other specifically established primary sources, when representatives of government and political parties appear as primary sources in articles related to refugees and IDPs, they have significantly less negative and much more positive standpoint to the return process and solution of refugee and IDPs issues.

Table 17: The relation between the variable primary sources and the variable attitude toward the return and resolution of refugee and/or IDP issues

Article’s attitude toward return process and/or refugees/ IDPs

Neither Very positive Very Positive Negative TOTAL positive nor negative negative

Government 4 67 82 49 4 206 and political parties 1.9% 32.5% 39.8% 23.8% 1.9% 100.0%

International 1 19 21 13 3 57 and foreign actors 1.8% 33.3% 36.8% 22.8% 5.3% 100.0%

0 5 20 18 13 56 Local NGOs 0.0% 8.9% 35.7% 32.1% 23.2% 100.0%

Refugees, 2 12 14 17 15 60 IDPs and returnees 3.3% 20.0% 23.3% 28.3% 25.0% 100.0%

Various other 0 27 29 27 12 95 sources 0.0% 28.4% 30.5% 28.4% 12.6% 100.0%

Source not 1 27 24 3 1 56 established 1.8% 48.2% 42.9% 5.4% 1.8% 100.0%

8 157 190 127 48 530 TOTAL 1.5% 29.6% 35.8% 24.0% 9.1% 100.0%

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4.6. Content analysis of articles: some observation about the relation between primary actors and the attitude toward return and resolution of refugee and IDP issues

This paper does not include the complete content analysis of all relevant articles. Statistical analyses of data collected during the archive research are supplemented with the content analysis and other illustrative examples only to a partial extent. This partial content analysis of the relevant articles is mainly related to articles in which the representatives of the government and political parties appeared as primary actors. The articles with a positive and negative attitude respectively toward the return or resolution of refugee and IDP issues in places of their refuge or migration were particularly observed. Also, the analysis was performed on the articles related only to refugees or IDPs respectively. Moreover, this short analysis included only some articles in which local NGOs are primary actors and whose attitude was evaluated as negative.

4.6.1. Articles with a negative attitude in which the role of primary actors belong to representatives of government and political parties Generally, the articles which attitude was marked as negative usually do not contain extremely negative relation of the primary actors toward the return or different approach to resolution of refugee and IDPs issues, yet the actors in the article rather indicate, for example, to difficulties existing with regard to return of refugees or express negative attitudes and comments in relation to the return process to date and its outcomes or emphasize various (still) unresolved issues and difficulties which the huge number of refugees or IDPs or returnees face with. In the 2001 interview related to foreign policy and the objectives of Yu- goslav diplomacy, Goran Svilanović, Yugoslav Minster of Foreign Affairs at that time, talking about relations with Croatia, said that outstanding issues existed in the relationship between these two countries and one of them was the status of “Serbian returnees – whose return, despite having citizenship of Croatia, is discouraged by the Croatian authorities in so many ways.” (Politika, 30 August 2001, p. 2) Similarly, another example of a short article that was published much later in 2009 features the vice- president of the Government of Serbia talking on occasion of the Interna- tional Day of Refugees: “…it is an occasion to remind the international community and our neighbors that problems of Serbian refugees and

81 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE internally displaced persons in Serbia have not remotely been resolved […] because Serbia still struggles with problems of 300,000 persons that have the status of a refugee and IDP, and more than 200,000 of those who took its citizenship, out of which the majority have neither their own roof nor permanent employment.” (Večernje novosti, 20 June 2009, p. 7) In the article published in Večernje novosti in 2001, it is talked about the standpoint by the DOS Presidency on occasion of the elections in Ko- sovo. The Presidency concluded that the prerequisites for democratic elections had not existed and that the participation of Serbs in elections could be discussed only when some progress regarding certain issues had been achieved. Among others, one can conclude from the article that no progress has been achieved regarding the return of IDPs and that the international community in Kosovo should be re-addressed and reminded about its duty to deal with resolution of IDP return, establishment of safe living conditions, and provision of institutional guarantees for minority rights exercise. (Večernje novosti, 29 July 2001, p. 4) Eight years later, in a short article from 2009, speaking of a planned return program implemented together with UNHCR, the Minister of the Serbian Government stated that the state was obliged “to try to return these people to their centennial places of origins in cooperation with the international community”. How- ever, soon after that, he expressed a clearly negative observation about the outcomes of the return process to date. He said that “less than 3000 people returned to Kosovo and Metohija in the last ten years whereas an exodus trend was much stronger”.” (Večernje novosti, 28 June 2009, p. 8)

4.6.2. The articles with positive attitude in which the role of primary actors belong to representatives of the government and political parties The articles that can be marked as positive toward the return process contain, for example, the news on reaching an inter-state agreement or some specific activities significant for the refugee and IDP return. Usually, these articles feature the government officials or other political representatives inviting refugees to take part in the elections, for example, in Croatia and write about the importance of such participation for the refugee return process. Quite typical examples of articles positively reporting about the resolution of refugee and IDP issues in their places of refuge are the news and reports about some construction projects of apartments or houses ensur- ing permanent housing solutions for some refugee and IDP families.

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Generally speaking, it may be concluded that the articles with a positive attitude do not usually differ from the articles with a negative attitude in an obvious (drastic) way, it is rather a matter of pointing out the activities which aim at resolving an issue or writing about some specific results of previous activities, although a clear critical or negative observation about weaknesses of what has been done or problems which continue to exist, and difficulties that refugees or IDPs continue to face with (at least in some of these articles) may be present. The news report from 2003 writes about the agreement on the return of refugees which was signed by SR Yugoslavia and BiH. The words of Yugo- slav Commissioner for Refugees of that time are quoted: “The Agreement shall serve as the framework for drafting protocols and other documents that will support the return of refugees from SRY to BiH. […] an indication that two countries have not given up the return and that both sides firmly support people who want to return.” The article later writes that some projects have already been commenced and that plans for regions of Drvar and Bosanski Petrovac exist. (Večernje novosti, 27 January 2003, p. 4) A positive attitude toward the return was also expressed in a newspaper article from 2009 in a different manner. The article conveys the statement of the Serbian Minister of Diaspora at that time, who invited refugees from Serbia to vote on the local elections in Croatia, and later quotes the Minister’s argument that co-relates the participation in the elections to creation of better conditions for the return: “Srećković said that, thanks to a similar organization, more than 6,000 voters travelled to Croatia in the previous local elections of 2005 enabling the absolute power in 18 municipalities and cities, but also significant share in power in 25 cities and municipalities. The minister pointed out that increase of municipalities with Serbian absolute power had an extreme importance, but also the election of more Serbs for mayors in municipalities and cities, and more councilors in counties’ assemblies. He said that participation of Serbs in local government in Croatia was an important element for the return of displaced persons and a faster housing reconstruction, enhancement of security and possibly employment.” (Danas, 11 May 2009, p. 9) On the other hand, in a short article published in April 2009, a positive approach to local integration of refugees has been promoted by mentioning some specific activities and plans. The article provides information about 18 refugee families moving in newly constructed apartments and conveys the statement of the Vice-President of the Serbian Government that “about 1,000 apartments and houses will be allocated to refugees in Serbia in course

83 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE of 2009.” (Blic, 25 April 2009, p. 1) The other similar example is a rather lengthier article from 2008. The article writes about signing a memorandum formalizing the cooperation between the municipal self-government with the local Center of social welfare and an NGO which was to implement the project of construction of a 20 apartment building –16 of them dedicated to refugee families from a collective center in that municipality. In a fairly detailed text, some other already implemented and planned projects in the municipality are mentioned. (Danas, 12 December 2008, p. 2) We will also have a look at those articles that positively write about the return of IDPs. The first example is the article from 2005 which conveys the official information about the meeting of the Serbian Prime Minister at that time with representatives of IDP associations from Kosovo and Meto- hija. The importance of the IDP return is clearly supported, yet it is quite obvious that this issue is considered for purpose of a broader political context and responsibility of “the other side.” The newspaper conveys that the Prime Minister said “that no solution for standards and status shall be discussed without the return of all displaced and expelled people to Koso- vo and Metohija.” (Politika, 24 March 2005, p. 5) Another similar article has the Government Commissioner for Displaced Persons of Montenegro as the main actor, and it writes about specific “go-and-see” activities which the Montenegro government organizes with UNMIK. Such activities are presented as very important for the return process, and the return of some 400 displaced persons to the area of Peć District has been mentioned in this context. (Kurir, 2 August 2006, p. 4) Positive attitude toward the return of IDPs to Kosovo is also expressed in articles conveying the information about humanitarian activities of political activists. To that end, an article conveys words of the Spokesperson of Nova Srbija on occasion of Christmas gifts distribution in an informal collective center in Belgrade: “Neither Serbia is allowed to give up on Kosovo, nor the people who live here shall loose hope about the return to their centennial places of origin.” (Kurir, 5 January 2009, p. 4) Another example of article writing about humanitarian activities of political parties, and in regard to IDPs, is the article featuring the leader of the Serbian Progress Party as a primary actor. The article, to a certain extent, promotes another approach to resolution of IDP issues (it does not include any references to the return) and writes about allocation of a farm house to an IDP family of 12 members and contains a very explicit reference to the integration in the new environment as a permanent solution. (Večernje novosti, 11 May 2009, p. 17)

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Permanent solutions through programs of housing and economic support in places of refuge are quite often represented in articles related to refugees. Such topics can also be found among articles referring to IDPs (it seems, only recently though). One such articles conveys the statement of the Vice-President of the Serbian Government, who spoke about (on occasion of signing an agreement with representatives of 60 municipalities and cities), a new – seventh - installment of financial aid to the implementation of local assistance programs to refugees and IDPs amounting to 183 million Dinar. (Večernje novosti, 27 December 2011, p. 4)

4.6.3. Articles with negative attitude in which the role of primary actors belong to representatives of local NGOs Statistical analysis of the data obtained by the archive research of newspaper articles demonstrated that the articles, in which local NGOs had the role of primary actors (and primary sources), are mostly negative – and that these actors are the most frequent category in newspaper articles linked to negative attitudes toward the return process or resolution of returnee and IDP issues in their places of refuge. As such, an outcome mainly contradicts the widely present opinion about NGOs being committed to exercise of rights of refugees and IDPs and who often stand for fair solutions for refugee and IDP issues in their public statements, a special part of this basic content analysis of newspapers is devoted to those articles in which the local NGOs appear in the role of primary actors, and whose position toward the return or resolution of refugee and IDP issues was evaluated as negative or very negative. 13 relevant articles were analyzed which met both mentioned criteria.45 The results of the analysis clearly indicate that negative attitudes arise from critical and negative comments or assessments of current conditions for return, to-date return outcomes and the lack of support by the government and institutions of Serbia, and on the other hand, the same articles do not bring out positive examples or positively articulated action plans or information about specific activities of support to the return or resolution of refugee and IDP issues in general.46 Few of the following excerpts from analyzed newspaper articles illustrate the typical examples:

45 Primary actors = 29 (local NGOs) and article’ attitude = 4 (negative) or 5 (very negative). 46 For purpose of a more comprehensive understanding of these findings, it is important to take into consideration the fact that NGOs represented in these texts are mostly organizations and associations of refugees or displaced persons organizations.

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The support to the Croatian candidacy for EU accession by Serbia and Monte- negro expressed in the statement of Minister Svilanović in Zagreb, without prior necessitating the resolution of major return issues of expelled Serbs, their property and other rights, generated protests of all refugee associations in Belgrade. (Večernje novosti, 8 March 2003, p. 4) We live on the verge of poverty and the scarce food supply we receive comes every other month. We ask for human-worthy living conditions to be ensured for us here in Montenegro, or to allow us immigration to third countries. There is no more return to Kosovo for us, our houses are destroyed, and all that was happening in front of the eyes of those who are delivering us aid now – stated Skender Šalja, the chairman of NGO “Egypt” and the representative of Roma from refugee camp “Konik 2”. (Večernje novosti, 1 April 2005, p. 19) The return of displaced Serbs in the region of Prizren is difficult to imagine, because only two percent of formal residents consider the return as an option, while 45.5 per cent of local Albanian population “has no interest at all”, and additional 38.5 per cent has “no interest” in return of their former neighbors, show the results of the newest research. (Politika, 9 April 2005, p. 8) Serbs can work on their fields in enclaves undisturbed, in the rural areas in the vicinity of their homes, but not in the fields which are far from them. Rarely, Serbs can fell trees in their own forests. In many areas, Serbs secretly, but also publicly, sell their properties to Albanians, says Hisari. (Danas, 26 August 2006, p. 12) The results of return to Kosovo in 2008 are devastating, and this is confirmed by the fact that only 386 people decided to take that step, was stated in Belgrade yesterday on an annual conference of Federation of IDP associations - Unija. […] She reminded that even nine years after the end of the war in Kosovo it was not clear whether the solution for IDPs is the return, integration or something else. Palić also mentioned that the bad return process was influenced by unclear national strategy, because the return was not coordinated and because citizens, due to parallel municipal institutions - Serbian and Albanian, do not know whom to address. (Danas, 12 December 2008, p. 2) The associations of refugees state that Croatian government wants to impede the return by refusing to resolve these problems, so that the agricultural fields which nobody works on can be leased to third parties. (Danas, 13 January 2009, p. 5) In their letter, it is required from the president Boris Tadić not to allow signing the proposed declaration and to have this political document amended, because it is detrimental to interests of Serbs and IDPs from Croatia, as well as other citizens of Serbia whose property rights have been denied in this country. (Politika, 1 No- vember 2011, p. 8)

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5. DISCUSSIONS

5.1. Factors of frequency of articles about refugees/and IDPs in newspapers

One of the objectives of this research was to establish the volume of newspaper articles related to refugees and IDPs in Serbia. 665 of archived editions of five daily newspapers were reviewed and 530 relevant articles were found providing a density index of 0.80 articles per issue. It rendered obvious that articles regarding refugees and IDPs were found more often in newspaper Politika, Danas and Večernje novosti than in other two observed dailies. This fact is likely to be related to the editorial policy of analyzed newspapers, however it is worth noting that the described relation was not equally present in every of the 11 observed periods, which again can indicate that editorial policies were not permanent, that the general attitude of editorial boards toward refugee and IDP themes could have changed over time, yet it can be the case that specific issues or themes (events or processes) attracted more attention of editors who previously had showed less interest in refugee and IDP issues. All this should be the subject of further research, it is justified to assume however that the frequency rate of newspaper articles on refugees and/or IDPs in a daily newspaper is a function of more factors, both those defining the entire editorial process in a relevant newspaper and the ones related to processes and events with respect to refugees and IDPs (prevalence and ‘freshness’ of the topic, interest of the public, ‘political’ and ‘humanitarian’ relevance, etc.). Changes in the volume of articles observed in the daily printed media in various time periods (from August-October 1996 to October-December 2012) indicate no continuous and steady trend either of increase or decrease of ‘concentration’ of articles on refugee and IDP issues.47 Generally, the oscillations are followed by a stagnation (which lasted two or three periods in succession) then by oscillations again – the pattern that has been

47 One should bear in mind that we speak only about articles which in a way or another touch upon the issues of refugees and/or displaced persons in Serbia. The database of relevant writings include the articles of thematically very var- ied articles, but also the ones in which refugee and displaced person issues appear as secondary topic, and the ones in which refugees and/or displaced persons issues are mentioned in a more broader context.

87 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE observed throughout the analysis period. Nevertheless, in addition to this, a sharp difference existed in two periods: in the period between 1996 and 2005, the ‘density’ of relevant articles in individual editions - within any of the five periods - is higher than 1.0 or is very close to 1.0, while in the period between 2006 and 2012 the index was always far lower than 1.0 (and varies between 0.77 to 0.52). The rate of articles in newspaper editions after 2005 was substantially reduced. A more precise identification of reasons would require an additional research, it seems however that the reason was not the lack of interest for some specific topics and certainly not the lack of relevant events (which could be covered by daily press), but rather a case of general decrease of media interest in issues of refugees and IDPs. On the other hand, in the entire observed period (from 1996 to 2012), frequent and significant oscillations were present on a weekly basis, hence a sequence of several weeks48, in which no relevant text was noted, was suddenly interrupted by the issue in which, for example, two articles related to refugees or IDPs could be found, or in a sequence of several issues without any article or with only one relevant article, suddenly comes an issue with three or even more relevant articles. This additionally reaffirms the presumption that the frequency rate of articles about refugee and IDP questions is determined by relatively complex structure of various factors.

5.2. Analytical approach of articles to issues of refugees and IDPs… or absence of analytical approach?

News and reports are predominantly used forms of writings in daily press (primarily) regarding refugees and IDPs (or related to other major topics), their return or resolution of the issues which burden their lives. Precisely, almost 80% of articles appear in the form of a report or news however, the reports are considerably more present and make almost a half of all relevant writings. Slightly less than three thirds of writings are signed by the editorial staff journalists, 17% of articles are taken over from news agencies, and 13% of them were not signed at all. All other ‘types of authorship’ appear considerably less often.

48 In course of reviewing the archive, the principle of rotating sample was used; in brief, the sample included newspaper editions from each eight day (with deflection of +/-1 to +/-3, in case the issue of certain date was not available).

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Later on, what do the data reflecting the degree of journalistic analysis of the articles’ topics disclose to us? We will begin with the number of applied sources: some 73% of articles are based on solely one source. Even that single fact speaks of ‘non-complexity’ of the most information the daily print media bring about refugees and IDPs. Yet, a more comprehensive answer will be provided by consideration of some other variables. The research also observed the extent to which various sources used in articles had included the entities (individuals and groups) with different interests and how many different standpoints in the text were presented and what was their mutual relation. It is established that some 35% of articles does not include any issues to which different sources might have had a different standpoint, while 34% of articles do not contain any standpoint at all. When an article, however, deals with an issue where different interests may be articulated, more than half of texts use only one source or entirely consistent sources. Or otherwise: among articles that use more than one source, in approximately 53% of them no different opinions were presented. Also, among articles using more than one source, only 29% of them presented two or more different standpoints about topics they dealt with, and 60% of them contain only one of (possible) standpoints. All these data clearly indicate that the articles related to refugees and/or IDPs seldom problematized the topic, even in cases where an issue dealt by the respective article may be the source of certain controversies. The reasons for that can be multiple, it is certain however that the approach to refugee and IDP issues was and still is predominantly one-dimensional, and that newspaper editorial boards often did not use the chance to prob- lematize certain issues (in articles they published), and rather remained with presentation of ‘only one side of the story’ and one of the possible attitudes. By making such a conclusion we definitely bear in mind that for purpose of a more thorough understanding of this finding, the results should be put in a comparative perspective, i.e. be compared to the selected sample of texts dealing with some other topics, which is certainly not provided by this research. Therefore, a question remains open: is/to which extent (and in what way) the journalistic analysis applied on refugee and IDP issues in daily newspapers different from the manner some other (related and non-related) topics are analyzed in the same daily newspaper in the same period of time?

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5.3. Topics and general attitudes toward the return and resolution of refugee and IDP issues – in a function of primary actors and sources of a newspaper article?

Our thematic analysis was primarily focused on differentiation of articles dealing with the return (or containing any references to return) from the articles that have no direct reference to the refugee and IDP return. It is demonstrated that only 22% of articles are related to the refugee return to some degree, and almost a half of them write about living conditions in the return areas. On the other hand, one third of articles deal with the refugee or IDP status and/or integration processes in places where refugees and IDPs found their shelter. Among these articles, the most numerous ones deal with processes of (permanent) housing solutions, followed by articles dealing with various status issues and access to justice. Never- theless, the most numerous (a broad) category of articles is comprised of articles related to refugees and/or IDPs, which however contain no direct reference to either return or the life in places of refuge or immigration. These data will be supplemented by data on evaluation of the general attitude of articles toward the return or (when an article does not have a reference to the return) resolution of refugees and IDP issues. Each article is evaluated on the five degree scale,49 and the results demonstrate that approximately the same number of articles occupies three basic segments of the scale: 31% of them had a positive and 33% of them a negative attitude.50 The content analysis of a certain number of articles (s. chapter 4.6.1. and 4.6.3) shows that negative attitudes of articles in a rule do not directly stem from a negative attitude toward the return, but mostly from various negative observations and comments regarding conditions for return or in relation to the outcomes of return process to date, and the lack of institutional support (or international organizations and other actors). Generally speaking, the results show that the articles in daily print media fairly seldom deal with the return process, and that even less number of articles features positive examples of the return or existing circumstances and support programs to the return. Without an additional analysis, it is not possible to present relevant evaluation of the reasons for such trends, however the obstacles and difficulties which existed in the reality

49 Possible degrees on this scale were: 1 – very positive; 2 – positive; 3 – neither positive nor negative (unexpressed); 4 – negative; 5 – very negative. 50 36% of articles had neither positive nor negative attitude.

90 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... and which discouraged aspirations to return should definitely be taken into consideration, as well as dominant attitudes (stereotypes and prejudice) in the public shaped by the influence of various political (and apolitical) actors. Lastly, the interest of media for the topics unrelated to the return could also be explained by reasons of ‘practical nature’, i.e. by the fact that “local refugee stories and sufferings” were more accessible and perceived as more important and urgent. The attitude of representatives of the government and political parties toward return issues, as it is reflected in daily newspapers, is not unambiguous. First, it has been seen that themes regarding the return do not appear more often when the representatives of government and political parties are primary actors of newspapers articles.51 A more obvious difference, however, appears in articles referring to the status and exercising of rights in places of refugee and displacement, or with regard to processes of local integration. Such topics are present more frequently when the authorities and political parties have the role of primary actors of newspaper articles.52 On the other hand, apart from the international representatives as primary actors, government and political parties’ representatives are solely linked to a higher number of positive rather than negative attitudes toward the return process or resolution of refugee and IDP issues.53 In general, it is clear that representatives of local governments and political parties are not the major generator of media dealings with topics of the refugee and IDP return however, at the same time it can be stated that their public standpoint expressed toward issues or the return was not

51 It is important to bear in mind that representatives of government and political parties were primary actors in even 45.3% articles, and primary sources in 38.9% of articles. 52 When the representatives of government and political parties had the role of primary actors in newspaper articles, the relation with themes of articles also appear more obvious: this relation is not predominantly based on differences between representatives of government and political parties and various other actors, yet, the fact renders obvious that themes related to return appear more often when some international actors or local NGOs have the role of primary sources. 53 Yet, this dominance of positive attitudes is significantly more present in articles with international representatives as primary actors (+19%) than in those where primary actors are representatives of governments and political parties (+5.5%).

91 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE predominantly negative. On contrary, the results of this research demonstrate entirely opposite findings. Nevertheless, it is entirely legitimate to assume that such a situation was a product of the ‘political necessity’ in order to reach an agreement with representatives of international community regarding return issues, while the real commitment to implementation of policies aimed at encouragement of the return was completely different. Yet, the data collected here and the analyses conducted within the framework of this research are remotely not enough to make any conclusions about such assumptions.

5.4. Refugee and IDP issues – “differences mirrored in the daily press”

This research clearly demonstrates that newspaper articles about refugees from Croatia and BiH with regard to several important parameters differ from those about IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija. Although the links between these parameters should need additional analysis, we believe that - based on relations and differences established in this study - the assumption (i.e. conclusion) on certain internal consistency is justified and this brief discussion will be based on that. Let us begin from the review of the most important findings. In the articles referring solely to IDPs, the government and political party representatives have the role of primary actors significantly more often as well as the role of primary sources of the press information. Also, these articles have a negative attitude toward the return process and resolution of refugee and IDP issues less often than the ones referring only to refugees,54 and in case of topics, the ones related to the return are more often represented and the topics referring to the status and rights or with no references to the return process are significantly less present (in articles referring to IDPs only). Finally, this should be accompanied by the fact that 93% of these articles are related to IDPs of Serbian ethnic group only, which is significantly more than in articles solely related to refugees.55

54 Also, they often have more positive attitude but the difference is less emphasized in that regard. 55 In articles referring only to refugees, the portion of articles also referring to other ethnic origin (different from the ethnic origin of the majority part of newspaper target group), is four times higher than in articles referring exclusively to IDPs.

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These differences between articles referring only to refugees or IDPs respectively are in agreement to a great extent with some observations frequently expressed about ambiguity of Serbian state policies toward the refugees on one, and IDPs on the other side. Primarily, the general assessment is that official policy toward the resolution of IDP issues from Ko- sovo and Metohija is focused on the return to a much greater extent, i.e. on creation of favorable conditions for IDP return and exercise of their right to return. It is entirely justified to assume that such attitude was mainly determined by aspirations to strengthen its own political position in the dispute about Kosovo, but also to preserve certain elements of (sovereign) national and political power in Kosovo itself, and to reaffirm the statement on the local political scene that repossession of Kosovo sovereignty was not given up. The results of this research additionally suggest that issues of IDPs are ‘more interesting from the political point of view’ from refugee issues from Croatia and BiH (since the representatives of government and political parties obtain the role of actors and sources of information more often in this first case). Also, it is entirely clear that, despite all the importance which is attached to the closure of regional refugee issues, ‘in the mirror’ of daily press in Serbia, the attitude toward the return and full resolution of refugee and IDP issues, in general, is considerably more positive (or less negative respectively) in articles referring to IDPs from Kosovo than in those referring to refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet, has this type of stronger interest in the return of IDPs and generally more favorable attitude toward the resolution of IDP issues - reflected in media - dictated more positive trends related to the return of IDPs in reality? This can neither be stated nor is based on facts. All relevant analyses on the return of IDPs to Kosovo and Metohija emphasize its volume and sustainability by clearly indicating that the return process to Kosovo is quite unsuccessful or less successful than the return to both BiH and Croatia. Even in case of their status in Serbia, despite some parameters indicating to a relatively more favorable status than the status of refugees (in terms of housing or access to welfare programs, for example) in general, the status of IDPs certainly cannot be marked as a more satisfactory one. And this is perhaps the right moment to question ourselves about the role and tentative impact of printed (or any other) media onto real political and social processes. The question is not easy and the answer cannot be simple.

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How much could the media (and how much can the media nowadays) in reality affect the status of refugees and IDPs in Serbia, mitigate exercise of their valid (yet deprived) rights… to return or integration?

6. CONCLUSIONS

I. Having observed 11 specific time periods between 1996 and 2012, we can certainly conclude that the issues related to refugees and IDPs, including the issue of their return, were neither permanent nor particularly frequent topic of writings in daily newspapers. The frequency of such articles is not balanced – there are periods when they do not appear in newspaper issues at all, and periods when in one issue two or more relevant articles can be found, however on the average level, the appearance rate of articles related to refugees and IDPs is less than one article per issue (more precisely 0.80 per issue). Also, it is clearly established that the frequency rate of relevant articles after 2005 was significantly lower, even though there were no steady trends (increase or decrease) before 2005 and after as well. And generally, analyses that were focused on differences between individual periods (in which the articles appear) demonstrated that no stable or significant trends existed in regard to a majority of variables. Actually, apart from the afore-mentioned, certain trends were additionally observed solely with regard to general attitude of articles toward the return process or resolution of refugee and IDP issues.56 Moreover, it is very clearly established that articles relevant for issues of refugees and/or IDPs do not appear equally in each of the analyzed daily newspapers. On contrary, even though there are certain oscillations here (from one period to another), it can be generally stated that the relative frequency rate of articles referring to refugee and IDP issues in certain daily newspapers were also affected by differences in editorial policies. Physical placement of these articles in issues of daily newspaper also discloses certain regularities. In the first line, the articles referring to refugees and IDPs almost never appear on the front page. Yet, more than 40% of articles are found somewhere between second and fifth page, and more than 65% of them on the first nine pages. Also, on the first nine pages, the articles referring solely to IDPs are found more often.

56 See graphic 2 on page 44.

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II. Concerning the manner of presenting information relevant to refugee and IDP issues in newspapers, few very obvious findings can be stated: A. The articles appear in 80% of cases in the form of a report or news. B. The article headlines belong to an informative type in more than 75% of cases, and in slightly more that 20% of articles the headlines have sensational or emotional nature. C. The articles are usually signed by editorial staff, however the agency news are also relatively frequent, while approximately every eight article was not signed at all. Also, an in-depth analysis of articles demonstrates that: D. Almost 75% of articles are based solely on one source, while the character of the source was not possible to establish approximately for every tenth article. E. More than 35% of articles do not contain issues toward which different sources may tentatively express different attitudes, and if such an issue exists in the article, less than 20% of articles include sources which provide at least somewhat different standpoint regarding the specific disputable issue. Also, among articles using more than one source, in more than 40% of articles it does not contribute problema- tizing certain issue: formally different sources actually hold identical standpoints. F. Only in 58% of articles, a determined (but only one!) standpoint regarding certain issues has been expressed, while more than one standpoint can be found in less than 10% of articles. G. A general attitude toward the return or resolution of refugee and IDP issues can be established in more than 60% of articles, while the frequency rate of articles with positive and negative attitude is equal. Nevertheless, a significantly different image is depicted by the analysis on the level of individual periods: in some time periods, there is no significant difference in frequency rate between one and the other type of writings, yet in some other time periods a conspicuous difference exists and the number of articles with negative standpoint is significantly higher – or vice versa. Also, it is important to note that articles with negative standpoint appear more frequently among articles regarding refugees; actually, the articles with negative standpoint are represented by over 45% in this category.

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III. The articles referring solely to refugees in daily press appear equally frequent as the articles referring solely to IDPs, and the articles referring to both refugees and IDPs appear less frequently and make about 30% of all relevant writings. Another look into the origin of the forced migrants discloses that only 4.5% of articles write about issues (predominantly) related to refugees and IDPs whose ethnic origin differs from the origin of the majority target group of the observed daily newspaper, and 7.2% of them simultaneously write about refugees of the same and another ethnic origin. In addition to that, such articles are significantly less represented among articles that refer solely to IDPs (and which, in great majority speak exclusively of IDPs of Serbian ethnic origin).

IV. Just slightly above 20% of all articles deal with topics which are directly related to the return process. Among 17 specific theme categories, two most represented ones are housing and other issues related to local integration (approximately every sixth article) and other issues of status and access to justice which are unrelated to return (approximately every eight article). Nevertheless, there is a clear difference between articles referring solely to IDPs and those referring to refugees: articles dealing only with IDPs from Kosovo and Metohija have more than double rate in dealing with return issues or specific themes related to the return process.

V. Representatives of local institutions of government and political parties are the most frequently used primary actors and sources of newspapers articles related to refugee and IDP issues: in 45% of articles they appear as primary actors, and in 39% as primary sources. Less frequently, persons and groups from refugee and IDP (and returnee) population appear in the same role: as major actors in every fifth and as primary sources in every ninth article. Furthermore, it is important to note that government and political party representatives appear significantly more often as primary actors and primary sources in articles related solely to IDPs (compared to articles referring solely to refugees: 46% to 37%, respectively 45% to 32%).

VI. When the government and political party actors appear as primary actors and primary sources of newspaper articles, the standpoint of these articles regarding resolution of refugee/IDP issues are often more positive than negative. The entirely opposite trend (the presence of more negative

96 ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPER WRITINGS IN SERBIA ABOUT REFUGEES... than positive attitudes) exists in cases of articles in which the role of primary actors and primary sources are given to local NGOs or individuals and groups from refugee and IDP population. On the other side, the articles, where government and political party representatives appear as primary actors, are more likely to deal with the status and right issues which are not related to return in any way (they mostly contain certain references to the process of local integration or living conditions in the refugee and displacement areas).

VII. The results of this research do not confirm the thesis that the influ- ences of local political elites in media contributed to creation of a discourse that discouraged the return and resolution of refugee and IDP issues. It is clearly established though, that the themes related to the return process of refugees are relatively less represented in newspaper articles whereas some other issues related to refugees and IDPs were much more present. Also, it is demonstrated that topics related to the return are neither more (nor less!) frequent in those articles in which the representatives of government and political parties have the role of primary actors or primary sources. The content analysis of some articles in which government and political parties have the role of actors and sources of the text, demonstrate that the articles with negative standpoint do not promote negative attitude toward the return in a direct way, however the negative attitude is actually, to a certain degree, built by a discourse predominantly including comments and observations about obstacles and unresolved issues, bad experiences and outcomes, etc.

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Articles in daily newspapers Bezbednost i pravo oslonci povratka, N.N., Danas, 12 December 2008, p. 2 Bogate se na našoj nesreći, N.N., Večernje novosti, 1 January 2005, p. 19 Četiri cilja diplomatije, N.N., Politika, 30 August 2001, p. 2 Izbeglice traže zaštitu prava od Tadića, N.N., Politika, 1 November 2011, p. 8 Kući samo na sigurno, Stojaković, D., Večernje novosti, 27 January 2003, p. 4 Milioni u nove temelje, N.N., Večernje novosti, 27 December 2011, p. 4 Ne pomaže im da varaju svet, N.N., Večernje novosti, 8 March 2003, p. 4 Nema uslova, N.N., Večernje novosti, 29 July 2001, p. 4 Od “naprednjaka” kuća za 12 Voštića, N.N., Večernje novosti, 11 May 2009, p. 17 Opomena svima, N.N., Večernje novosti, 20 June 2009, p. 7 Pomoć za raseljene sa KiM, N.N., Kurir, 5 January 2009, p. 4 Potpisan ugovor o izgradnji stanova za izbeglice, Knežević, D., Danas, 12 Decem- ber 2008, p. 2

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Povratak preduslov za ocenu standarda, N.N., Politika, 24 March 2005, p. 5 Povratak Srba u Prizren teško zamisliv, N.N., Politika, 9 April 2005, p. 8 Povratak, N.N., Večernje novosti, 28 June 2009, p. 8 Srbi iz Hrvatske nezadovoljni tamošnjim Zakonom o poljoprivrednom zemljištu, N.N., Danas, 13 January 2009, p. 5 Srbi najmanje integrisani u kosovsko društvo, N.N., Danas, 26 August 2006, p. 12 Stanovi za izbeglice, N.N., Blic, 25 April 2009, p. 1 Svi hoćemo kući, N.N., Večernje novosti, 20 February 2003, p. 3 Šansa za povratak izbeglica, N.N., Danas, 11 May 2009, p. 9 Vratilo se 400 prognanika, N.N., Kurir, 2 August 2006, p. 4

100 Media between Freedom and Dependence: the Role of Print Media in the Process of Refugee Return in Bosnia and Herzegovina

DEJAN VANJEK EMINA ĆOSIĆ PULJIĆ LEJLA TURČILO Faculty of Political Sciences Sarajevo

Abstract

This report is part of wider comparative research whichintegrates specific country researches based on harmonized methodologies, and as such it renders full value only in conjunction with findings in Serbia and there conducted media analysis.Bosnia and Herzegovina’s country report features results of research which has been based on data analysis conducted in five representative printed media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The gathered sample displays general disposition within BHs public space in relation to media reporting on refugees/Internally displaced persons (IDP’s). Apart from general data sampling wide variety of data crossing and frequency timelinesare featured. Em- pirical data were anchored in wider socio-political and media space context, focusing on after-war fragmentation of BH’s social and public space alongthe overall ethno-territorial organizational matrix and dominant political culture of ethno-national elites.Among other, this Research features lack of connection between the administrative-political establishment of BiHwith vulnerable groups (ref./IDP’s), one-sided and pro-group oriented media behavior, lack of critical, proactive and challenging approach toward official authorities, as well as the lack of coordinated and systemic effort to keep ref./IDP agenda at the top of socio-political priorities which provokes further investigation of the underlying causes. Thoughslowly democratizing over time and becoming more subtle in performing their social functions, media still follow major political, post-conflict

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tendenciesvisible through media aloof approach toward ref./IDPagendathat is of vital importance for regeneration/reconstruction of BHs society.The research positions major actors of media reporting on ref./IDP’s and those are executive authorities, targeted individuals/groups and civic sector actors, whose mutual interaction provides key feedback in fulfilling major research goals. Key words: print media, refugees, internally displaced persons, political elites

1. INTRODUCTION

This report is based on theresearch conducted in Bosnia and Herzegov- ina (hereafter BiH). Itshows how and in what way the print media were reporting on topics directly linked with process of return of refugees and displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim was to assess information, quantity and discourse in the media related to the process of return of refugees and internally displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Putting it in more succinct way, the analysis was conducted in line with major aims of the Study in order to determine: • how and to what extent the print media reported about refugees and displaced persons, and • how much they fulfilled purposein their work to inform and assist refugees and IDP’s, and to what extent they served political estab- lishments in implementation of the policy/political objective of return, i.e. staying. The analysis is composed of three major parts: theoretical, empirical/analytical and conclusive: • The theoretical part focusedon socio-political context, namely general positioning of subject topic within overall public setting, general media context with focus on minority media as well as specific legal context; • Analytical part of Country (BiH) report coveredanalysis of media practices and cumulative findings of the research (trends and recommendations for improved practices and diverse media works). Media practices in the process of reporting about refugees and IDPs were quantitatively measured and qualitatively evaluated; • Finally the results of research were summarized, major trends registered as well as recommendations for better and different practice of media.

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In addition to context analysis of the general political, media, and legal frameworkin the first part of this studymajor methodological approach and techniques are explained, in particularly those related to empirical data sampling and analysis used for further interpretation and integration of the findings in this report. For further comparative credibility of the overall research, two methodologies were designed completely com- mensurable in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, so that here provided methodological inputs are also applicable inthe Report for Serbia and vice versa, with emphasizedoutstanding peculiaritieswithinBiH’s sample. Naturally, wider methodological inputs, esp. those relevant for further comparative analysis of the two reports,are provided in the first part of the overall comparative analysis. Overview of empirical data focused major findings related to master sample, individual media analysis with comparative perspective and special variable correlations such as primary actors, sources and topics of analyzed articles, with special focus on their mutual correlations as well with the variable ‘position of article’ towards the return process. Thereby diachronic perspective has been represented with special emphasis on variations. Since the research applied both quantitativeand qualitative approach, empirical analysis was complemented with content analysis of number of articles shading interpretative light to already obtained and systemized quantitative data. Discussions part deals with major research findings in terms of causal factor analysis, points to plausible and less plausible results which require additional scrutiny and interpretative option analysis. The report aims to exploits attained resultsas much as possible in line with research goals and methodological capacities; it also delimits limitations and brings forward questions that require further considerations and more narrowed research focus.

2. CONTEXT ANALYSIS

The role of here provided context analysis is to provide the overview of relevant research background, with focus on major observations concerning refugee/IDP population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the outset of humanitarian crisis that followed, during and after the war in Bosnia

103 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE and Herzegovina. This chapter also portrays media landscape in Bosnia and Herzegovina immediately after the war and its later development, focusing documented dependency of media and their functioning on ethno-national political dispositions in the post-war period. Third pillar of this context analysis represents relevant legislative framework, its major traits, focus and development. This aspect is relevant due to the fact that its design and implementation are almost completely dependent on the readiness of the political/administrative apparatus to provide effective remedies for refugee/IDP problems and thus intervene for the benefit of reconstruction and normalization of BH society and its internal relations.

2.1. Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Issue of refugee/IDP can be chronologically viewed in terms of outlin- ing major events related to forced displacement in Bosnia and Herzegovi- na. It is worth mentioning that these events were also used for benchmark- ing purposes in relation to methodology of data sampling, which is also a good reason to provide more contextual information about them. Former should ease digestion of the whole of analysis, esp. quantitative and qualitative empirical data analysis. Relevant events chronologically ordered read as follows: • 1992 -1995 - Massive scale displacement caused by the war in BiH • 1995 - Signing of Dayton Peace Agreement (Annex VII) • 1995 - Establishing of the Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees (CRPC) • 1996 - General Elections • 1999 - Property Law Implementation Plan (PLIP) • 2003 - Strategy for the Implementation of Annex VII • 2010 - Revised Strategy for the Implementation of Annex VII The 1992-1995 war inBiH, as a consequence of the disintegration of Yu- goslavia, caused about half of the country’s population to be forcefully displaced.Out of 3.5 million of the pre-war population 2.2 million were displaced, approximately 1.2 million persons became refugees in neigh- boring and other countries, while those remaining became internally displaced (MHRR 2010). In November 1995 the Dayton Peace agreement (DPA) was brokered and ratified in December the same year. This was the first peace agreement

104 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... in contemporary history to annex a country’s constitutions as an integral part of the document (Annex IV), therefore imposing a completely new legislative framework for the Country’s future. Considering devastating effects and mass scale displacement, the demographic re-composing of the ethno-national structure throughout BiH, the DPA, on the one side, aimed to reverse the war results of ethnic cleansing, but also to secure the right of displaced persons to return home. Out of eleven annexes three of them are of particular importance, namely Annex VII of the DPA which is entirely devoted to resolution of ref./IDP crisis and Annexes IV is in fact BiH Constitution, whereas Annex VI regu- lates the exercise of human rights. However, one could argue that Annex VII is actually the most important part of DPA,aiming for reconstruction of social tissue through systemic return process, as the only way to reverse results of the war: in fact “the return of refugees and displaced persons to the areas under the control of another ethnic group has often contributed to margin- alization of extreme ethno-nationalists and softening of tensions between different communities”(Belloni 2007:7). The implementation of DPA was very problematic from its outset facing serious challenge of legitimacy, since it had not been adopted in a regular parliamentary procedure or through a referendum. The former caused that the Constitution and its annexes could not be observed otherwise than as a part of peace agreement, which seriously limited its democratic character and henceforth progressive potential. There were many obstacles: not only related to return process in line with the provisions of Annex VII, but of the DPA in whole. In line with Annex VII, both governments in FBiH and RS have nominally declared their willingness to undertake all necessary steps to enable the process of return of displaced person. However, things in practice worked differently. There were many incidents particularly in the areas where minority return should have taken place. Returnees were molested by those who illegally claimed their property. In order to overcome this situation, the international community had to use force to ensure implementation of Annex VIIthrough IFOR (Implementation Forces) and SFOR (Stabilization Forces). Although the war had ended and conditions for peace building were met, many repatriated refugees from abroad faced difficulties while attempting to return home. As a result they maintained the status of internally displaced persons (IDP’s), likewise those who were already internally displaced being unable to return to their homes. Many different factors

105 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE protracted situation, such as: initial unwillingness of the population to return to places of traumatic memory, feeling insecure or threatened under unstable socio-political conditions; weak institutional framework unable to guarantee basic rights and security; reluctance of local ethnic population and its leadership to embrace returnees and facilitate their re-social- ization; as well as deficient regulative framework, which was influenced and governed immediately after the war by international community and multilateral organizations, which had special competences in implementation of DPA and its particular segments. Consequently, among other, post-war insecurity and ethno-national animosities motivated further internal migration of individuals departing to places where their group was in majority.1 In 1996 the first post-war democratic elections were held. At that time, the return process was just initiated and most of those in displacement were confused about the place where they should register to vote. That circumstance was used by some ruling parties to work on consolidation of their constituency territorially in order to secure desirable election results. The electoral regulations imposed by the Organization for Se- curity and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) largely made this possible – some ethno-political elites encouraged IDP’s to stay in localities of their displacement as long as possible. (Phoung2000: 6-7). Generally speaking the return process was too much hinged on property issues and national/local politicians were unwilling to carry out the eviction orders. Not only that this made full implementation of legislation in the field of return processimpossible, but it had also underlined the process of ethnic cleansing (Lyon 2007: 52). The qualitative analysis of the media furthermore substantiate these tendencies with a much higher presence of negative life stories such as criticism of failure of governments on all sides to ensure security and address humanitarian crisis, in comparison to positive stories and information relevant to the public and refugees

1 “Media widely reported about the case of integration of Sarajevo after the war; however, there were divergent presentations of this process in the media form RS and the media from FBiH. While the FBiH media interpreted this event primarily as ‘reintegration’, the RS media were primarily reporting about flee of ethnic Serbs to RepublikaSrpska as a forced phenomenon, appealing to the sentiments of insecurity and fear of territorial domination of other ethnic group (Bosniaks)”:Fromthe Qualitative analyisis conducted for the puposes of this research, which showed how the examined media treated subject issue.

106 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... on their rights and how to obtain them.2 Thereby “The main massages that were delivered through the media were to a significant degree differentiated on ethnic and entity basis”.3 The effects of such and similar policies in the first year after broker- ing DPA were quite modest and unpromising, precluding further lack of strong initiative and unambiguous steps focused solely on full implementation of Annex VII of DPA. Namely, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (hereafter: UNHCR) “reported that situation remains volatile in many parts of the country and that the challenge now is to consolidate the return that have taken place and make it sustainable. Since 1996, 446,795 people – or just half the total number of returnees – have returned to municipalities where they are currently minority” (UNHCR in Council of Europe 2004). The international community assumed great responsibility under provisions of DPA and its annexes, but it was not up to the tasks. In that sense any analysis of implementation of DPA as well as Annex VII should consider the engagement of international community, especially in light of the fact that BiH could not handle these issues on its own immediately after the war - at least until the year 2000 when the competent Ministry was established on the state level. However, the latter had limited competences and mostly a coordinating role between the two entities ministries- that were monitored by OHR. “A large scale return process did not commence until 2001, six years after the Dayton Peace Agreement. Yet even now, there is still a striking imbalance between RS and Federation in terms of minority return” (Kleck, 2007). The In- ternational community became aware of the fact that implementation of Annex VII was not going according to the plan therefore it was decided to shift the focus from agreements with politicians to voluntary return based on the rule of law(Kleck, 2007:12). After persistent obstruction by local authorities to support the return of their constituencies in order to avoid their watering down for political reasons, in 1999 the international community decided to depoliticize the process by shifting the focus away from the politicized right to return to an individual right to property, making null and void any allocations and transactions of property mitigated by local government post 1992. Under this new Property

2 Qualitative analysis conducted for this research. 3 Ibid.

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Law Implementation Plan (PLIP), a legal-administrative framework was set up that required property claims to be processed on a neutral ‘first- come, first-served’ basis and in a standardized and transparent manner” (Haider, 2012). The fact that local authorities did not support property-based approach to individual rights is evident through OHR’s interventions on domestic regulation required to facilitate the return process. Between 1998 and 2001, the OHR issued 120 decisions that were to secure property restitution and return, including socially owned property that was distributed by local governments to own constituencies as incentive to remain in displacement localities (see table below for dates on OHR decisions).

OHR Decisions on restitution and property return

1998 1999 2000 15.9.1998. (first decision 10.03.1999 12.1.2000 related to Annex VII 1.4.1999 27.04.200 and property return 14.4.1999 (4 decisions) 28.6.2000 legislation, after the 26.5.1999 30.8.2000 (3 decisions) HR empowerment with 15.6.1999 25.10.2000 Bonn Powers. 30.6.1999 28.10.2000 (2 decisions) 1.7.1999 (3 decisions) 5.12..2000 17.9.1998. 2.7.1999 (3 decisions) 20.12.2000 (2 decisions) 5.11.1998 30.7.1999 (4 decisions) 27.10.1999 (14 decisions) 11.11.1999 16.11.1999 10.12.1999 30.12.1999 2001 2002 2003 5.2.2001 24.1.2002 1.1.2003. (new year 30.3.2001 17.4.2002 (2 decisions) decision) 1.5.2001 30.4.2002 21.3.2003 4.7.2001 22.5.2002 (3 decisions) 25.3.2003 17.7.2001 (3 decisions) 31.7.2002 31.3.2003 04.12.2001 (13 decisions) 1.8.2002 16.5.2003 (7 decisions) 14.8.2002 2004 2005 2006 No decisions passed 21.3.2005 (4 decisions) 18.3.2006 (3 decisions) 29.9.2006 (3 decisions)

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2007 2008 2009 31.5.2007 (3 decisions) 25.6.2008 (3 decisions) 12.9.2009 25.6.2007 14.9.2007 28.9.2007 (3 decisions) 19.12.2007 (3 decisions) 2010 2011 2012 No decisions passed 5.1.2011 No decisions passed Source: Office of the Higher Representative

2.2. Legal - institutional framework

Repossession of the property for refugee/IDP was introduced as a human right and was considered as one of the priorities for the implementation of Annex VII. However, an institutional framework had to be established to carry out the process. The international community established a special body with a specific assignment - to process property claims, namely the Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refu- gees (CRPC). In order to solve property issues, the parties to the DPA took unprecedented step of creating a specialized institution: the CRPC to be concerned with property issues, while its work was complemented by the activities of the UNHCR, OSCE and especially OHR. (Phoung, 2000).“The international community and subsequently the B&H Government had taken a narrow view of ‘homes of origin’, focusing solely on geographic locality and the physical structure of a house. Since ‘home’ has been equated with property, property restitution has been associated with the fulfillment of the right to return to one’s original home. Programming and funding were thus directed primarily at restitution and reconstruction processes” (Haider, 2010). CPRC covered all cases of property that occurred after April 1. 1992, making all other decisions null and void, except for situations where a voluntary sale or transfer occurred which was not apprehended under life threatening situations. In 1998,the OHR adopted Property Law Imple- mentation Plan (PLIP)(Arnaut, 2012) in accordance with Annex VII, which gave to CPRC the mandate to “receive and decide any claims for real property in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the property has not voluntarily been sold or otherwise transferred since April 1, 1992, and where the claimant does not now enjoy possession of that property. Claims may be for return of the property or for just compensation in lieu of return” (Arnaut, 2012).

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Furthermore, the CRPC did not recognize any decision of courts ruled during or just after the war.4 Furthermore, the OHR imposed the laws in every entity for the enforcement of CPRC’s decisions, and changed them on several instances. As a result CRPC became the most important body for property return and BiH authorities were obliged to implement CRPC’s decisions. This was not always the case and local authorities were reluctant to respect decisions, which led to further steps of the OHR and issuing of number of decisions during the first few years to enforce CPRC’s decisions. The former included dismissal of all public officials who used claimed properties or obstructed their repossession, intervening directly on entity laws and changing the regulation. In April 2000, the Ministry for Refugees and Human Rights was established on the state level, with the mandate to coordinate all activities of the lower levels of governance in affairs related to protection of human rights and ref./IDP issues (MHRR).Its first assignment was to prepare the Strat- egy for implementation of Annex VII, which was adopted only in 2003, and a revised strategy was adopted in 2010. In the case of the revised strategy it faced number of obstacles between the opposing parties and entity authorities, primarily in relation to securing the rights of displaced persons to return, but also the rights of those who chose not to return to their pre-war homes (Haider, 2010).The revised strategy was adopted in 2010, and it is still mainly focusing on the persistent issues of collective centers, property restitution, but includes significant objectives to deal with the challenges related to sustainability of return, such as: 1.) reconstruction of residential units of refugees, displaced persons and returnees, closing collective centers and solving issues of alternative accommodations of displaced persons and returnees and social non- profit living, with special accent on problems of displaced persons; 2.) finishing property return and tenancy rights of refugees, displaced persons and returnees; 3.) electrification of returnees settlements and individual settlements of returnees; 4.) reconstruction of infrastructure in places of interest for refugees, displaced persons and returnees; 5.) health care of displaced persons and returnees; 6.) social care for displaced persons and returnees; 7.) the right to education of displaced persons and returnees;

4 See Arnaut S., Komisijazaraseljenalicaiizbjeglice, available at: http://crpc.blogger.ba/

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8.) the right to work and employment of displaced persons and returnees; 9.) security of displaced persons and returnees and demining of areas of return; 10.) the rights for compensation to displaced persons, refugees and returnees As for the Revised Strategy for the Implementation of Annex VII of DPA (MHRR 2010): The implementation of the strategy was not fully initiated in 2010, due to inability of the 2010 elected parties to form a coalition for state-level government, leading the Country into political stalemate for over a year, which affected the decision making processes and adoption of the budget for the forthcom- ing period. In 2012, the situation was better, the budget was adopted and initial funds (1.5 million BAM) were directed towards implementation of the strategy, which has been criticized as insufficient to meet the strategic objectives. The process of refugee and IDP return in BiH has been colored by a number of difficulties since the peace agreement was signed. On one side,BiH was faced with the need to address the issue of massive scale displacement immediately upon the peace accord was reached in a still hostile political environment, under severely damaged infrastructure and economic dev- astation. In addition to that, the political objectives were diverging and the new territorial reorganization additionally affected implementation of those objectives. The domestic political will was absent and had to be imposed on the elites by international community, which, to a high degree, resulted in higher number of property returns.5 Furthermore, the role of the Media may not be dismissed in the processes of refugee return considering that the public was primarily forming their knowledge upon media information. Yet, one still has to establish how politics influence policy and which actions media inspire by its chosen discourse and information.

2.3. Media Scene in Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia-Herzegovina has a very complex media scene. The number of media in comparison to the size of a population is quite high.6 Many me-

5 for which there is still no objective data to what degree they have actually contributed to a sustainable return. The population census to be carried out in 2013 will enable a concrete evaluation of these processes in BiH, the last population census was carried out in 1991 – before the war. 6 It is important to say that most of statistics in B&H are mainly approximate, since the last census was held in 1991.

111 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE dia were established during and immediately after the war with strong support of the international organizations and international community, which was a result of an idea that media in B&H should be the pillars of developing democracy.7 However, most of these media failed to cope with market-oriented environment once international support ended, which caused them to perish from the media market. On the other hand, some media established during the war time with the support of political elites managed to survive and become one of the most successful businesses and the most powerful institutions in years after the war8. In general, we may say that international support to BH media was enormously strong during the war and immediately after. Donations in equipment, money, consulting, education etc. were provided by many international media,9 NGO’s and foundations10and governments.11 How- ever, some mistakes were made in this process: first of all support was given to media infrastructure (in terms of equipment and money) and journalists’ education (in terms of their additional education), but not to media management (that is why many managers of these media failed to sustain their media in the market after donations faded). The most fruitful intervention of international community in media in Bosnia-Herzegovina occurred in the field of media laws and regulations. As a result, there are optimal laws and regulations in place when it comes to media in BiH12. The media market during all years after the war has been very complicated and un-transparent. However, in spite of un-transparency it is obvious that, although there is generally high number of media, there are only several of those really (politically and socially) influential, usually owned by politically or economically powerful individuals, groups or companies. All media (both

7 The most known examples were Radio ZID and Radio FERN in Sarajevo, as well as OBN TV. 8 “Dnevniavaz” a daily newspaper was established in 1993. and it is a daily with the biggest circulation in 2010. Its first owner Fahrudin Radončić built an empire which now includes not only newspapers, publishing company, but also building company, hotel and other businesses. He runs for Presidency in 2010. Elections and his media empire supported him strongly in that effort. In 2012 he became Minister of Security 9 BBC, DeutcheWelle, Voice of America etc. 10 Internews, Soros Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Foundation etc. 11 US Government for example. 12 Defamation Law, Law on Free Access to Information etc.

112 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... print and broadcast) are owned by domestic or regional elites. Number of media is constantly growing, but it would be a mistake to say that reasons for that are strictly economical. The media industry has become very profitable. For that reason companies dealing with other businesses find it economical to invest in the media.13 However, that lesson was quickly adopted by political elites which realized that media were linked to power and by controlling them they could increase their overall political prospects, so they either established their own media or try to influence the existing ones. According to the data obtained by the Communication Regulatory Agency14 and Press Council,15 there are 9 daily newspapers: 4 political news magazines, 98 periodical magazines (50 in Federation BiH and 48 in Republic of Srpska), 46 TV stations (3 are part of PBS: FTV, RTRS and BHT1) and 151 radio stations (3 are part of PBS: Radio Federacije, Radio RS and BH Radio 1). When it comes to print media, it is fair to say that newspaper readership has always been limited in Bosnia-Herzegovina and it is at even lower levels today due to bad economic conditions and limited quality of available media. Print media content is largely divided or re- stricted by ethnic character of the audience.16The former prevents print media reaching a broader audience on a state level and forces it primarily to target ethnic group that is dominant in the region where each particular paper is published. Furthermore, print media target citizens devoted to ideas of certain political option they are close to. The position of print media in Bosnia-Herzegovina, when it comes to their relations to elites and/or citizens, is quite complicated: it is not too much to say that print media represent voice of the elites, not of the citizens. They are mostly owned by politically or economically powerful people17 and close to political elites.18 Most of print media accepted directly to pro-

13 One of the biggest investors in media is Sarajevo Brewery, which owns one daily newspapers (“Oslobođenje”) and one weekly magazine (“Dani”) 14 Communication Regulatory Agency, available at http://www.rak.ba 15 Press Council, available at http://www.vzs.ba 16 DnevniAvaz is, thus, considered as Bosniaks’ newspaper, Nezavisnenovine and GlasSrpske as Serbs’ and Dnevni list as Croats’ newspaper. 17 Dnevni avaz, Oslobođenje for example. 18 Pre-election campaign for General elections in 2010 displayed direct connections between print media and political actors (Udovićić at al 2010). More information: Udovičić et al (2010) Izbori 2010 u BiH: Kakosumedijipratiliizbornukam- panju, Media Plan Institute, Sarajevo.

113 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE mote certain political parties and candidates19, while others were used to discredit opponents.20 In general, political actors set the agenda and print media only followed that agenda (which is trendy not only in pre-election campaign but in general as well). The print media promoted their favorite political leaders and parties not only in the sections of newspapers that were related to elections, but also in parts of newspapers related to sport, entertainment etc. It was evident that political parties which advertised the most in certain media got the best treatment in those media. However, advertise- ment was not the only pre-condition for favoring some parties: “Good relations”, as political leaders like to call their propinquity with certain media owners, determined treatment of certain parties in the specific media. In general, most researches and surveys(Press Council, 2012),feature more or less the same results when it comes to print media: namely, the print media are either owned or closely connected to political or economic elites. Due to lack of sanctions behind self-regulation of print media, extremely low standards (even a specific form of hate speech) are dominant in the majority of daily newspapers. The former causes a lack of confi- dence of the publicity in print media, which may be one of the reasons for low circulation of daily newspapers.21 Citizens have also learned that print media easily fall under influence of elites, which (along with apathy of people) reflects in lower circulation of weekly magazines.22 In addition to that, younger population tends almost exclusively to use Internet, which also contributes to lower circulation of print media. When we speak about pressures on media and journalists in Bosnia-Her- zegovina, a structural mistake was made in transition time and that mistake is being repeated now again. The mistake was to believe that once we liberate media from the influence of the state (which was imminent to one-party communists’ system), all problems of media freedom will be solved. That, of course, was not the case. One may even say that media reform did not

19 Dnevni list for example suported HDZ 1990 and its candidate Martin Raguž, Nezavisne novine promoted SNSD and Milorad Dodik, while Dani supported SBiH and Haris Silajdžić. 20 Dnevni avaz had more articles which discredited SDA and Sulejman Tihić than articles that promoted Fahrudin Radončić and SBB. 21 Maximum 100 000 copies on Friday, which is traditionally a day when people by newspapers the most, since they can find TV program for the whole week in them. 30 000-50 000 copies on “regular” day. 22 20 000 – 30 000 copies

114 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... liberate media from the influence of the state, but that influence has just been replaced (or complemented) with the influence of political elites. To be more precise, the only reason why the state does not influence the media any more is the fact that the state is not strong enough. Namely, the political elites, vested into the state bodies, very often work as autonomous actors (sometimes even contrary to the logics of state interests), being strong enough to apply hard pressures on both media and journalists. For that reason ongoing debates are oriented toward liberating media from political pressures, whereby the political elites work closely with economic elites and jointly pressure media sphere. Hence, state pressure was replaced by political one, and political pressure is now closely related to economic pressures. Particularly precarious to media independence are incentives given to media by the elites.Pressures on journalists are more visible, although situation may at first seem less problematic in comparison to situation immediately after the war. However, there are still journalists who live under police protection, as they are facing serious threats to them and their family members.23 Additional form of pressure on journalists reflects in bad working conditions: many of them work without contract or under those very suspicious, with low salaries etc. The former is one of the reasons why experienced and well-educated journalists often transfer to PR sector or to other businesses, leaving the space in media which is then “filled up” with “cheap labor force”.24 Those brave journalists who, in spite of these bad conditions, continue to engage investigative stories are often faced with various forms of discreditation by political and economic elites.25 In general, we may say that pressures on media and journalists are many: from direct threats and obstructions of the work of journalists,26 to latent and hidden pressures in the form of symbiosis between political and economic elites and media owners, who jointly define “policy and strategy of media”, which then excludes possibility of critical writing. All mentioned, along

23 Bakir Hadžiomerović, journalist and editor of TV magazine 60 minuta (60 Min- utes) was under police protection, while DženanaKarupDruško journalist from magazine Dani experienced direct threats by one of members of mafia. 24 That is less educated people with weak references and work experience. 25 One of forms of this discreditation is writing letters to their editors, in which politicians insist on getting an apology from journalists and threatening with law suits. Law suits are quite usual as well, and politicians are suing journalists for different reasons: from publishing their pictures to writing about their businesses. 26 Unwilling to communicate and provide critical information that are required.

115 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE with low or even non-existent reaction of publicity towards media stories27, de-motivates journalists to persevere in the investigative journalism. While summing up media situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, one may say that there is a high number of media on the scene as well as news cir- culating, but with limited number of true and unbiased information.28 As a consequence, in spite of many informational channels available, citizens increasingly become more and more confused and disoriented.

3. METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

The main methods used in this research were data and content analysis of selected print media. Research was quantitative and qualitativeand it focused on media content with an aim to ascertain how media reported on issue of refugee and IDP’s. To that purpose variables were devised and codified for further measurement purpose.

3.1. Periods of analysis/benchmark events: 1995 – 2010

The analysis focused on the most important periods for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the developments in regard to refugee crisis from 1991 onward. The research identified important milestones in legislative and policy frameworks for return of IDP refugees. The periods of interest were identified during the initial desk research and checked through apilot research. Following periods29 were identified as significant for research and the process of return of refugees and IDPs in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

27 Apathy of general public is one of the great problems. Public rarely reacts to media stories and even if there is a reaction it is “half-private”: people discuss in their homes or in coffee shops, but do not protest loudly. 28 We consider the “news” as a term describing content which is new and interesting, and “information” as term describing content which informs us, orientates us and educates us. 29 Notes: These five stages are significant because they provide the ability to track the return in periods when was de facto happening in full intensity, and certainly had to be adequately represented in the media. In all five periods’ media and politics influence was relevant in the refugee-returnee issues. However, it is necessary to take into account the market-consumers factors of media behavior towards each topic, including this one, in terms of its “market interest” for readers.

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a. 1995/1996 (adoption and start of implementation of official policies regarding the return after DPA and Annex VII) i. The basic questions on which the answer is expected is “whether and how political elites were interested in the implementation of Annex VII and in as much and how media did covered this issue with particular emphasis on possible deviations from the usual discourse and critical review on performance of media actors and policies); b. 1997/1998 (Beginning of direct involvement of the OHR and adoption of Property Law, followed by problems which occurred during application of the law) i. The basic questions on which the answer is expected is “if there was resistance at different administrative levels to the application of the adopted legislation and to what extent the media exer- cised ‘monitoring’ and criticism role pointing out to and following treatment of the problems of implementation of the laws on returnees”; c. 1999-2001 (when the property laws were improved and key obstacles for its implementation removed), which is connected to establishment of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees on the state level with purpose to coordinate all activities pertaining to refugee and IDP return. i. (It is interesting to see how the media ‘perceive’ positive trends and use them to animate the public and create a wider social support for such trends) d. 2006 was the year in which implementation of property law was fin- ished (by that time 129 registered municipalities have fully implemented the measures. Also, that was the year in which the general elections were held on 01 October 2006; e. 2010 when the Revised Strategy for the Implementation of Annex 7 was adopted. The process had been de facto ended a few years ago but it was clearly not a ‘real’ return, but the projections of implementation of property law. Since the demographic dispositions caused by the war (1992-1995) were still in force, it has become evident that the ‘real’ return had failed as well as the policies that were supposed to ensure return. In this sense, one can observe revision strategies at- tempt to make some positive changes in section of return of refugees and internally displaced persons.

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3.2. Data analysis

3.2.1. Quantitative The research quantitatively recorded number of relevant texts in five targeted printed media. The sample of selected print media in Bosnia and Herzegov- ina took into account their general distribution level, geo-political significance and influence on public opinion of ethno-political elites in particular areas, as well as the number of editions of print media, which equally applies both for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Following given criteria, five print media were selected and analyzed in Bosnia and Herzegovina:Oslobođenje, Dnevniavaz, GlasSrpske, and Nezavisnenovine andDnevni list.30 Following general types of analysis and data-crossing were used for quantitative analysis: (1) General analysis encompassing cumulative data and periods (2) Individual media variable analysis (3) Additional correlations

Sample: Data analysis identified relevant articles and sorted tabular under correspondent variable columns. During initial phase of media content analysis, research team quantitatively registered number of relevant media editions as well as articles within those: • 800 – reviewed editions • 2257 – total number of relevant texts related to refugees/IDP Main rules applied for sampling: • Each period/milestone was scrutinized within 3 months timeframe (a month before the event, the month in which it took place and one month post). • Principal of rotational sample period/day was used (first Monday in the month, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. in the next). Following fourteen variables were devised and followed: 1. Newspa- per code, 2. Primary/secondary topic of article, 3. Primary/secondary actors of media content, 4. Journalistic form, 5. Type of headline and sub-headline, 6. Au- thor of text, 7. Primary/secondary source of media content, 8. Number of sources,

30 Furthermore, Večernjenovine, a daily, was identified as newspaper of interest but due to difficult access to archive and project / budget limitations they were omitted from the sample.

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9. Representatives included by the sources, 10. Attitudes referring to refugees, 11.Position of article towards return process, 12.Population of refugee, 13.De- scent of refugees, 14.Whether article deserves particular attention. It is important hereby to note that secondary topics, actors and sources were used as control variables to insure that there are no significant variations within the text of article diverging from those situated in headlines and sub-headlines. Data analysis showed that secondary topics, actors and sources were rarely present within the same article. Hence,the articles were mostly consolidated and issue-oriented, but in the same time void of comparative perspective or approach rendering different descriptive situations which could substantiate primary variables in the article.

Key words/phrases: Refugees and IDPs, return, Annex VII, Dayton agreement, Committee for property claims (CRPC), Proprietary Fund, PLIP or Proprietary Laws, minority return, double citizenship, sustainable return, permanent residence, pre-war residence, humanitarian aid, donations, expelled/driven, forced migrations etc.

3.2.2. Qualitative (Content analysis) Selected print media, apart from quantitative, were also qualitatively analyzed/content analysis, with intention to determine which topics dominate, and what messages related to the return process in BiH were sent in journalist texts and if there was any inclination of the media towards return process as well as towards the political, international, operative or returnee (civic or ethnic) roles. The content analysis covered following periods: 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 (only January), 2006 (three months) and 2010. From the regional perspective, daily newspaper focused:Dnevniavaz and Oslobođenje from Sarajevo, Nezavisnenovine and GlasSrpske from Banja Luka, and for the year 2010 the sample was enlarged by Dnevni list from Mostar, as the youngest BH daily newspaper. The daily newspapers from Banja Luka, during monitoring period underwent certain corrections of their official titles. Until the year 2000, Nezavisnenovine were titled ‘Dnevnenezavisnenovine’, because they had also weekly edition, and for that reason the distinction was made. Con- clusively in the year 2002, GlasSrpske was renamed intoGlasSrpski. The reason for this alteration was the intention to substitute ethnic component with the entity one. GlasSrpske, which was the only state-owned newspaper at the time, got purchased by Nezavisnenovine in 2008.

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4. QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

This segment is tripartite: it covers master sample analysis for each represented variable, selected correlations – crossing of variables and main variable traits for individual newspaper.

4.1. Master sample – variable analysis

Table 1. Total number of examined articles by newspaper

Valid Frequency Percent Percent

Oslobođenje 652 28.9 28.9

Dnevni avaz 565 25.0 25.0

Nezavisne novine 431 19.1 19.1 Valid Glas Srpske 565 25.0 25.0

Dnevni list 44 1.9 1.9

Total 2257

Table 1 shows the share of articles gathered in five examined newspapers. It can be seen that refugee/IDP’s related issues were more or less covered in balanced quantities by the observed newspapers, which may suggest presence of overall public interest in returnee/IDP’s issues. The exception was‘Dnevni list’, as the youngest printed media withsmallest number of editions and correspondent articles related to subject topic. These data ascertain that ‘return’ is still anall-presenttopic; however, as it was later shown, there were significant variations and overall descendant trajectory from late 90s onwards.

Frequency Table and narrative interpretation:

(Frequencies in following tables are sorted hierarchically and grouped into three categories: highest frequencies are bolded, middle italicized while under-values remained unmarked)

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Table 2. Primary topic of article

Valid Frequency Percent Percent Policies and action directed to resolving ref./IDP status and 317 14.0 14.0 rights Something other 312 13.8 13.8 Anything related to return 243 10.8 10.8 General reporting on return 204 9.0 9.0 process Reconstruction 183 8.1 8.1 of housing objects Implications 141 6.2 6.2

Incidents 137 6.1 6.1

Personal stories of ref./IDP's 129 5.7 5.7 Activities of ref./IDP's 125 5.5 5.5 Attitudes and opinions of 98 4.3 4.3 politicians

Status and rights 90 4.0 4.0

Activities of ref./IDP’s 86 3.8 3.8

Houses of ref./IDP’s 71 3.1 3.1

Ref./IDP’s personal stories 55 2.4 2.4 Interaction between politicians and 28 1.2 1.2 refugees Collective centers 27 1.2 1.2

Reconstruction of sacral institutions 11 0.5 0.5

Table 2 reveals that there seem to be a variety of topics covered within observed sample. Most of it is about general reporting and policies/ actions directed toward settling ref./IDP’s status, which is farfetched due to evident lack of success of given policies and actions. The only

121 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE concrete topic represented is reconstruction of housing units. Truly, that was the essential part of the official agenda for several years after end of war, but it underscores by far all other required conditions needed for self-sustainable return. Coverage of issues narrowly directed to living conditions of ref./IDP’s does not seem to be in the focus (reconstructions, self-articulated attitudes and needs, ref./IDP’s activities, collective centers, houses and living conditions of ref./IDP’s, their status and rights). It seems that media cover ref./IDP’s issues rather indirectly than through direct contact with vulnerable group. Their attitudes thus can be leveled with the behavior of political elites who, obviously, did not uphold return as priority socio-political agenda, otherwise, notwith- standing motivational factors; their interaction would rank higher among represented themes.

Table 3. Primary actors of media content

Valid Frequency Percent Percent Individuals, groups of refugees 560 24.8 24.8

International Community 186 8.2 8.2

Local NGOs 168 7.4 7.4 Unknown 155 6.9 6.9 Local executive 149 6.6 6.6 International organizations 133 5.9 5.9 Gvt. of RS 130 5.8 5.8

Political parties 127 5.6 5.6

Council of Ministers BiH 93 4.1 4.1 Gvt. of FBiH 87 3.9 3.9 Agencies, regulatory bodies 70 3.1 3.1 Representatives of EU 66 2.9 2.9 Cantonal executive 56 2.5 2.5 Local legislative 47 2.1 2.1

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Valid Frequency Percent Percent Other foreign countries officials 42 1.9 1.9 Non-refugee individuals 34 1.5 1.5

USA representatives 27 1.2 1.2

Croatian officials 27 1.2 1.2

Religious communities 26 1.2 1.2

Public personas 14 0.6 0.6 Federal legislative 9 0.4 0.4 RS legislative 9 0.4 0.4 BHs legislative 9 0.4 0.4 Gvt. Of BD 6 0.3 0.3 Cantonal legislative 5 0.2 0.2 Serbian officials 5 0.2 0.2 BiH officials 4 0.2 0.2

Author of text 3 0.1 0.1

Judiciary of BiH 1 0.0 0.0 Judiciary of RS 1 0.0 0.0 Municipal judiciary 1 0.0 0.0 Judiciary of FBiH 1 0.0 0.0

Table 3 clearly displays that variable ‘primary actors of media content’ is also widely differentiated with multiple options offered. However, there are some conspicuous figures. Namely, individually dominant primary actors of the analyzed volume are ‘Individuals, groups and population (refugee, returnees and displaced persons’. The second individually important category is ‘international community’, which is quite peculiar, since it leads in front of any domestic actor (governmental or non-governmental). Than after, there are different executive levels as well as local NGOs (association of returnees, NGO for human rights etc.). It is especially interesting

123 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE that lowest executive levels (local executive) are more occupied with issues of IDP and refugees instead of higher. It appears that the essence of discussion, problem resolution and general communication is conducted among these two clusters as beneficiaries and beneficent (executive and ref./IDP’s). On horizontal - entity level slightly more focus is given to ref./IDP agenda in RS than in FBiH. Former can be viewed in light of RS being a centralized entity and hence more capable to handle subject issues. It is worth mentioning that Executives in Brčko District are not represented at all, which could be due to different reasons: lack of com- petencies or resolved returnee issues on the small and relatively control- lable administrative space of BD. Perhaps results would be different if BD had its own public newspaper which would than pay closer attention to ref./IDP agenda. Frequency score of Local NGOs suggest that there is more effort to tackle ref./IDP’s problematic by the hand of civil society actors than by the side of the governmental actors. This could be due to better availability and openness of this group in relation to public officials, who are very often reserved and less open towards the media. In whole, there seems to be sound argu- ments concerning aloofness of the administrative-political sphere toward subject issues, where the reasons still need punctually to be stated. Primary actors of media content when grouped together result with more clear and informative picture:

Table 4. Grouped primary actors of media content

Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Executive 591 28% 28% 28% authority Legislative 79 4% 4% 32% authority Judicial 8 0.4% 0% 32% authority Foreign states and their 491 23% 23% 56% representatives Civil society 806 38% 38% 94% Political parties 127 6% 6% 100%

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Chart 1. Grouped primary actors od media content

Chart 1 displays grouped variables and results in similar, yet somewhat diff erent picture. Namely, within this arrangement civil society becomes the most convincing primary actor. Second best are executive authorities on all administrative levels and right behind are foreign actors. Thus, these three general groups could be considered as primary actors on the master sample level, since they lead in front of all other actors anticipated and measured within this variable. The other variable groups are far behind including political actors and legislative instances, whereby the latt er have marginal frequencies. As for the ‘secondary actors of media content’, likewise in the case of primary actors, most of the secondary actors of media content are individuals, groups and population (refugee, returnee and displaced person). The former suggests that there is correspondence between primary and secondary actors of the media content. Secondary actors are also generally versatile, featuring mild dominance of direct groups/refugees and returnees, individuals. That is understandable while true problems concern vulnerable groups and henceforth more thematic space was allocated to them throughout the texts.

Table 5. Journalist form Frequency Percent Valid Percent Report 1133 50.2 50.2 News 914 40.5 40.5 Statement 104 4.6 4.6 Interview 77 3.4 3.4 Commentary 29 1.3 1.3

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Chart 2. Journalist form

Table 5 shows that mostly used journalistic form was a report31 – up to 50%, than the News32 which is litt le bit less represented – by 40%, while the other journalist forms such as Interview33, Release/Reaction/Statement, Comment,34 Other (photo news, and everything that does not fall into primary categories) are only marginally represented. These results suggest that reporting is systematic and that, at least formally, required att ention is given to this very important issue. The process of reporting is continuous but less news than reports might signal that there is no outstanding/visible events/policies worth of media att ention.Comments are scarcely applied as journalist form, suggesting that redactions are not particularly interested to engage publicity in order to provide incentive for the return process. Chart 2 displays remarkable disproportion between the news and report. In second half on 90s, after DPA conclusion and during fi st years of its implementation there were frequent oscillations between these two forms on annual basis, except for biannual in 1998/1999, when there was enactment and beginning of implementation of property laws with plenty of

31 (in the sense of more detailed treatment of the subject than in the news, with possibility to use more free style by the hand of authors, whereby possible conclusions or direction must be clearly separated from stating a fact, or must be clearly referred on specifi c facts) 32 (Information containing 5 or fewer answers to key questions from journalists (who, what, where, when, why, how). Usually consists of introduction, body and certain form of conclusion, although and diff erent structures is possible. Length is mainly one journalist card) 33 (form in which there are at least two direct questions and direct answers which are asked to one or more interlocutors) 34 (author in the name of editorial or independently determines according to an event; warns of certain phenomena, criticize or praise actors, etc.)

126 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... biases which obviously required more signifi cant involvement of relevant parties and media among them in elaborating rather new legal-institutional framework, its reach and practical contentions. Since 2001 and further on in the subsequent years, these two forms stabilize with overwhelming domination of news. The former could be result of resolved ambiguities and for the fi rst time since the war the inception of legal – institution regulation mostly through establishment of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees. With the start of Ministries functioning, media rely on it as the main authority in subject area and therefore opt to non-analytical form as is the journalist news, which is more comfortable and less time consuming then the report, which implies certain level of research and analysis.

Table 6. Type of headline and sub-headline

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Informative 1811 80.2 80.2

Sensationalistic 269 11.9 11.9

Emotional 121 5.4 5.4

Expert 56 2.5 2.5

Chart 3. Type of headline and sub-headline

Table 6 reveals that by far mostly utilized type of headlines and sub- headings are informative – factual (80.2%). Those of sensationalistic, emotional or expert nature are represented between 2.5% and 12%, with visible advantage of those that are sensationalisticin comparison to emotional, as well as slight advantage of emotional against expert type of headlines

127 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE and sub-headlines. These results suggest that media have been mostly up to the task, but real value of these fi gures will come to light when compared diachronically throughout diff erent periods of the analysis and in relation to data obtained in Serbia. Chart 3 shows that informational headlines have dominated with minor variations over the course of years, which is also the case with other types. Slight variation is noticeable in this chart meaning that in the periods where informative headlines were going slightly up, those being sensationalistic were going slightly down. However, that is quite understandable due to opposite/contested character of these two types of headlines and sub-headlines.

Table 7. Author of text

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Redaction journalist 1373 60.8 60.8 Agency 794 35.2 35.2 Statement for media 36 1.6 1.6 Taken from another 32 1.4 1.4 media Commentator 22 1.0 1.0

Chart 4. Author of text

Table 7 suggests that articles signed by redaction journalists dominate, which is quite normal in journalism. Second best are agencies, while other categories are symbolically represented: taken from another media and by a commentator. There is however considerable percentage of unsigned articles, which should be closely scrutinized in order to ascertain whether there is something compromising in the content infl uencing authors to conceal their identity.

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Media are also autonomous in relation to other media and rarely quote one another, which is also quite understandable, while they generally oper- ate in the same market and therefore as competitors. One could also ascertain that agencies are very important source of information, which provides bulk of information later on widely distributed or used by the media. Chart 4 reconfirms domination of journalist reporter and agencies as two main authors. However, these twointersected in 1996 and especially in 1998, in the sense that journalist reporting plumed and agencies went up, which could be due to delicacy of reporting in relation to ongoing controversies, complexity of intensive debate and expert work connected to property laws and establishment of the executive framework. In the same time, it appears that the agencies were conducting bulk of reporting work while individual journalists were less exposed and concentrated on following the news.

Table 8. Primary source of media content

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Executive authorities 426 18.9 18.9 // 246 10.9 10.9 Local NGOs 215 9.5 9.5 Author of text 182 8.1 8.1 International community 178 7.9 7.9 Individuals, groups of ref./ 166 7.4 7.4 IDP’s Political parties 149 6.6 6.6 Representatives of local aut. 149 6.6 6.6 International organizations 143 6.3 6.3 // 96 4.3 4.3 Agencies 87 3.9 3.9 Legislative authorities 69 3.1 3.1 Religious communities 25 1.1 1.1 Public personas 19 0.8 0.8 Judiciary 8 0.4 0.4

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Table 8 provides insight to number of categories devised in order to cover range of possible actors and sources used by authors.35 The mostly used primary source are Executives (President/presidential, the Council of Ministers, government ministries) participating with up to 19%. Local NGOs were referred to up to 9.5%, whereas international community closely up to 8%. Political parties and politicians are used as a source in up to 6-6% of analyzed texts. This suggests that issues were dealt mostly by institutional actors/politicians in specific positions, instead as a pure political matter. Politics did not promise much in this respect and ref./IDP agenda did not count for winning political capital and elections, which can be interpreted as silence approval of ethno-territorialization of the country promoted by political elites and widely accepted by the society.

35 1. Executive (President/presidential, the Council of Ministers, government ministries / ministers) 2. Legislative (Parliament, Council) 3. Judicial (Courts - all levels) 4. Agencies, institutes, etc. 5. Political parties and politicians (in the capacity of political parties and not any function that holds the individual - for example, XYZ Minister and party president) 6. International organisations (Concrete entities as statutory multilateral int. Organisations; IGO and NGO) (Amnesty International, the Red Cross / Crescent, UNDP, UNHCR ...) 7. International community (non-specific entities such as forums, groups, initiatives; states and international organizations – OHR, EU, PIC, NATO, EUFOR/SFOR, EUPM, EULEX, OSCE, PIC and its individual members, CoE,...) 8. Local NGO (e.g. Association of returnees, NGO for human rights etc.) 9. Public persons/intellectuals 10. Individuals, groups or population of (refugees, returnees, displaced persons) 11. The author of the text (a column, a commentary, etc.) 12. Local government authorities (mayor, municipality, local police) 13. Religious communities / clerics 14. Unidentified sources 15. Other media 16. Other sources (nor included in the list above)

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Relatively noticeable is the presence of international organizations (6.3%) almost equally used as a source as local executive authorities and political parties, but all the other sources are underrepresented and especially legislative, agencies, public personas, religious communities and judiciary. Individuals, groups or population of (refugees, returnees, and displaced persons) were generally represented up to 7.4% with a conspicuous incident in 2006 rising up to 18%. Con- sidering that this category should be in the focus, it can be generally inferred that it is underrepresented. The former allows for criticism of journalist approach whereby direct inputs and grievances of threatened groups are comparably less sourced than it should normally be the case. As for the various administrative bodies, agencies and institutes, it is worth noticing their general low representation as sources, namely Legislative instance has been used in less than 4% of the cases; Agen- cies and institutes as well (4%). Participation of judicial authorities is virtually nonexistent as well as religious communities, which is quite surprising and it could suggest that religious communities, for some reason, have not been consulted as a source by authors and/or RC’s didn’t want to expose publicly on subject matter. Worth mentioning is also marginal presence of public persons/intellectuals positions and opinions, being validated in only 3% of the articles. As for the ‘secondary sources of media content’ one can reassert that this (validation) category is generally very scarce and mostly not applicable (84%), which suggests that secondary sources in the content or indirect sources are rarely used. However those are already present in the form of primary sources and in minor percentage as primary, such as: author of the text, international community and executive government. Directly affected Individuals, groups or population of (refugees, returnees, and displaced persons) are scarcely used as secondary source - only in 2% of articles. Basically, the use of secondary source is not usual journalistic practice and if it does occur it mainly corresponds to primary sources already applied. This could also mean that journalistic approach doesn’t aim for reflective or critical articles related to ref./IDP’s.

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Table 9. Number of sources

Frequency Percent Valid Percent One 1723 76.3 76.3 Two 392 17.4 17.4 Three 79 3.5 3.5 Four 37 1.6 1.6 More than four 26 1.2 1.2

Chart 5. Number of sources

Table 9 delineates information that the observed patt ern used in most of the articles is single source application (76.3%), which does not contribute to the overall assessment of the media as objective and non-biased; in contrast to that, there are more likely subjective and instrumental projections that distort the perception of relative independence and autonomy of the media. Two sources are used up to 30% with signifi cant and steady tendency of rise over the years. Percentage of articles with 3, 4 and 5 sources is minor with no tractable tendency of growth. Chart 5 is a time line which displays again domination of single sourced reporting, with absolute dominance immediately after the end of the war. It had plummeted down in 1996 - as the fi rstafter-waryear highlighted by the relief caused by seizure of violence and hostilities, as well as whole- hearted expectations from the DPA’s implementation and announced refugees/IDP’s return process. Also at that time the fi rst wave of return was initiated based on the provisions of DPA and its Annex VII. However, already next year in 1997 indicators worsened. Media and political pressures both on local and macro levels seemingly have discouraged return

132 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... and the issue underwent increasing politicization, possibly in connection to unwillingness of ethno-political elites unambiguously to support the return process (see context analysis). After the setbacks in 1997, things have relatively stabilized in 1998 and maintained on the more or less same level of intensity over ensuing years.

Table 10. Sources included representatives of interest groups

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Same group 1143 50.6 50.6

Two or more groups 299 13.2 13.2

Opposite groups 63 2.8 2.8

Not specifi ed 752 33.3 33.3

Chart 6: Sources included representatives of interest groups

Table 10 reveals that sources which mostly included representatives of the same interest group (for example one political option, party, or side in a confl ict) were up to 70% - this is very indicative fi gure, as an argument in favor of general instrumentalisation and overall division of BH public space along ethno-national lines. Given the ethno-territorial organization of the Country and general professional view about likewise division of its public space, which is here refl ected in the single group support and openness, it is plausible to infer that behavior of media elites closely observes existent structural dispositions in daily performance of their socio-political and professional functions and duties. The only dilemma is whether media intentionally support that division or

133 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE simply adapt to contemporary socio-political circumstances and prevalent ethno-political discourses. Other sub-variables have marginal value, meaning that media rarely observe two or more groups36, and especially opposite37 group. Chart 6 also reaffirms domination of single group usage as a source of information. However, variations of that sub-variable is not completely reliable because it contrasts undetermined group of data, which leaves possibility that single group usage might be even more present over the course of time than suggested in this chart. Since 2001, single-group sourcing is little bit less applied through im- plicit sourcing techniques, which could be rather due to perception of increased professional standards or political correctness. This could mean that media have been pacified and far less explicitly positioned as adjacent to ‘warring’ parties as it was the case immediately after the war. Their support for shared narratives of specific groups have become more refined; However, on the other side, long term decline of single sources usage does not match any visible rise of two and more or opposite groups sourcing in the articles, which might be a critical aspect of media independence and political affiliation.

Table 11. Expressed attitudes toward issues of return

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

One-sided 626 27.7 27.7

Opposing 62 2.7 2.7 attitudes

Balanced 58 2.6 2.6 attitudes

Not specified 1511 66.9 66.9

36 This group can be viewed as a package with the first, because these are mainly trying to fake inclusive approach but essentially servicing existing opinion, stance or conclusion on a particular issue 37 This information can be subsumed under the hypothesis of the absence of ‘national’ (in the sense of state) media - at least among the observed daily newspapers, that the thesis of regional fragmentation of media space in BiH (with the regionalization of BiH corresponds to its ethnicization)

134 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS...

Chart 7: Expressed att itudes toward issues of return

Table 11 informs that One-sided views dominate in analyzed articles, being represented up to 41%. However, there are lots of Not applicable measurements (in which no stance is expressed, and / or the issue does not involve any social controversy). Opposite and balanced att itudes are mar- ginall y represented. These results signify that authors of articles rather opt for neutral position than actively involve into critical weighting of different positions / att itudes on potentially biased and controversial questions. That indicates a relatively passive position of the media towards ‘sensitive’ but important issues, which again may be associated with the conformity practices following corporate att itude that these issues don’t have a dose of media stickiness. As a result media do not perform role of sett ing the agenda in full capacity, they rather follow and adapt to needs and agenda of other relevant social and political actors (presumably to ethno-national political elites) and in that way miss their potential to assume corrective function. Chart 7 as expected displays correlation between single-sources usage and one-sided att itudes, as well as their contrast to undefi ned and possibly concealed or intentionally eliminated att itudes in the media content. Also, there was noticeable decline of one-sided att itudes in 1997, which is probably connected to inter-ethno political debate and exchange of diff erent socio-political views regarding, at the time being, relevant topics on ref. / IDP’s, such as return strategies, policies, plans, institutions etc. Like- wise in the case of single-group sourcing, there was decline of one-sided att itudes in the same period - 2000/2001, however, followed by almost complete absence of balanced and opposite att itudes butwithstabilized intensity in later years.

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Table 12. Position of the article toward return

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Very positive 130 5.8 5.8 Positive 733 32.5 32.5 Unexpressed 907 40.2 40.2 Negative 446 19.8 19.8 Very negative 41 1.8 1.8

Chart 8: Position of the article toward return

Table 12: In this segment articles, are mostly optimistic towards return process while providing positive information and emphasize the important questions at the same time. Extreme options are scarce, namely very positive or very negative. This suggests the fact about sensitivity of the editorial boards, which approach subject issue with sense of public accountability or political correctness. However, confusion is caused by 47% of articles that have non-expressed character (meaning that article is not engaged and does not include any value att itudes; remaining on su- perfi cial / formal level). There is slight convergence among positive and negative positions starting from 2001 onwards in connection with abrupt increase of articles that are neutrally positioned. Chart 8 shows general downfall of positive reporting on return process, with some variations and the peak year 1998. Positive reporting downfall is visible in the year 2001, but already in the next year (2002) it went up signifi cantly and later on stabilized with minor values. The concern can be spurred by the general rising of negative reporting over time and

136 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... since 2001 it almost intertwines with positive, unlike previous years when these two values were completely separated meaning that positive reporting had quite higher intensity. However, non-defi ned reporting was in place all the time and since 2005 onward it has stabilized at higher level as dominant feature of articles, meaning those were mostly non-positioned toward the return process. It looks that media had become disinterested for ref./IDP issues after pushing several years for it, but also against the return. It might be that the failure of substantial return rendered this issue less interesting to media, which in the meantime got tied to new ethno-politically relevant ideas and agenda. How ever, visible oscillations of positive and negative positions over past years show that there are certain factors powerful enough, spontaneously or intentionally, to infl uence both socio-political and media focus given to ref./IDP issues.

Table 13. Returnee population belongs

Frequency Percent Valid Percent almost entirely the same ethno-group as the target 817 36.2 36.2 group of the media almost entirely diff erent ethno-group then the tar- 289 12.8 12.8 get group of the media both – the same and diff erent- 819 36.3 36.3 ethno-national groups Not applicable 332 14.7 14.7

Chart 9: Returnee population belongs:

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Table 13 shows results in this segment that are approximately balanced: articles almost entirely treat ethno-groups that are dominant group of the media. In this sense, if not the sole target of ethno-national group, then media at least have a primary identity group which they address - this can be verified by examining general political attitudes prevailing in particular areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where dominant constituent groups match general ethno-political discourse dispersed by elites, institutions, media and vice versa. However, media only slightly more favor ‘their’ target group or ethnicity, thus reflecting relative democracy and professional approach while reporting on ref./IDP’s issues. Chart 9 features dominant orientation of individual media to particular ethno-national group, which was not that poignant only in years 1996, 1998 and 1999. It is possible that ongoing discussions about the political/ policy and legal-institutional course of actions towards ‘resolution’ of ref./ IDP problems was partisan by nature, in the sense that political parties draw attention to their identity groups in order to legitimize certain interest-political actions. It is also worth noticing that attention given to opposite ethno-national group mismatched most of the time attention given to single ethno-national group. However there was ostensible convergence since 2006 onward and with oscillations which might suggest two things: first and more likely that ref./IDP affairs are no longer worth of media attention in relation to other socio-political actors, and second - that media have liberalized their approach to reporting on relevant socio-political reasons due to myriad of possible reasons (results of wider democratization processes conditioned by internal and external factors).

Table 14. Origin of refugees

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Refugees from BIH 1901 84.2 84.2 Refugees from Croatia 78 3.5 3.5 Refugees from BiH and 51 2.3 2.3 Croatia Refugees from Kosova 42 1.9 1.9 Refugees from Kosova in 5 0.2 0.2 BiH and CRO Irrelevant origin 180 8.0 8.0

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Chart 10: Origin of refugees

Table 14: Reviewed articles in 89% of cases are related to IPD (refugees and displaced persons) from Bosnia and Herzegovina (actually displaced), as much as 6% to refugees from Kosovo, 2% of refugees from the Croatia, while results for the other variables are negligible (not exceed- ing 1%). It can be concluded that media in BiH are mostly concerned with refugees from BiH, i.e. persons who for some reason do not manage to fulfi ll their return rights fully and permanently return to pre-war places of residence. Chart 10 and its time-line reassert data from the previous table and dominance of BH population, which was mostly affected by wars in ex-Yugoslavia. This was more closely argued in the first part of the report (context analysis) where it was said that portion of BHs ref./IDP’s population oversized by more than half population from all other ex-Yugoslav republics, which were engulfed by armed conflicts and wars during 90s. Since 2006 onwards, there has been slight rise of media attention given to Serb refugees from Croatia, mostly accentuated by two print media from Banja Luka (GlasSrpske and Nezavisnenovine).

Table 15. Does the article deserve particular att ention

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Yes 1402 6.21 6.21

No 855 37.9 37.9

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Chart 11: Does the article deserve particular att ention

Table 15 displays higher percentage of articles that have special signifi cance in terms of media treatment of issues related to refugees / internally displaced persons. In other words, almost every other article was useful in terms of de- termining the relevance of the media on the issue of refugees. This might suggest that media rather boldly approached ref./IDP’s issue and treated it in order to strengthen its social signifi cance and raise awareness about it, or they just took particular position regarding this question, either autonomous or instrumental, which is one of the prominent questions in this research. Chart 11 shows a downfall of particularly interesting articles worth of further analysis in 1996; than after signifi cant rise in 1997 and once again downfall in 1998/1999, and fi nally steady but short rise in 2000/2001, with stabilized frequencies afterwards. It coincides with period 2000/2001 where offi cial records noted success of properties return. The truth however is that this –‘equaling’ of property claims with the return process, proved to be misleading benchmark also for the media, considerably dis- engaging them afterwards from these issues.

4.2. additional correlationS

Additional correlations included correlations of several variables, but the accent was on primary actors and primary sources, because those two variables very often intersect around same actors, diff erentiated only according to their function in treated article. Chart 12: First relevant correlation is the one between primary actors and covered topics. Chart below shows that NGOs dealt with personal stories of ref./IDP and tracked their activities, overhauling in this segment all other actors.

140 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS...

Chart 12: Primary actors and topics

The former also includes incidents, which were not signifi cantly present in the overall sample, but the peculiar thing is that the att ention on this matt er was almost exclusively given by civil society actors. One can see that political parties paid marginal att ention to the issue of ref. /IDPs in whole, which clearly signals lack of their will to reverse eff ects of ethnic cleansing produced during the war. Among all institutional and governmental actors, the executive authorities seem to be the most occupied actors with relevant topics, which is contrary to legislative and court instances that were completely detached from these issues.

Chart 13: Primary actors and position to return process

141 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE

Chart 13 features correlation between primary actors and position of articles towards return process. It shows again which actors pay most of their att ention to ref./IDP issuesand interfere, more or less, with all position values. However, ref./IDP population is at the center of all types of reactions and interestingly att racts almost all negative and very negative contents, which is probably due to perpetuation of unresolved grievances and unanswered needs of this population. This also suggests how the return process prett y much failed to meet expectations of ref./IDP actors, who lead up to 25% of all actors registered in this sample. Former fi gure should be presentable due to applied methodology and number of examined editions. Positive contents connected to vulnerable groupsare mostly positioned in the middle of the scale in-between positive and negative extremes, but still by full-length short of very negative contents. Other actors are far behind, but fi rst next to ref./ IDP population are NGO’s, which also appear to trigger on negative contents, probably because they usually support ref./IDP demands and often advocate for them trying to bring forward problems and challenges which they face in human and sensitive manner. NGOs also bring forward positive contents more than other relevant actors and position them in front of those that are neutral. Other actors such as international organizations, foreign representatives, regulatory bodies and diff erent governmental instances appear to be prone to refl ect in neutral way on subject matt ers, which might to be due to technocratic nature of their involvement and diff erent practical project activities, or their general orientation on correctness of public appearance.

Chart 14: Primary sources and primary topics

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Chart 14 shows that ref./IDP population is intensively used as a source when it comes to treatment of topics directly related to them. Next to them are local NGOs which are often consulted when it comes to personal stories of ref./IDPs as well as their activities. Normally, executive instances - governments are consulted on issues such as politics, strategies, action plans and similar outputs developed by them, as well as on concrete projects such as building and reconstruction of houses, different implications and issues generally related to return process etc. Executive sources are consultedhorizontally on widest spectra of topics, unlike ref./IDPs and NGOs which are intensively exploited on a particular set of topics. The former suggests that NGOs might get more involved into practical project activities and increase their expertise on certain matters which could be beneficial for the sustainable return process; Former refers to ref./IDPs as well. Involvement of these two groups in more productive/practical manner could increase prospects of successful returns. Attitudes and opinions are mostly derived from individual authors in the capacity of primary sources of information, which is a quite expected result.

4.3. Specific media traits

Individual media results show that there is correlation between primary actors and primary sources. In other word, results on dispositions of these two variables show that they reinforce each other. In terms of usage of primary sources media have tendency to consult executive – governance instances within different levels. The two print media from Re- publikaSrpska (RS)entity, among all institutional actors, mostly consult Government of that Entity, but local executive authorities as well. Media from Federation BiH are generally less oriented to institutional actors; they rather address civil society actors, members of vulnerable groups and international community. In that sense media in RepublikaSrpska are more institutionally oriented from the point of view of primary actors and sources accentuated or active in that Entity, whereas media in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) have less institutional focus and opt for other actors and sources. This can be due to more complex and highly decentralizedorganization of Federation BiH, which cause difficulties to penetrate complex administration and find competent and adequate col- locutors. However, within entities media usually function as opposition

143 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE to each other, meaning that they hardly opt to concentrate on the same actors/sources and rather have different strategic focus. In addition to previously said it was noticed that attention of media shifts over time as well as their approach in terms of the way they address relevant issues. For example in 2010,GlasSrpskewas concentrated on the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Council of Ministers), whereas NezavisneNo- vine on political parties. In 2006,GlasSrpske placed its attention on RS Gov- ernment and Nezavisnenovine on local authorities and vulnerable groups. In contrast to that in Federation BiH in 2010,Dnevniavaz dominantly targeted individuals and groups of ref./IDP’s (vulnerable groups) as well as agencies and regulatory bodies. On the other hand,Oslobođenje had dispersed its attention with no dominant focus, except for mild advantage in favor of political parties and certain governmental instances. Unlike media in RS, both these media relied pretty much on international community and especially EU representatives. Dnevni list had followed similar pattern as Oslobođenje in 2010. In 2006,Dnevniavaz paid lots of attention to vulnerable groups and religious communities. Oslobođenje also covered vulnerable groups but interacted considerably with other actors/sources as well, such as local NGOs, local legislative and executive. In the same time,Dnevni list fully interacted with representatives of the Government FBiH and EU representatives. In 2002,print media in Federation BiH also had quitedifferent focus, namely Dnevniavazdirected its attention to International community, representatives of the EU, Government of FBiH, cantonal authorities and Government of BiH as well as political parties.Oslobođenje was at the time at the peak of their interaction with local NGOs and vulnerable groups (ref./IDP’s), with considerable attention given to executive actors on Cantonal and Federation level. The results for Dnevnilist – as a third print media with the seat in Fed- eration BiH were not available at that time (2002). In the other entity, the- newspaper daily Nezavisnenovine practiced balanced approach covering wide spectra of actors, including institutional and non-institutional actors. Much of attention was also placed on state level, concretely BiH government and legislative. GlasSrpske, on the other hand, dominantly referred to Gov- ernment of RepublikaSrpska and its legislatives as well as to local instances within this entity. Among non-institutional actors,GlasSrpskefavored at the time local NGOs, agencies and regulatory bodies. The bottom line is that media are pretty much autonomous in picking their focus, perspective and required information. However, they either concentrate on institutional or non-institutional actors or rarely manage

144 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... to balance these two aspects. That could also suggest that media have certain sorts of affiliations, not only those of identitary character connected with post-war demographic dispositions in BiH, but also in connection to political circumstances. It is known fact that media affiliate to certain political parties and in that way manage to acquire better position and at least facilitate their access to ordinary and exclusive information. After ‘their’ affiliates enter political positions media tend to support and follow their activities. Since the political scene in BiH is quite instable with often shifts of alliances, media can hardly assume strategic orientation in terms of coverage, but rather act and/or react in line with given circumstances. However, certain level of autonomy should be in place because all selected media record continuous and increasing expansion and they are relatively firm in terms of their financial stability. From that point of view they surely manage to choose actors, topics and sources to certain extent, in accordance with their own projections, whether or not being directly or indirectly aligned with certain political factors. In other words media can attain capacities to influence politics, not only to act as its instrument.

5. GENERAL REMARKS ON MAIN FINDINGS

With regard to primary topic of article media reacted to resolving ref./ IDP’s position, which might be expected sinceinstitutions on all levels are mostly responsible for dealing with it.. General reporting dominates, which can be connected to the lack of concrete policies/actions and implementation of strategic/action plans for realization of self-sustainable return. It is worth noticing that incidents are more in the focus of media than issues such asref./IDPs rights, their living conditions, status, personal stories, which corresponds to inclination for sensationalistic reporting. Most represented actors are individuals, groups of refugees, international community and local NGO’s. It is also quite interesting that local NGO’sare more represented than representatives of Local executive authorities, which is, however, more represented than any other governmental instance/level. Obviously, burden of interaction with ref./IDP’s lays on municipal and city authorities and administrations. Those are instances directly responsible for realization of rights and answering the needs of vulnerable groups. However, there is evident lack of more substantial cooperation with media, which is the case for different reasons: lack of strategic reporting, weak

145 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE public relation offices with lack of knowledge or power to push forward official agenda or passive posture which serves local administrative-political interests and goals. Through summing up of categories of primary actors,a conclusion was reachedthat, in general terms, civic society actors are more agile in ad- dressingref./IDP’s problemsthan all other instances of executive authority, while activity and interest in subject issuesmatches engagement of international community. Former features relative passivity of administrative-politicalapparatusin dealing with such an immensely prominent social and political problem.The latter parallel between international community and authorities might also suggest interconnectedness of their action. Namely, agenda and policies were mostly pushed by international community to which authorities respond, while the latter should have proactive and autonomous positioning vis-a-vis ref./IDP’s issues. Particularly provocative is finding that international organizations and community undertook more public issue with regard to subject topic than the Council of Ministers, which is sort of equivalent to State Government, as well as entity level governments, agenciesandregulatory bodies, as well as cantonal executive instances. Legislative institutions barely engage in effectuation of regulatory frame and do not involveinto resolution of status and addressing needs of ref./IDP’s. Most represented journalistic form was report, and then after news, whiles the portion of individual contributions in the forms of statements, interviews and commentaries is marginal. Headlines are dominantly informative and every tenth is sensationalistic, while number of emotional headlines sub-headlines is as twice higher than experts contributions (this might indicate low interest and inclusion of expert/academic community in resolving ref./IDP’s issues). From the late 1998 throughout 2006, theintensity of agency reporting continuously devolved, while in the same time engagement of redaction journalists increased, meaning that they overtookinitiative for informing publicity and tracking subject issues. Hereby it is worth noticingtendency- of focusingone-time events without lasting effects (such as donator confer- ences and similar.) However, there is no immediate or subsequent follow up of effects of activities and policies. Reporting is also uniformed: in the sense that single source is dominantly utilized in articles, which hinders possibility of comparative approach or assuming holistic perspective. Yet, there is slight progress inusing more sources: media tend to be correct while informing about ref./IDP’s, which is featured by mild increase of multiple sources usage, which, at least to some extent, serves media to conceal their regional character.

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It was also ascertained that media very rarelyreport on groups different than the one being represented as a dominant/primary target group (then times less), which is additional confirmation of fragmentation of BH’s public space, conditioned by after wardemographicdispositionsandethno- politicalprinciple of administrative organization. Next to that, it is worth mentioning that opposite and balanced attitudes are rarely brought to public space, which does not have to be necessarily a trait of reporting particularly on ref./IDP’s, but general feature of BH’s public space which, as it is, represents overall socio-political hindrance to promotion of public discourse supportive for implementation of relevant annexes and laws. Instead, publicity is dominated by one-sided and most of all without any pertaining attitudes, which suggest slack of discussion and public debat- ing on issues relevant for ref./IDP population. Generally speaking the interest of media significantlyweakened over time towards targeted population incomparison to first after-war years, which isprobably dictated by theparallel decline of attention of executive and legislative authorities, as well as of media themselves while addressing ref./IDP related issues.

6. MAIN FINDINGS OF QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

During all monitored years, the writings may generally be grouped in the following thematic categories: – Political relations, whereas the issues of ref./IDP served only as a cover for statements of broader political agenda; – Human stories, which mostly deal with negative issues, which actually represents a permanent problem of refugee crisis; – Humanitarian issues, mostly based on current events that emphasize needs or outlines the results of humanitarian actions; – Activities and attitudes of the international community aimed at refugee crisis resolution. In terms of their active role, ranking of these topics can be divided into texts that emphasize problems and bring forward accusations for failed resolution of the latter, and the writings attempting to encourage the return process. Unfortunately, the other category was far less represented. In total, newspaper writings which offer instructions on how to realize some rights, whom to address or what are the relevant procedures, are extremely rare.

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The key messages sent through media were significantly entity-wise and ethnically differentiated. Until 2002, Dnevniavaz and Oslobođenje insisted that all people should return to their homes, that no permanent peace was possible without refugee return, that Serbian and Croatian authorities impede the return to a great extent with the intention to maintain ethnically clean territories. Glassrpski andDnevneNezavisneNovine- emphasized the attitudes of Serb politicians, but also general population, who had no desire to returnto the Federation of BiH, and blamed the international community for exodus of Serbs from reintegrated settlements of Sarajevo, as well as the FBiH authorities, especially those from Sarajevo, for a slow implementation of property laws that indicated their hypocriti- cal attitude towardthe return. After 2000, the refugee crisis has to a certain extent become less present in media, and political connotations also plummeted. DnevniavazandOslobođenjepoint out that will for return still exists, that people keep returning, yet financial support by the government and international community is required for the process. Major attention is devoted to irregular incidents, especially in case of FataOrlović,who has been fighting for relocation of the church from her courtyard near Žepa, which has become a paradigm for sustainable return or “return worth of human dignity”. Also, the newspapers from RS paidsignificant attention to economic elements of the return at that time, while incident situations were considered as politically directed. Until 2002, daily newspapers payed major attention to property laws whose implementation had caused a stormon all sides. A number of articles consist of OHR press releases to this regard, reactions, obstructions and practical implementation. The opponents of evictions raise their voic- es, the inconsistencies of the laws are searched for, its implementation is tried to be avoided in all possible ways. This lends an opportunity to RS media to underline how the return to FBiH was impossible. Although a direct criticabout the lack of action for implementation of the return process toward the entity authorities, where the respective newspaper is based, remains less represented in articles,one can often implicitly read itbetween the lines, especially in the FBiH media, which emphasize that returnees are left alone or in a better case, to donations of international community. On the other hand, the RS media, rather by choice of their interlocutors and headlines than through editorial and journalistic attitudes, pointed out the responsibility of international community and FBiH government for the refugee crisisparticularly in the first post-war

148 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: THE ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA IN THE PROCESS... years, who at any price pushed for return of refugees in RS, while, as they put it, worked less to receive them in the FBiH. Contrary to newspapers from the FBiH, the RS newspapers report about aspects of refugee crisis in Croatia, and also in Kosovo after 1999. The focus was on Serbian refugee issue, which was additionally generated by the conflict in Kosovo, but also on number of authority impediments to the return process in Croatia. As sources of information in texts, the statements of refugees themselves, politicians from municipal to state level, representatives of international organizations, donors, various refugee associations, demobilized soldiers unions, humanitarian organization and NGO, in particular human rights organization, were used in most cases. The articles from Oslobodjenje and DnevniAvaz, in addition to referring to return as a necessity, also featured the will and persistence of returnees to return to their homes regardless of difficulties and obstacles they were facing, however they neither offered any in-depth perspective nor made a room for a detailed analysis on what specifically should have been done in order to realize the return process and who was responsible for it. Many articles were devoted to single donations, issues, attacks, while only few critical writings were about the reasons why the return process was going slowly. The fact-based journalistic forms dominated, i.e. news and reports. The summery of rare comments and more complex journalistic writings is that the return obstruction is done by local authorities and the lack of political will for the closure of return process. Everybody supports “their own people” without contributing to creation of preconditions for sustainable return. Furthermore, the housing reconstruction is not enough, as this is not an indication for implementation of the return. As post-war years were passing by, the issue of sustainable return, i.e. its improbability has been increasingly present in media. The headlines are mainly neutral yet suggestive with messages indicating to a biased approach of international community, obstructions “of the other” government, determination about return, and also to a less extent results of successful return. Since 2001 on, Nezavisnenovine have been gaining a profile of an all-Bos- nian and Herzegovinian newspaper, which wasinter alia obvious from reporting on refugee issues. The refugee issues of all three ethnic groups have been more present than before, and political factors country-wide have also been represented to a considerable extent. However, no newspapers have been showing ethnic-based hate speech or extreme forms of unprofessionalism.

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Certain manipulative featuring was present through selection of information and emphasize of statements or attitudes of refugees or politicians which are in line with the majority public opinion as the newspaper’s readers.

Bibliography

Authors: Arnaut S., Komisija za raseljena lica i izbjeglice, available at: http://crpc.blogger.ba/ Belloni, Roberto (2007): “State building and international intervention in Bosnia“, Routledge, London&New York. Kleck, M., (2007), Refugee Return – Success Story of Bad Dream? A Review from East- ern Bosnia in Fischer, M. (ed.) Peacebuliding and Civil Society in Bosnia and Herze- govina – Ten Years after Dayton, Berlin. Opačić, G., Vidaković, I., Vujadinović, B. (ed.) (2005), Living in Post-war Communities, International Aid Network, Belgrade. Phoung C. (2000), At the heart of the return process: solving property issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Forced Migration Review 7 Refugee Study Center, Oxford. Radenko Udovičić, Vjerodostojnost medija, teorijske i praktične dileme, (2012), Media plan institut, Sarajevo. Udovičić et al (2010) Izbori 2010 u BiH: Kako su mediji pratili izbornu kampanju, Media Plan Institut, Sarajevo.

Reports, researches and institutional sources: General overview of forced displacement in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2012)Cen- tre for Refugee and IDP Studies (CESI)/ Institute for Social Science Research/ Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo,, Sarajevo. Internews, Soros Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Foundation etc. Politika međunarodne podrške zemljama jugoistočne Evrope – nenaučene lekcije u BiH“, Fond otvorenodruštvoBiH, Sarajevo, 2001. Press Council: Indicators of Media Freedom in Countries Members of Council of Europe: Report for B&H, 2012, available at http://www.vzs.ba. Research on media usage by B&H population done at the Faculty of Political Sci- ences Sarajevo in 2009. Council of Europe (2004), Bosnia and Herzegovina: Compliance with obligations and commitments and implementation of the post-accession co-operation programme, Council of Europe. Web page of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, available on www. mhrr.gov.ba/ministarstvo/. Dayton Peace Agreement, available at http:www.ohr.int MHRR (2010) Revised Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Implementation of Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement, Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, Council of Ministers, 2010.

150 Closing remarks: Media (in)dependence – Politics and Media: cohabitation arrangements

EMIR VAJZOVIĆ Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo

Summary

Scientific research project ‘’Media between freedom and dependency - the role of print media in the process of refugee return’’ implemented in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with unified methodology. While the media focus on refugees and displaced topics is weakening the problem is still current and valuable for research. In recent years forced migration are largely politically determined and generated. During the twentieth century the number of people who in one way or another passed through the refugee status is on millions due to the numerous armed conflicts, violence and war crimes. Call- ing for mass refugee tragedy is often used for the promotion and realization of some key political goals or points, but refugees and displaced were afterwards often left to themselves. Since the contemporary man in a modern, democratic societies is kept informed mainly through various media, it is clear that the power of mass communication and the role of the media in the democratic process should be taken seriously, especially in the so-called countries in transition, where it is necessary to make additional efforts in the development and strengthening of democracy. Particular attention should be paid to how the media independence (political, economic and editorial), media concentration, pluralism and diversity of media. In this research project and in the results of analysis and we are presenting, we decided for sample of print media in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia as the most suitable for the course and scope of research. Although there are historical, social, political and media similarities in these two neighbouring countries, it is not possible to do a clas- sical comparative analysis of the results, even though a simple comparison of

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the two reports can give a good insight into all the specifics that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia have been trough from the start of the ‘90s onwards. The results of this study do not confirm the hypothesis that the influence of local political elites in the media have contributed to the discourse that has discouraged the return and settlement of the refugee / IDPs issues , but can also be concluded that the political elite in the media have not worked enough to adequately address the status and rights of refugees and that not enough was done on informing and educating refugees on their rights and options. Key words: Media, independence, politics, refugees, internally displaced persons IDP

1. The (im)possibility of media (in)dependence and democracy

Since the beginning of time people have been changing their habitats – migrating from one area to another (one or multiple times) by two main reasons, motives or incentives: 1) by their own will, desire and decision in search for better life and 2) forced by someone else – mainly politically motivated – when someone due to various reasons is forcing them from exile their habitat, i.e. in of life threatening circumstances when they are fleeing in fear of consequences (refugees, IDPs, deported…). (Vajzović 2012: 7-17) Forced migrations are more politically motivated and generated then even before. During XX century the number of people who had some sort of refugee / IDP status is in millions due to armed conflicts, violence and war crimes. Recalling large scale refugee tragedies has been often used for promotion and making some key political goals of scores, but refugees and IDPs have been forgotten afterwards. However, beside massive human tragedies, “cleaned” territories from one side and colonised from another side imply as well serious social, economic, demographic and cultural consequences. How- ever, these aspects and consequences are rarely researched and investigated and lack of real understanding on scope and consequences of these problems resulted also in lack of meaningful social strategies which could have initiated larger scale return process and thereby mitigate a number of problems that are undermining social progress even so many years after the war ended. Since contemporary man in modern, democratic societies is mainly informed by various media, it is clear that power of mass communication and role of media in democratic processes is to be taken seriously, especially in so called countries in transition where additional efforts are necessary in development and strengthening democracy. Special attention

152 CLOSING REMARKS: MEDIA (IN)DEPENDENCE – POLITICS AND MEDIA... should be paid to media independence (political, economic and editorial), media concentration, pluralism and media diversity. (Vajzović 2010, 2007) Due to such influence that media have on public and civil society it holds central place in democratization process, i.e., the key role in assess- ing democracy level of every society. Hence, the level of media dependence or independence, biased or objective, subject to adequate regulation is directly proportional to assessment of democratic values of one society. Therefore, mass media (TV, radio, press, Internet and new telecommunications platforms) are so important in countries of new democracies, so called transitional countries, as one created after dissolution of former SFR Yugoslavia. (Vajzović, 2010). When ideal role of media is imagined in democratic society, ordinary citizens may sound as acceptable and applicable the definition of mass media as medium (mediator) with the role to inform, educated, entertain citizens and serve as watch-dog of democracy. (Vajzović, 2010) However, well elaborated discussion is on-going among academia, expert and media professional on media role and their (in)dependence in that process. Without intention to lay down all complexity of issues of media independence in democratic society and detail analysis of all elements which are significantly influencing media, editors, journalists and even citizens in perception of media, here we will look at some basic and most frequently mentioned ones in order to explain challenges that are realistic in democratic society. Phenomenon of media democracy, as indicated by Thomas Mayer (2003:3) is occurring when elaborating role of media in today’s politics and society – the phenomenon which characterise new fundamental political constellation and refers to form of creating political will and decision making where one of crucial roles in political process is taken by mass media and their communications rules. As Vreg (1991:306) is pointing out mass media are predominantly “me- diators for government action and at the same time articulators for will of people” and most of time provided for “institutional information of state, political, economic, military and other ruling elites of global societies”. Furthermore, in order to make reference to mass communications we will add on already revised definition of O’Salivan and adopt it do contemporary circumstances, “players” and rules. Mass-communication is the practice and product of securing information and entertainment (in a break) for a broad, often unknown and ever more clearly fragmented audience. When using the means of modern technologies and platforms, this process involves institutionally funded (public/legal,

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government and private/commercial) and structured (state regulated, high- tech) organizations that by joint efforts (networks, services, and / or content) are providing access to resources (information) and related services (inter- activity) through technologically neutral platforms in order to deliver content. When using more traditional means, mass communication includes any means of providing information, images, sound and / or entertainment in free time for a large number of people from all social classes and demographic groups, but those whose behavior is homogeneous in terms of consuming selected information sources. (Vajzovic 2010, see also Lorimer 1998: 42-43) The power of the mass media in the modern information society is un- questionable. They, as “ institutions for political persuasion and mobilization of the ruling party or coalition of parties forming the dominant communication system, which maintains, strengthens and reproduces the ide- ological discourse of the ruling structure” (Vreg 1991:306). Thus the power of mass media is gaining strength and becoming practically indestructible because it stems from the two-way relationship: the mass media as logis- tics to selected (current) politics, and then “supported” political structure is supporting them. Thereby the unwritten rule dominates: if you want to rule, be “well” with the media or put them under your control! Support them to in order to be supported, or control the media in order to control the society! In this manner, the mass media might multiply and grow. For politics the communication is especially important - both those internal (within political circles, institutions and authorities) and one external (public address communication between the authorities and the citi- zenry). To achieve the latter (external political communication) mass media are the key - both during the election campaign and during the entire term of the position or the opposition. Relatively simply we have found complicity and interdependence of democracy and the media, but increasingly we can hear attitudes that the media are becoming a significant antidemocratic force. Such opinions are based on the following logic or practices: as richer and more powerful corporate media giants are, there is less possibility for true citizens’ participatory democracy (McChesney 2008: 2) because the mass media endlessly raise the level of knowledge about social processes, but also “infinitely hinder people’s ability to convert knowledge into political action “(Sennett 1989 - Nu- hanovic 2005: 121). Practically, the dominant media companies are larger and more influential than ever before, “the media in our social life is more important than one might guess, more than they’ve ever been” (McChesney 2008:2). With growing citizen’s “addiction” on media in everyday life, the

154 CLOSING REMARKS: MEDIA (IN)DEPENDENCE – POLITICS AND MEDIA... pressure on the (in)dependence of the media by various interest groups is expected. For politics and politicians whose job is to try to get and keep a position of power and authority to practiced skill of governance, and, in practice and in theory deal with the affairs of state, is expected to try (to) govern media space as a key to their success and action. The key role of media in politics and creating of public opinion is well known. This is especially evident in the transition countries where the media – by the approach, the frequency and timing of reporting on events, individuals and parties – are practically deciding on the results of “democratic” elections (cf. Nuhanovic 2005), people (mostly) inclined to trust the media more than own eyes. It is important to know to convince them, but it’s not impossible. Mass media can do it. Let us not forget that they are among the most influential companies in democratic societies positioned between citizens and their political, economic and social institutions. (Day 2008: 44) Independent, critical, and even aggressive media are certainly essential to democracy based on knowledge and information. However, in the correlation of the media and democracy an important determinant is considered to be the public interest. Therefore the media sector that supports democracy and represent the public interest, (ideally) would be only the one which: – has a degree of editorial independence (politically independent); – is financially (self)sustainable (financially not depend on anyone else (?)); – encourages diverse and pluralistic views (freedom of expression); and – serves the public interest (the common good). (Vajzović 2007) However, one should be aware of the forces and interests that affect the media and called into question the concept of “independence” of the media. The order of these interests is not critical and its importance varies from one to another producer of media content: (1) the interest of citizens (the public), (2) the commercial interests (profit), (3) the interests of advertisers (economic dependence), (4) rating / share, (5) editorial policy (which is influenced by: the pressure by the government, censorship and self-censorship, media orientation, ownership structure and the interests of the owner). (Vajzović 2010) For these reasons, one could dare to say that fully independent media does not exist. Of course, in highly developed democratic societies a higher degree of independence (not yet complete) is achieve, while in the less democratically “enlightened” societies this level is proportionally smaller.1

1 see IREX Media Sustainability Index: http://www.irex.org/project/media-sustainability-index-msi

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Mass media to inform, educate, entertain its recipients, but in these processes also necessarily affect their opinion and attitudes and thereby condition or direct democratic processes and behavior - individual and collective. Mass media (producers of audio-visual content), as an element of the conver- gent communications sector, with the help of new technologies and services are more efficiently reaching all target audiences on technologically neutral basis over the platforms that can improve, converge and complement each other in accordance with the very rapid technical and technological progress. The realities are constructed through the reference frames in which news / information is presented, where the appearance is (re)shaped into a event, and the event into the news. The news block is organizing everyday reality, and news block is split and stack of everyday reality, because, as we have seen, the public character is the essential features of the news. (Lorim- er 1998:184) Hence there is no doubt that the effectiveness of the message depends directly on the technical apparatuses of the messages (medium, agent). The same message is communicated through various types of networks and resources causes unequal effects, which means that the power of the message depends not only on the content of the message but also by the shape of the structure of technical medium. (Šušnjić 1995: 105)

2. Media reporting on refugees and IDPs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

In the research we conducted and the results of analysis and we present, we decided to sample the print media in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia as the most suitable for the course and scope of research. Al- though there are historical, social, political, and media and similarities in these two neighbouring countries, though it is not possible to do a classi- cal comparative analysis of the results, although a simple comparison of the two reports can give a good insight into all the specifics that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia had since the start of the ‘90s onwards. The methodology that was developed jointly by experts from both countries with the help of international mentors and which aims to investigate the same way and present the relationship between the media and political elites in the field of refugees and displaced persons, has its specificity in the sample and contextual framework (socio-political particularities and various key events that determined the research topic). This was known

156 CLOSING REMARKS: MEDIA (IN)DEPENDENCE – POLITICS AND MEDIA... from the beginning, and the writing of national analysis was approached on individual level with a desire to put the focus on the individual country analysis according to agreed methodology, and subsequently, as a secondary objective, to try to draw some common principles. We believe that, but with these two national analysis the research goal was met: to investigate at the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ser- bia through the assessment of media content: a) how and to what extent the print media have been reporting on refugees and internally displaced persons, and b) how much in their work they fulfil the goal to inform and assist returnees, and to what extent to serve (ethnic) political elites in the implementation of political goals or return or the policy to stay. In addition to extensive analyses done by teams of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, included are parts of additional content analysis of texts from Bosnia and Herzegovina wrote by Mediaplan Institute team (Radenko Udovičić2, Bojana Šutvić3, Aleksandra Ostojić Matić4) as part of this project. Looking at the analysed sample in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, we can undoubtedly conclude that the issues relating to refugees and displaced persons, including the return, are not permanent nor particularly common theme of articles in newspapers, although surveyed identified and analysed a significant number of relevant articles due to the relatively large period of time that is taken for the sample (BiH total 2257 articles in 800 publications reviewed in 5 selected time periods and Serbia 530 articles in 665 publications in 11 periods). As shown in the analysis of print media in Serbia and Bosnia and Her- zegovina, during all the years in the sample, general texts could be classified according to the following thematic categories: the political relationship (with the problems of refugees served only as a pretext for expressing broader political attitudes), then human stories (which largely treated negativity, which after all is the constant of refugee crisis), humanitarian affairs (usually based on the current events that emphasize the needs and present the results of humanitarian actions) and at the end of the activities and attitudes of the

2 Doc.dr.Radenko Udovičić is director of the Media plan institute from Sarajevo and professor of journalism at University “Džemal Bijedić“ Mostaru and Uni- versity of East Sarajevu. 3 Bojana Šutvić is director of NGO for development and improvement of just society – GRUPA and previously programme director at Media plan institute. 4 Aleksandra Ostojić Matić is project manager at Media Plan Institute and director of Media Clipping.

157 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE international community in order to address the refugee crisis. The latter may have had more impact on the relationship between political elites in the public discourse of the issue of refugees and displaced persons than is explored. Specifically, the impact of the international community is expected dueto significant Euro-Atlantic integration processes, which political elite are dedicated, mostly due to financial and political benefits of their political oligarchy expected, and less for the general public good that can be expected. In terms of an active role, gradation of these topics could be broken down into articles that highlighted problems and raise accusations for their unsettlement and texts that are trying to encourage the return process. Unfortunately, the number of texts was smaller in the second category. Overall, a particularly small number of texts were found that are offering refugees some guidelines and specific information on how to exercise some of their rights, who to contact and what are the procedures, which should be one of the tasks of the media, especially print ones. Key messages sent through media, particularly in Bosnia and Herzego- vina, were significantly entity and ethnically differentiated. For example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina Oslobodjenje and Dnevni Avaz have until 2002 insisted on attitudes that everyone must return to their “homes”, there is no lasting peace without the return of refugees, the Bosnian Serb and Croatian political elite largely constitute obstruction to return process by trying to maintain an ethnically “clean” territory. Glas srpski and Dnevne Nezavisne novine promoted attitudes of Serb politicians and the population that they do not want to return to the Federation of Bosnia and Her- zegovina, that the international community is to blame for the exodus of Serbs from Sarajevo reintegrated settlements, that the authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in Sarajevo, slow to implement housing laws which show insincerity to return process. At the beginning of the new millennium refugee crisis becomes less present in the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina and reduce the expression of political connotations, while in Serbia more media attention is given to Kosovo and Metohija, and even this as of 2005 is with decreased focus of the media. In BiH media, even though the texts presented very little direct criticism of government from newspaper coming from their region for the lack of action on the implementation of the return process, it is often seen through texts, especially the newspapers from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which emphasizes that the returnees are left alone or at best to donations international organizations. On the other hand, the

158 CLOSING REMARKS: MEDIA (IN)DEPENDENCE – POLITICS AND MEDIA... newspaper of the Republic of Srpska, more by choice of interlocutors and titles, as well as by editorial or journalistic attitudes, especially in the early post-war years, emphasizing the refugee crisis responsibility of the international community and the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who are keen to return the refugees in the RS, and, as it says, a little is done on their return to the Federation. As sources of information in texts usually used were statements by refugees, politicians, from the municipal to the state level, representatives of international organizations, donors, various refugee organizations, vet- erans’ associations, humanitarian organizations and civil society, particularly organizations dealing with the protection of human rights. Prevalent are factual forms, news and reports. In BiH, the essence of rare comments and complex journalistic texts are on issue of return process obstruction by local government and non-existing of political will to complete the return process. Everyone is assisting its “own” people and does not contribute to creating the conditions for sustainable return. Moreover, it is not enough to rebuild the house because it does not mean that the return was achieved. As the years moved on from the war, the sustainable return issue, i.e. its inability as a question, are more present in the media. Titles are mainly neutral, although often with suggestive messages that show bias of the international community, obstruction by “the other” government, insisting on return process, and to a lesser extent the results of a successful return. In Serbia, the content analysis of a part of texts in which the government and political parties are in the function of actors and source of the text shows that the texts of the negative position does not generally promote a negative attitude towards the return in any direct way, but this negative context, in a way, is constructed through discourse predominantly containing comments and observations on difficulties and unresolved issues, bad experiences and outcomes, etc. Unlike newspapers from the Federation of BiH, the Republic of Srpska newspapers reported on aspects of the Serb refugee crisis in Croatia, and after the 1999 on Kosovo as well. The focus is on the Serbian refugee issue which is further generated by the war in Kosovo as well as numerous obstructions of return by authorities in Croatia. When it comes to the way in which information relevant to the issue of refugees and displaced persons are presented in newspapers, it is possible to conclude some very clear findings: these texts are in the vast majority of cases occur in the form of reports or news, and mostly informative nature,

159 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE and much smaller number of texts appears with sensational headlines or emotional type than were expected. Texts are usually signed by newsroom journalists, but relatively common are agency news or unsigned articles. What may be an indicator of superficial approach or predetermined editorial direction is the fact that a significant number of analysed texts (75% of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina 76%) is based on only one source, and often the nature of the source could not be determined. More than 35% of analysed articles in Serbia do not have an question according to which different sources might have a different attitude, and when such a question is placed in the text less than 20 per cent of the texts include resources that occupy at least somewhat different positions according to the specific issue of the dispute. In BiH sources, which are mainly used by the representatives of the same interest groups (such as a political option, the party or parties to the conflict) accounted for up to 70% - this is very indicative figure, as an argument in favour of general instrumentation and the overall division of the BiH public space by ethno-national lines. Only slightly more than 20% of articles in Serbia and 14% in BiH are directly dealing with the return process. The indicator ‘primary actors of media content’ is widely differentiated with offered multiple options. However, some figures are being very visible. Specifically, in Bosnia and Herzegovina individually dominant primary actors of the analysed sample are ‘individuals, groups and populations (refugees, returnees and displaced persons). Another important category is individually ‘international community’, which is quite special, since it has the leadership of the national stakeholders (governmental and nongovernmental). In Serbia, representatives of local government institutions and political parties are the most common primary actors and primary sources of newspaper articles relating to refugees and displaced questions. When representatives of the government and political parties are primary actors and primary sources of newspaper articles, the attitude of these texts on resolving refugee and / or IDPs questions are more positive than negative. Quite the opposite tendency (higher frequency of negative than positive position) is present when it comes to texts in which the function of the primary actors and primary sources are local non-governmental organizations or individuals and groups from a population of refugees and displaced persons. On the other hand, the texts in which representatives of the government and political parties are primary actors are ones with much more concerned with issues of status and exercise of rights that are not associated with

160 CLOSING REMARKS: MEDIA (IN)DEPENDENCE – POLITICS AND MEDIA... the return process (but usually contain certain references in relation to the process of local integration or the conditions of life in exile or refuge). It was clearly found that the issues related to the return process of refugees were relatively rarely been represented in newspaper articles unlike some other issues related to refugees and displaced persons. In Bosnia and Herzegovina a lot of attention to the daily newspaper in 2002 was given to housing/property laws and its implementation which has caused a lot of debate on all sides. A large number of articles are press releases by OHR on this topic, response, obstruction, and implementation in practice. Opponents of evictions are vocal, outlook for loopholes, trying avoid the implementation in all possible ways. This was the reason for media in Republic of Srpska to underline how much return in FBiH is impossible. Articles from Oslobođenje and Dnevni Avaz, were calling for the necessity of the return and talked about persistence and willingness of returnees to return to their homes regardless of the existing problems and obstacles but these articles were not offering a deeper perspective nor opened a detailed analysis of what specifically should be done to make return real and who is responsible for that. A lot has been written on individual donations, problems, seizures, and there were few critical texts why the returns process is slowly taking place. We can say that the hypothesis has not been confirmed, at least not to the extent and in the manner that is expected. Hypothesis: The media coverage of the return of refugees and displaced persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia is unbalanced and biased because of known connections and influence that political elites have on the media. Based on the findings that were obtained during this study it was not possible to definitively confirm hypothesis on association of media and politics being manifested through manipulation of refugees and returnees, all in order to achieve political goals of elites. Regardless, research findings confirm that the political elites trough media have not worked enough to adequately address the status and rights of refugees, and that not enough was done on informing and educating refugees about their rights and options. Therefore there are clear indications of the existence of collusion between politics and the media in the area of the problem of refugees and displaced persons as a valid basis for further research into this issue. From our research it can be concluded, as was expected, that the media had an important role in the implementation of post-war goals of political elites. However, we cannot clearly determine whether the media de- liberately support the dominant political elites or to simply adapt to the

161 MEDIA BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE current socio-political situation and prevailing ethno-political discourse, and therefore the hypothesis is difficult to confirm. As stated in the report on Bosnia and Herzegovina: “general reporting dominates, which may be associated with a lack of specific policies / actions and the implementation of strategic / action plans for the implementation of sustainable return. It is worth noting that the incidents were more in the spotlight of the media rather than issues such as the rights of refugees / IDPs, their living conditions, status, personal stories, which correspond to the aspirations of sensational reporting. “(...)” The agenda and the policy is mainly promoted by international community on what the governments were only corresponding instead having a proactive and autonomous position on the problem of refugees / IDPs. “ Having in mind that the issue of refugees and displaced persons is continuously one of the major global issues that are compounded with each subsequent humanitarian crisis in the world, and that in the Western Bal- kans the issue of refugees and displaced persons is not fully solved even more than two decades since the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia and the armed conflicts / wars that followed, with the apparent lack of commitment and political will of the elites in the region to be more dedication to this challenge - the academic community and researchers are obliged to invest more effort in analysing the causes and consequences of forced migration, but also the broader social factors which before, during and after humanitarian crises are define its character and path.

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