BIRN Serbia journalist Tijana Uzelac has stated that citizens in Serbia do not have a realistic picture of life in Kosovo, due to misinformation and biased media reporting.
According to her, the main sources of information in Serbia are mainly political actors, including the ruling party and other parties, while the media play a key role in spreading disinformation.
In an interview with Kallxo, Uzelac emphasizes that the dominant narrative in Serbia often presents the Serbian people as innocent in all circumstances, overlooking the complexity of the reality in Kosovo.
She adds that Serbian citizens are usually not informed about how Serbs and Albanians live in Kosovo, except when they have direct contact with people from these communities.
According to her, distorted media reporting creates a false perception of interethnic relations and the functioning of daily life in Kosovo.
In conclusion, Uzelac assesses that the information circulating in Serbia is largely one-sided, which makes it impossible to create a real picture of life in Kosovo and the reality of the communities living there.
Meanwhile, another journalist from Serbia, Maria Popivić, estimates that one of the main narratives offered to voters is that Serbs are never guilty of anything, while responsibility is always attributed to others.
"For the needs of mobilizing as many voters as possible, this very narrative is used - that Serbs are never guilty and that it is always others who are to blame. This is something that I personally do not like," Popivić declared.
She emphasizes that the role of journalism should be to verify facts and provide a complete picture of reality, regardless of political pressures or vested interests.
"As a journalist, I think it is necessary to look at and verify all the facts," she added.
However, Popivić admits that the problem of lack of media literacy is not limited to Serbia, but also extends to Kosovo and Albania.
"In general, both in Kosovo, Serbia and Albania, we are not sufficiently media literate in terms of verifying the information we consume," she concluded.
