By publishing the article titled "How Šarić edited media reporting from his detention cell: A car as a gift for deserving journalists", which contains an odd selection of information and reflects an unprofessional attitude towards the topic, the BIRN website at the very least, labelled and practically criminalized the majority of crime reporters in Serbia.
By the will of BIRN's journalists or editors, the general public suspected they were in cahoots with the mafia. Crucial information was missing, well known to BIRN and to anyone who, like the Kurir editorial office, had insight into the quoted documents, namely the information on which editorial offices had corrupt journalists in their ranks, ready to satisfy Darko Šarić’s interests, and which did not.
BIRN hid the real culprits with numerous insinuations, information arranged in a specific way and vague allegations and thus stained the reputation of all editorial offices equally. BIRN's unprofessional and grossly incorrect article caused immeasurable damage to Kurir, putting it in the group of media suspected of fulfilling the orders of Darko Šarić's criminal clan. However, the truth is completely different, and revealed in the allegations of the disputed article. For the sake of this truth, Kurir’s editorial office condemns the fact that it has been tendentiously placed in the same basket with media outlets that have been caught doing dishonourable actions.
SELECTIVE FACTS
Namely, BIRN's article reports about the new indictment against Šarić and, as they say, the evidentiary material that shows how the information that the suspect sent from custody using the Sky application reached certain media, how titles and articles were changed and edited, and what kind of gifts were received by some journalists as a reward for participating in the discrediting of witnesses, even the protected ones.
However, from the material’s content and the aforementioned indictment, which Kurir also had access to, it is easy to see which information BIRN, intentionally or not, omitted from its article and thus blurred the picture, so to speak, while leaving readers in the delusion that all editorial offices mentioned in the article worked for the criminal group. From the transmitted communication taken from the Sky application, it cannot be concluded that Kurir’s journalists acted on the orders of Šarić and his associates or that they received gifts from them as a reward for the work done, unlike certain editorial offices mentioned in the cited communications.
The article even quotes correspondence between Šarić and his associates, from which it can be deduced that they were not satisfied with the articles published by Kurir. For instance, they did not like the fact that Kurir was doing its job professionally and publishing correct information.
In support of the fact that Kurir did not allow itself to be misused in this case, one of the messages from the defendants' correspondence says: "And that blond one from Kurir fu**ed us over in that headline", which is quoted in the indictment.
That BIRN applied, at the very least, unusual selection criteria when presenting the facts, and its attempt to convince readers that Kurir is just as guilty as the other mentioned media is best seen in BIRN trying to hide one very important detail. In the first version, the article was published without citing the most drastic example of the servility of journalists towards Šarić and his group.
Namely, the indictment says that Šarić and his collaborators received a PDF page of an as-yet unpublished edition of the newspaper, which, by the way, was published the next day, from a certain editorial office. This was major proof that because of corrupt journalists, mobsters were almost always one step ahead of those who fought to stop them in their criminal tracks. As it turned out, this was not interesting enough for BIRN's journalistic flair, so it wasn’t even published in its "investigative" venture titled "How Šarić edited media reporting from the detention cell".
Only after Kurir started asking questions about BIRN’s investigative omission, a version was published on the website in which the most explicit proof of Šarić's relationship with the media was added to the article. This arose suspicion that BIRN calculatedly omitted and added certain information from the materials it had in its possession to distort the true picture of this very serious topic.
ALL JOURNALISTS HAVE BEEN DISCREDITED
Regardless of the abundance of evidence to the contrary, BIRN decided to brazenly slander Kurir, accusing it of having worked in the best interests of criminals. Even when promoting this article on social media, BIRN mentioned Kurir first and thus practically painted us as the leader of the phenomenon that it was writing about.
BIRN put our journalists in the group of those reporters who shaped public opinion in a way incarcerated Šarić dictated from his cell, i.e. those that sent him unpublished articles as they were being prepared for printing and agreed with him and his colleagues on headlines, interviews and other stories. In the end, they also received gifts for their loyalty from Šarić & Co., such as a car. The name of the car’s recipient is known, but BIRN kept it all quiet.
BIRN also kept quiet about many other things or was not interested in dealing with much more serious matters. Although it received donations and thereby committed itself to be a professional and responsible investigative organization, BIRN's editorial staff tripped over its own ego this time as well. Quite inexplicably, BIRN decided to smear all journalists and base their story on how the leaked information allegedly reaches the media.
However, it is quite indicative of how BIRN missed an obvious topic, which precedes this one in the chain of information leaks, and that is the question of how the information got to Darko Šarić from the relevant state authorities in the first place. BIRN failed to ask that question, just like the one concerning the person who helped Šarić to obtain a phone with the Sky application in the cell of the Special Department of the Belgrade District Prison.
Kurir openly asked BIRN why it avoided telling the public which journalists were rewarded with gifts for commissioned articles about Šarić, or at least which specific editorial offices were at Šarić’s service. And why an even more important topic of who gave Šarić a phone to have the aforementioned type of communication was avoided altogether? And perhaps the most important question of all - how did the information from state authorities reach Šarić, which he then forwarded to the media and thus benefitted himself?
KURIR THE ONLY ONE TO ANSWER, BIRN KEEPING MUM
BIRN has refused to provide answers to Kurir's questions and thus once again confirmed its unprofessionalism. It showed itself in the same light when it sent questions to Kurir, giving our editorial office an unreasonable deadline of only four hours to answer them. Despite this, Kurir complied with the deadline and answered all of BIRN's questions, which none of the other editorial offices contacted by BIRN did. Thus, Kurir taught all media outlets a lesson in professionalism and a responsible approach to information.
The question arises as to why none of the authorities dealt with corruption in the media and why BIRN did not find that strange. All of the above indicates that BIRN's sources come precisely from these circles, so it is clear why BIRN decided to simply bypass this major topic.
When we shed the light on all these aspects of the topic that BIRN reported about, the issue is why this investigative article missed the opportunity to highlight and boldly point the finger at those who are incriminated. Kurir would not run away from such an approach, but would wholeheartedly support it. Instead, Kurir was targeted without any basis and one can only wonder, rightly so, if they want to conceal someone else's responsibility for the described actions and what agenda is hidden behind it. The unusual choice of messages that were published leads to the conclusion that this was a tendentious intention and we plan to find out what kind of intention it was and in whose best interest it was made. Kurir will continue to deal with this topic as it considers it extremely important for the entire Serbian public.
That's why we sent questions to the prosecutor's office and the Interior Ministry regarding the spillover of information from state authorities to mafia bosses and then to the media. We will not stop until we get the answers! We will not allow even a shred of doubt to mar our commitment to the job of providing truthful, professional and responsible information to the public.
We would also like to remind and warn colleagues from BIRN that such obscured information, as offered to the readers in the article, created a dangerous situation for journalists and potentially threatened their safety. Taking into account the blatant fact that every criminal group has a rival, it is not difficult to conclude that BIRN's article could have helped other criminal groups to obtain information about Šarić's alleged helpers within the media through insinuations.
THE FUNCTIONING OF ŠOLAK’S MECHANISM
Since it was so brutally slandered and dragged through the mud in this story about corrupt journalists by unfounded insinuations, Kurir was also forced to send a letter to BIRN, in which it requested BIRN to amend the mentioned article so that Kurir’s name, cited as a media outlet at Šarić’s service, would be deleted from it as its involvement is totally baseless. As a serious and responsible media company, we felt that there was not a single reason to be dragged through the mud in BIRN's article. However, it turned out that BIRN had neither the strength nor the will to comply with the facts at its disposal, and proceeded to publish the article. It has achieved nothing other than relativize the guilt of journalists and editorial offices who were truly corrupt and slander those who did their job honourably.
Why is BIRN hiding the name of the person who ordered such a planned attack on certain media? The background of such an incomprehensible decision to resort to defamation despite the truth could be explained by the actions that followed. According to the tried and tested model, BIRN's article was immediately broadcast by the media owned by Dragan Šolak and his United Group - first of all on the N1 and Nova.rs websites, followed by N1 television subsequently reporting on the topic mentioned in BIRN's article. It all looks like the invisible hand that had a lot to do with BIRN’s article is hiding somewhere deep in Šolak’s mechanism for destroying competition, because as expected, the article was also published in Danas daily, on the Direktno website, in Vreme weekly and on CRTA’s website, which are also part of the same mechanism.
We so wish we were wrong!
If it was not at the service of this mechanism, why did BIRN fail to answer Kurir's questions, correct the error and apologize to Kurir?
Kurir expects that the relevant state authorities will be informed about this issue and the allegations mentioned in BIRN’s article will be investigated, so that this case is resolved and the journalists and state institutions who cooperated with the mafia will be held accountable.
(Kurir.rs)