The decision made by the editorial staff of KRIK to pick up an article by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica – which makes arbitrary and groundless accusations against the son of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Danilo Vučić – with a two-month delay and without a shred of credible evidence is an example of politically motivated dirty campaign and a violation of the standards of the journalistic profession. That much would not have been a problem had it been done by a tabloid operating in the market and involved in a brutal race to sell as many copies as possible. This, however, is a non-profit media outlet basing its operation on passing itself off as professional, ethical, independent, and objective.
The unprovoked and entirely groundless attack against the son of the President of the Serbia is yet another proof that in practice, KRIK often does the exact opposite of how it makes itself out to be for foreign donors and its own readership. Under the guise of picking up stories from foreign press, an entirely uncredible, tabloid-like piece by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica was used to launch a politically motivated attack against a pre-selected target.
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Pseudo-evidence and recycling
That is the only explanation for KRIK's decision to pick up and publish on its website an article accusing Danilo Vučić of being "the manager of one of the most sought-after young footballers, Dušan Vlahović." Although the Italian newspaper's article does not accuse the oldest son of the President of Serbia of illegal acts, the political implications of picking up such allegations did require respecting the highest professional standards. However, these standards were trampled on in their entirety in this case. Although the original article does not provide a single piece of evidence, not even a named source of the allegations, and makes no more than arbitrary claims that "Danilo Vučić has recently been brought up as one of the agents in charge of Vlahović," and that he has "considerable clout at the agency and is also good friends with the young footballer," KRIK thought that this was reason enough to include this article in its investigative 'piece'.
Verifying the veracity of these claims, the reporters at KRIK could have established that ACF Fiorentina did not officially confirm that Vučić Jr. had taken part in the negotiations in an agent capacity. Moreover, Vlahović's official agent, Darko Ristić, made it clear to this media outlet that the claims made by the Italian press were untrue. A denial was also issued by President Vučić's media advisor, Suzana Vasiljević.
Aware that this story is at the level of town square gossip, KRIK attempted to complement the piece with pseudo-evidence in the form of a photograph indicating that Vučić Jr. and footballer Vlahović's official agent know each other and are friends, as well as with a claim that "it is a well-known fact that Danilo often goes to football matches and that he is a football supporter." They then proceeded to recycle earlier claims made by KRIK about the President of Serbia's oldest son allegedly being on friendly terms with football hooligans, following the same pattern based on which Danilo has been claimed to have ties with criminal supporters' groups just because he has attended games and followed the matches of the national team and his favourite club!
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Pressure group
In addition to fabricating evidence and constructing a fake context in place of solid sources and evidence, the true intention behind picking up this article is perhaps best indicated by the fact that it was picked up nearly two months after it had originally been published in Italy. Had there been a shred of evidence supporting the claims made, KRIK could have found it in the two months, or simply dismissed the entire story as false. The way things stand now, it is evident that what mattered was only the timing for intensifying the clearly politically motivated campaign and attacks mounted against the current government of Serbia, running counter to public interest, which investigative and professional media should be mindful of in their work.
Both in terms of the selection of topics and the methodology of work, KRIK has for a number of years now been demonstrating that it is not an investigative media outlet but a pressure group. It is especially ironic that the professional standards are radically violated in preparing the pieces that this website publishes, while the organization itself receives from abroad hundreds of thousands of US dollars in aid annually on account of making itself out to be an example of independent and professional journalism. The case of picking up an unverified article from abroad targeting the son of the President of Serbia is yet another example of the hypocrisy and lack of professionalism of KRIK and the media connected with this organization.
(Kurir.rs)
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