The Istinomer (Truth-Meter) web portal has made a public claim about the photographs of the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić signing a book of condolences at the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School.
Not believing their own eyes or the witnesses of the event in question, and encouraged by Miroslav Aleksić’s piece of gossip which had started the whole scandal, Istinomer went to the Belgians, and published their report today. We have read it several times, carefully, and we can say that all it misses is some hopped up stuff. Joking on this unfortunate occasion aside, everyone interested in this “report” will easily find it online, and everyone will notice that it is – at least as interpreted by Istinomer, because the original is nowhere to be seen, and we don’t know what it says – a classic case of impressing the crowds. Bombastic names of institutions and titles abound: “head of the multimedia and creative technology from Brussels’ Erasmus University”, “the Belgian fact-checking web portal Knack”, as well as technologies intended to inspire awe: “Error Level Analysis”, “the method most widely recognized in the scientific literature”, “the forensic technology which analyses compression levels”.
And now, let’s see what the Belgians say, as reported by Istinomer…
“The lighter areas in the ELA visualization suggest a higher level of compression in the given photograph, which indicates potential manipulation.” (Potential!)
“An especially robust indicator of manipulation are the places where the CATNet shows the red colour, which in the observed case is either the face or the body of President Vučić.” (What has been manipulated, the face or the body? Was Vučić’s head from one photo put on top of his body from another photo? Is that what this means?)
The Belgians say that the photographs have probably been subjected to digital manipulation. We say that they absolutely have been – we “cropped” them, cutting off the peripheral bits when we published them. This is why we are now publishing them in their original form and with the metadata that unambiguously point to when they were taken.
We are also publishing a video of one of the school’s cleaning personnel, who is making a statement that she personally saw President Vučić at Ribnikar Elementary on said day.
The cleaning lady from the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School makes a statement about President Vučić’s visit
But Istinomer has not responded to the following questions, not even after the report from Belgium:
1. Were the photographs that we published, because of the public interest and led by the journalistic impulse, taken at Ribnikar Elementary?
2. Were they taken on Thursday, 8 June, as claimed by Miki Aleksić, or on 17 May, as claimed by us and scores of other witnesses – from Vučić’s associates, through the school staff, to some students’ parents?
We say: Yes, they were taken at Ribnikar Elementary, and no, they were not taken on 8 June, but on 17 May. And what do you say? Say it loud and clear!
But you cannot, instead going for mumbling under your breath and beating about the bush, with all the hopped-up stuff in…
Because you are torn between the facts and the task given to you by Dragan Šolak, the driving force behind the current protests in Serbia and the author of the demand that the transmission frequencies be taken away from TV Hepi and TV Pink and assigned to Nova S and TV N1.
Dragan Šolak’s Mechanism has long since been exposed: it has a political wing, its own media, and the “non-profit media and NGOs”, which he sometimes hires, in certain situations, in order to lend credibility to his actions.
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And this situation is very “certain”: the demands that a part of the political opposition has planted like a cuckoo's egg for the citizens who have taken to the streets to express their sorrow over the mass murders and their revolt against violence are not being met. The energy and the emotional power of the protest walks are on the wane, and the politicians don’t have either the charisma, or the strength and ideas, to lead and guide them.
Šolak’s media have been inciting the “radicalization” of the protests, with some party officials talking about it too, but no one has as yet put forward a concrete plan of action in this regard.
This is why the gathering scheduled for Friday is the be-all and end-all for Šolak, and this is why he has mobilized all his forces, from the infamous Ćuta to the Istinomer “sleepers”. And what will be will be, both with the nation and them. (Not him, though – he is always well.)
We will go the courts and other relevant authorities to protect our rights in all the countries in which the falsehoods have been published, including but not limited to Serbia, Belgium, and Croatia.
To wrap up: Good morning, Istinomer sleepyhead! We know that you have been busy these days, but when you finish Šolak’s work, we expect that you respond to the questions we pose above.
We will wait for as long as it takes or until you change your name!
(Kurir.rs)
