{"id":5925,"date":"2017-09-12T08:50:33","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T08:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zslawv2.52improvements.com\/astroturfing-serbian-way-just-thought-wed-seen\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T07:57:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T07:57:35","slug":"astroturfing-serbian-way-just-thought-wed-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/astroturfing-serbian-way-just-thought-wed-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"Astroturfing Serbian way, just when we thought we\u2019d seen it all …"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Adrian Curiel on Unsplash<\/p><\/div>\n

Astroturfing – the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public, has reached its new height in the letters to the editor section of \u201cPolitika\u201d, Serbia\u2019s newspaper of record. \u00a0<\/p>\n

On 5 May 2017, \u201cPolitika\u201d\u00a0published a letter of one\u00a0Milovan B. Vu\u010di\u0107<\/a>, signed as the university professor, psychoanalytic psychotherapist and psychoanalytic supervisor, child psychoanalysis specialist from Los Angeles, California, criticizing \u201cinjustices of feminist judiciary\u201d in Serbia and arguing that Serbian courts and social services centers are either corrupt or biased in favor of women when deciding in child custody cases.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0ten days later<\/span>, \u201cPolitika\u201d\u00a0published another letter, this time by one Petra No\u017eica<\/a>, psychiatrist and family\u00a0psychotherapist from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.\u00a0 Ms. No\u017eica praised \u201cPolitika\u201d for addressing an important human rights issue and argued that Serbia was the only European country where custody is awarded to mothers in more than 80 per cent of child custody cases. The issue amounted to, according to No\u017eica, discrimination practiced with impunity.<\/p>\n

The agenda behind both letters was obvious even to an average \u201cPolitika\u201d reader. It was all in the timing: the major story back in May was the custody case involving children of Belgrade\u2019s mayor and his former wife. At the moment nobody noticed that there was no university professor called\u00a0Milovan B. Vu\u010di\u0107\u00a0in Los Angeles, nor a psychiatrist called Petra No\u017eica in Sarajevo. No one bothered to try a reverse image search of the alleged\u00a0Milovan B. Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s photo published in \u201cPolitika\u201d.\u00a0Two months later<\/span>, it was discovered that it was just a stock photo available via several stock photography providers (e.g.\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Two months later<\/span>, in June, custody case involving children of Belgrade\u2019s mayor was almost forgotten. The major stories were murders that occurred in, or just in front of, social services centers in Belgrade. First, on 5June 2017, a man who came to New Belgrade social services center to a supervised visitation time with his wife and three sons; killed the wife with a rock, in front of the boys. Just a couple of days later, another man killed both his four year old child and child\u2019s mother, in front of the\u00a0\u010cukarica social services center.<\/p>\n

In the midst of a public outcry over the gender based violence, \u201cPolitika\u201d decided to publish another letter, this time signed by an alleged forensic psychiatrist and court appointed expert in child custody cases from Montreal, Canada, Dr Petar Veli\u010dkovi\u0107. In the letter, published on 18\u00a0<\/sup>July 2017, Veli\u010dkovi\u0107 claimed that \u201caggressive feminists\u201d abuse the tragedies for their political agenda, while \u201calmost all infanticides in the world are committed by women\u201d.<\/p>\n

This time, however, someone bothered to search the doctor on the Internet, as well as to search doctor\u2019s alleged photo published in \u201cPolitika\u201d with reverse image search engines. It appeared that there was no forensic psychiatrist and court appointed expert in child custody cases with that name neither in Montreal, Canada, nor elsewhere. On the other hand, the person on the photo was a German actor, Andreas Kaufmann. In a statement given to Serbian media, Kaufmann called the article \u201cdisgusting\u201d. \u201cI have nothing to do with any of the opinions mentioned in the article. The photo displayed is one of my casting photos I use as an actor in Germany. It’s a case of theft and misuse,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Serbian Press Council, an independent, self-regulatory body that brings together publishers, owners of print and online media, news agencies and media professionals and that has been established for monitoring the observance of the Journalists\u2019 Code of Ethics, solving complaints made by individuals and institutions related to media content, just reached its decision upon Andreas Kaufmann\u2019s complaint (available\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0in Serbian). Unsurprisingly, the Press Council held that \u201cPolitika\u201d, in publishing Veli\u010dkovi\u0107\u2019s\u00a0 letter, was in breach of the provisions of the Serbian Journalists\u2019 Code of Ethics on accuracy, that are insisting on information being verified prior to their release, on lack of respect for dignity and integrity, due to Mr. Kaufmann\u2019s likeness being associated with ideas he vehemently oppose, as well as the provisions of the Press Council\u2019s Guidelines on the application of the Code of Ethics in a digital environment insisting on journalist\u2019s obligation to verify the profile of the source and ensure that the source really is who and what he, or she claims to be. The Press Council required publication of its decision in the newspaper, as a remedial action. Judicial decisions shall also follow, since Andreas Kaufmann claimed damages at the Higher Court in Belgrade. What is much less likely to happen is the real Petar Veli\u010dkovi\u0107,\u00a0Milovan B. Vu\u010di\u0107\u00a0and Petra No\u017eica to stand up.<\/p>\n

\u017divkovi\u0107 Samard\u017ei\u0107 lawyers, led by\u00a0\u00a0Kruna Savovi\u0107<\/a><\/u>,\u00a0\u0422\u0435\u0445\u043d\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0433\u0438\u0458\u0430, \u043c\u0435\u0434\u0438\u0458\u0438 \u0438 \u0442\u0435\u043b\u0435\u043a\u043e\u043c\u0443\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430\u0446\u0438\u0458\u0435<\/a>\u00a0Senior Associate and\u00a0Milo\u0161 Stojkovi\u0107<\/a>, Technology, Media and Telecommunications Associate, are advising Andreas Kaufmann in the proceedings in front of the Press Council and the Serbian courts.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astroturfing – the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public, has reached its new height in the…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[58,59,60,61,62],"class_list":["post-5925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-insights","tag-dispute-resoulution","tag-kruna-savovic","tag-media-and-telecommunications","tag-milos-stojkovic","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90351,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions\/90351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zslaw.rs\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}