Rakocevic: Declaring Kosovo Online as "Troll of the Month" is nonsense; everything has been known about Racak for a long time

President of the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) Zivojin Rakocevic says that declaring the Kosovo Online portal as "Troll of the Month" for writing about Racak is pointless, because, he adds, every little detail about that event has been known for a long time.

"Serbian radio stations, TV stations, portals, and the press, especially in Kosovo and Metohija, report on Racak with heightened sensitivity, because it is known that at that moment the fate of this area changed. There is almost no news about Racak in which the Serbian and Albanian versions of that tragic event are not presented," Rakocevic says.

According to him, special emphasis was placed on international sources "which, from the first day, suspect the event that served as a trigger for the disaster and the violation of international law".

"When it comes to the case of Racak, the portal 'Kosovo Online' cannot engage in propaganda and misinformation, because every little detail about the event has been known for a long time, as well as the avalanche of misfortune that covered us after it," Rakocevic points out.

Rakocevic adds that the attacks of a part of the non-governmental sector "are senseless because they do not respect the context and consequences of the tragedy that has not ended".

"Albanian and Walker's versions are taken fragmentarily as the untouchable truth embedded in the new Kosovo system and the international need to justify the bombing and dismemberment of the territory of a sovereign country. Hatred is part of the system here, and Racak is the point where they are jointly maintained, fed, and encouraged. When hatred is established as a standard and measure of social behavior; when it is lived on and over time it becomes a natural content of the public space; everyone who doubts this standardized hatred will be put in danger. That's where arguments, facts, personal attitudes, and freedom of speech give way to totalitarianism and repression," Rakocevic said.

Rakocevic adds that the "North case" was constructed similarly in the public life of Kosovo.

"For two decades, politicians, marketing agencies, the non-governmental sector, and individuals have made the north of Kosovo and Metohija a place of horror. The majority of Albanians imagine the north of Kosovo as hell. The police officers sent there by the Pristina authorities are not overcome by patriotism but by fear, and that fear explodes and carries out repression," Rakocevic emphasized.