Milanka Babić Kovačević: The bot network also exists in Herzegovina

We suffer pressures of a technological nature, but also pressures when on call, and our interlocutors pass by us and do not respond to our inquiries.

Since its inception, the Direkt portal, which covers the region of Eastern Herzegovina, has positioned itself as the most important media that uncovers affairs, corruption, crime, nepotism and other features of BiH politics. Since its establishment, the portal has been run and edited by women. In small communities like the municipalities in Herzegovina, being a journalist is particularly difficult, and Direkt portal journalists know this very well. They are sued, attacked, harassed. However, they honorably defend their profession and report professionally on all relevant topics from Nevesinje to Trebinje. In an interview for Politicki.ba, we talk with Milanka Babić Kovačević, editor and journalist of the Direkt portal, who lives and works in Gacko.

When asked to explain what it's like to be an investigative journalist in a small, local community, she says that it's a complex question and she doesn't know where to start with her answer.

"On one hand, we share the fate with all other investigative journalists who do their job professionally. For me, it is essentially conveying an image of reality, recording reality as it is, and not as some would like to present it. I think that there is a key difference and the key reason why so much pressure is put on investigative journalists and on journalists in general in local communities", answers Babić Kovačević.

She also says that the pressure in a smaller local community is even stronger and greater because journalists are under more scrutiny in a smaller community. Everything is being questioned, including your personality. According to our interlocutor, Milorad Dodik is a dominant figure in Gacko, and the community rejects everything that contradicts the narrative being promoted from Banjaluka.

"As a journalist of the Direkt portal, of course, I don't want to flatter myself and say "oh, I carry the image of the community", or "my colleagues and I bring the life of the community in miniature", but we certainly give the audience a new perspective. I personally strive in both my professional and my private life to be the best version of myself, so we also strive to ensure that the Direkt portal has a specific point of view, which aims to question reality, to approach it critically. A critical approach is undesirable here. As time goes on, it is becoming more and more undesirable, but in fact it is exactly what we need. When I say us, I mean us as a society," explains the journalist and editor of the Direkt portal.

She believes that as a society we have agreed to conform to what the political elite need, and they need an uncritical approach, they need something that feeds their ego, media that follow them, listen and uncritically transmit what they advertise.

"In all of this, the local media have a very important role, for the simple reason that they are small stones in the large mosaic that represents our society. If you constantly press these stones or cover them with something, then we are in trouble".

The Direkt portal has been the target of various attacks several times, and their work is also disrupted through cyber attacks. Their Faceebok page was hacked and they were never able to get their Facebook community back.

"We suffer pressures of a technological nature, but also pressures when on call, and our interlocutors pass by us and do not respond to our inquiries. On one hand, we are trying to somehow overcome this problem, but on the other hand it is not easy to overcome, for the simple reason that it is very important for journalists in a small community to have institutions and channels of communication.

Everything here, both at the level of Republika Srpska and in the local community, is reduced to some agreements made between people who are representatives or bearers of political power. At the same time, in every community, including the one in which we operate, they are the bearers of economic power, because they are the people who are at the head of public companies and perform these functions," says Babić Kovačević.

In addition to verbal and cyber attacks, journalists and editors of the Direkt portal are also faced with misogynistic attacks. The fact that they are female journalists further complicates their position. The audience sees everything and supports them to a large extent, but this support is mostly private because very few are allowed to publicly and loudly stand on the side of those who risk their personal comfort for the sake of the public and social good.

"This support is very often silent in nature. People generally don't want to confront each other, they don't want to publicly defend others. We know that, it is not related to any local level. In general, the trends are such that the loudest are those who comment from some anonymous profiles in the lowest possible ways or try to insult, disqualify without argument. Of course, it exists here as well as in Serbia, not as organized, but there is also a network of bots in Herzegovina and that is more than clear".

As a newsroom and as female journalists, they are respected by the community, but bots from fake profiles often attack them and question their role as women.

"They attack me as a mother and as a friend, even though it has nothing to do with my job. This is the difference between being a man or a woman in journalism. A male journalist would not be questioned like that, but in any case, the support is often silent. I'm already used to someone coming up to me or stopping in passing and saying "everything you write is correct, but you know, I can't...". Although I don't ask these people or expect any kind of support, I guess they have a need to say that they agree with what we write and research, but they are afraid to like and comment on social networks, which is really devastating for me".

She says that it is sad to know that a person who should be free and fight for their freedom, so easily agrees to give up the right to say what they like and what e

they don't.

"It is really obvious in small communities, such as Herzegovina and these municipalities of Eastern Herzegovina, that it is monitored who likes what in the online space."

The female journalists of the Direkt portal are the biggest thorn in the side of the authorities, but also of the opposition. Neither the opposition leader nor MPs hesitate from launching attacks, insults and labelling. Babić Kovačević says that the narrative of both the government and the opposition is more or less the same. She believes that the imposed understanding of politics is wrong.

"Politics should be a simple organization of social life in some direction to achieve some goals of general and public interest, or goals that are desirable for the majority of people. In our country, politics is reduced to the achievement of certain goals of a small number of people or an individual who directly profits from it. As soon as you violate someone's interest or mess up the strings, and it is certain that pointing out that the spending of public money is illegal or non-transparent, you are on the line of their attack. These are mostly people who work for the government. On the other hand, if you point out some of their mistakes or their complete nonsense, we are all aware that this government would not look like this and would not last as long if the opposition had some quality to it. Of course, you are also a target of the opposition," says Babić Kovačević.

She does not need anyone to praise or glorify her or her colleagues.

"That's not our job. Our job is journalistic, to follow events, to transmit and to give a critical review or put it in context. In journalism, it is crucial not to be a mere microphone holder who will record what someone says, because we are exposed to a lot of cacophony. People are so deceived that they don't know what to look at, what to listen to, there are so many half-truths or presented lies wrapped in some kind of patriotic wafer and so on. It is really necessary to drop the ball somehow and to reduce journalism to some arguments, and when you act like that, of course you will be unwelcome. Essentially, everyone expects journalists to put themselves at the service of one side. Investigative journalists, in general, are not inclined to do that," concludes our interlocutor.

The article was realized as part of the Transition program of the Government of the Czech Republic and with the financial assistance of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina @CzechiainBiH. The content reflects the views of the interlocutors who are the choice of the editorial staff of Politicki.ba and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Czech government.