Headlines against Democracy: Operational Code Analysis of the Serbian Daily Informer’s Headlines in Relation to the Anti-Government Protests’ First Phase (2018–2019)

Since late 2019, Serbia has been gripped in a wave of protests against, as scholarly research has dubbed it, the semi-authoritarian regime of President Aleksandar Vučić. Having in mind that the President’s regime has by known been uncovered to rule by direct and indirect control of the media, the arguably main government-supporting daily newspaper, the Informer, has been covering the protests avidly, and with significant vitriol. With the understanding a headline is seen by the reader more commonly than the whole body of the article and having in mind the Informer’s pro-clivity towards exaggeration and hyperbole, we have analyzed all of the daily’s headlines that refer to the protests, protesters, or protest/opposition leaders during the so-called ‘First phase of the protests’ via the methodo-logical position of Operational Code Analysis. The paper shows a fairly extreme OPCODE for the Informer.

Milorad Dodik’s Public Attitudes and Perceptions Toward the ICTY

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was‎ formally closed on 21 December 2017. During the quarter century of its existence, ‎ICTY’s rulings had a significant impact on public discourses and narratives‎ about the Bosnian war. Different opinions among the citizens of Bosnia‎ and Herzegovina (BiH) about ICTY’s role and its verdicts have emerged over ‎time, especially among the leaders of the dominant ethno-political parties representing ‎the three ethno-constituent groups – Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.‎ Milorad Dodik, current member of the BiH Presidency, a former President of ‎Republika Srpska (RS) entity, and the leader of one of the most prominent political‎ parties in RS, was particularly vocal and critical about the work of the ‎ICTY. This paper closely examines Dodik’s public views and opinions toward ‎the ICTY. We use content- and operational code analysis to analyze key features‎ of his perceptions toward the ICTY’s work while serving as the President ‎of RS for two consecutive terms.‎