Description

Historical Revisionism, Hate Speech, and Violence Against Serbs in 2024

The bulletin Historical Revisionism, Hate Speech, and Violence against Serbs is an annual publication issued by the Serb National Council since 2013. The purpose of the publication is to monitor and analyse acts of violence directed against individuals, institutions, and property belonging to the Serb community in the Republic of Croatia, to track hate speech targeting Serbs in the public media, and to observe denialist revisionism in the public and academic spheres in the preceding year.

The bulletin documents these events, tracks trends in their frequency, identifies key actors behind hate speech and ethnically motivated violence, and analyses the social and political context that gives rise to them. As such, it is not merely a statistical presentation of these phenomena, but also serves as a tool of social analysis offering a minority perspective on Croatia’s socio-political landscape. The primary purpose of such a perspective is to inform both domestic and international audiences about the position of the Serb community in Croatia and to raise awareness of the recurring experiences of violence and discrimination to which this community is subjected.

In 2024, an increase in cases of hate speech directed against Serbs was observed, along with an intensification of both institutional and non-institutional pressures targeting media outlets and organisations of the Serb national minority, as well as growing pressure on institutions and individuals engaged in research on the Holocaust and the genocide committed against Serbs during the Second World War. This rise in such incidents has inevitably been accompanied by an increase in cases of ethnically motivated violence. It was also noted that in Croatian society, the frequency of such incidents is often linked to election campaigns and the activities of political parties. This indicates that, regrettably, certain actors intentionally incite fear, intolerance, and hatred towards members of the Serb community in order to advance their own political ambitions, thereby mobilising nationalist and chauvinist forces.

Year after year, a notably high number of inaccurate media reports concerning Serbs is consistently recorded, with certain television programmes, online portals, and weekly newspapers almost exclusively dedicated to inciting ethnic hatred and denying the Holocaust. The presence of such discriminatory tendencies in Croatian society, despite their prohibition by law and condemnation by conventions of international bodies – such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe – necessitates their continuous documentation, so that at the level of society as a whole and the international community, models for their suppression may be found. This bulletin makes a valuable contribution to that endeavour.