Genocide denial, racism, threats: statement by the SWR – sit it out and carry on?

Created: 08/17/2022, 16:36

By: Moritz Serif

The Potocari memorial commemorates the Srebrenica massacre.

More than 8000 Bosniaks were murdered.

© Darko Vojinovic/dpa/picture alliance

In its "Sack Reis" podcast, SWR denied the mass murder of Bosniaks in the 1990s.

A journalist was also threatened. 

Update from August 17, 4:10 p.m .:

The journalist Melina Borčak reacted on Wednesday (August 17) to a statement by

that had been published on Twitter the previous evening.

Since you also get comments on the matter on this channel, you apologize at this point, so the

.

Borčak responded with renewed allegations.

In the statement, the SWR would "in no way respond to the fact that they were spreading dozens of false facts about genocide".

On the contrary, the episode will remain online.

The

justified this with the preservation of transparency.

Borčak sees the fact that the podcast should be paused until further notice until the matter has been dealt with internally as a possible way of sitting out the situation: "Nothing happens until the scandal has flattened and then you continue?" The whole thing has been dragging on for four months, she repeated - plenty of time to deal with the matter, during which the journalists concerned would continue to be paid, according to Borčak.

She therefore called again for those responsible to be held accountable and called them by their full names.

Genocide denial, racism, threats: journalist raises serious allegations against SWR

First report from August 17:

Stuttgart – denial of genocide, threats, racism, arrogance and incompetence: the journalist Melina Borčak accuses

of all of this.

The public broadcaster produced an episode on Bosnia in the "Sack Reis" podcast, "in which there are 70 factual errors in 41 minutes," Borčak wrote on Twitter.

Among other things, SWR plays down the genocide of Bosniaks.

In addition, the episode is still available online four months after its release.

Borčak says that in an article for the industry magazine

she pointed out that denying the genocide in Bosnia is a criminal offense.

Perpetrators face up to five years in prison.

SWR responded to allegations

The

published a press release in July.

"After the SWR was accused in an article in the media magazine "journalist" of having given an interviewee space in an episode of the podcast "Sack rice - what's your concern?" SWR is planning a journalistic discussion of the allegations," says Südwest-Rundfunk.

According to Borčak, the broadcaster's press release contains "false facts".

The journalist also accuses

of not taking migrant criticism seriously.

"I was interrupted, laughed at condescendingly, called cheeky and mean," Borčak wrote on Twitter.

The

played down 100,000 dead people, 50,000 raped women and girls, torture, concentration camps and torture.

Journalist Borčak: A SWR journalist threatened me

An

journalist threatened her.

"Leave me alone or you'll regret it.

Do you really want it to escalate?” Borčak demands that the public broadcaster take action.

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The

has now responded to a press inquiry from FR.de from IPPEN.MEDIA.

“We fully agree with Mrs. Borčak that the genocide of Bosniaks is a terrible crime.

There is no opinion on this, it is a fact.

After a legal examination, we assumed that the interviewee's statements are highly problematic, but do not constitute a crime of genocide denial.

However, we have to ask ourselves self-critically whether we should have distanced ourselves from it much more clearly than we did in the podcast episode and whether we should have provided even more classification of the content, ”said the

.

SWR reacts to allegations of genocide trivialization

Changes to content-related errors had already been made in April.

How the episode will continue is currently being clarified internally.

“We don't make a distinction between migrant and non-migrant criticism.

We had already offered Ms. Borčak in April to discuss her points of criticism directly with the editorial board,” explained the broadcaster FR.de from IPPEN.MEDIA.

"In her role, the moderator tried to ensure that the conversation was conducted in a way that made individual arguments as comprehensible as possible for the audience, and she therefore repeatedly asked Ms. Borčak not to say too many things too quickly in a row.

To our great regret, that didn't work out, but came across as a disrespectful interruption.

We're sorry about that, because we too would have wished for a conversation in which harsh criticism, but also a common view of 'what needs to be different/better' is possible”.

SWR would like to work up the incident

The

could not say anything about a possible private communication between Borčak and Merve Kayikci, it said.

comments as follows on the fact that the journalist is demanding consequences for Karin Feltes, Paula Kersten, Stephanie Haiber, Kayikci and other responsible persons from the broadcaster

:

“We will comprehensively review all of the events surrounding the podcast episode in question and the conversation with Ms. Borčak internally and continue to deal with it in a self-critical manner.

As journalists who are committed to democratic values ​​and journalistic standards, we are by no means satisfied with this and will do everything we can to ensure that something similar does not happen again.” The broadcaster has since apologized via Twitter.

However, the podcast episodes should still be available online.

The SWR justifies this with "transparency".

(Moritz Serif)