Tekst je poslan na engleskom jeziku a mi ga u cjelosti
objavljujemo.
January 27, 2017
Dear Mr. Brkan and Ms. Cvjeticanin:
I am writing you concerning two stories that your
organization “Istinomjer” which partners with Zasto Ne? (“Istrazivanje
Istinomjera: Lazi placene novcem gradjana/ka RS [I i II]) published concerning
the work of the RS Office for Cooperation, Trade and Investment in Washington,
DC of which I am the Director. I have several concerns and grievances following
the publication of these biased and deliberately misleading stories. I will
list these concerns, but allow me first to explain why I am writing to you in
English and not in Serbian. It is simply for the practical reason that I want
your funders to be able to understand the problematic nature of your work and
politically motivated “investigative journalism.” I want the U.S. government,
EU funds and governments, George Soros and your other foreign funders to
understand that you are sincere in your desire to serve their political
interests and that your zealousness in doing so has led to a noticeable lack of
professionalism, fairness and transparency in your work. In fact, you are
generating fake news that you claim to be combating.
Now allow me to list most of the problems with your reporting
concerning these two published stories.
1. Lack of Fairness:
No one from Istinomjer made any attempt to contact my colleague, Drina
Vlastelic Rajic in order to check the information that was published in this
story concerning the work of the RS Office in Washington, DC or me. Our
response to the numerous accusations, innuendos and misrepresentations made in
these stories was not sought.
With respect to the parts of the story
concerning our activities concerning the inauguration of President Trump there
was a deliberate omission of facts and there was a total failure to verify
facts concerning the inauguration with the Joint Congressional Committee on
Inaugural Ceremonies.
You conveniently leave out important
elements of the story surrounding your claims concerning the inauguration,
while at the same time making unsubstantiated claims and outright lies. Here are just a few of these claims and
facts:
a. You mock and minimize the importance of the
individuals and organizations that had invited President Dodik to various
events surrounding the inauguration. For example, you mention former
Congressman Bob McEwen in a condescending and biased way without explaining
that he is currently the Executive Director of the Conservative and influential
Council for National Policy. Even a precursory and brief Internet search would
have shown the ties of this institution to the Trump campaign and to senior
members of his administration. Congressman McEwen himself was an advisor to the
Trump campaign and is currently said to be up for an appointment by the Trump
administration. You also fail to mention
that many of your fellow “journalists” and activists of Bosniak NGOs publically
vilified Bob and the other individuals and organizations who had issued
invitations to President Dodik in an attempt to bully and intimidate them into
recalling or rescinding their invitations. Some even called them to tell them
they had invited an “evil” and “corrupt” man.
b. You claim that PM Cvijanovic and Mrs. Dodik did
not have formal invitations even though a copy of their invitations and tickets
to the swearing-in ceremony were made available to the public. You
intentionally did not publish these pictures because they clearly show an
official invitation packet issued by the official Congressional Inauguration Committee.
You also do not use the CNN picture used by other media in Bosnia –Herzegovina
that clearly shows them before the beginning of the ceremony, in the seating
section (Green – House of Representatives – Zone) reserved for official
attendees, both domestic and international. Likewise, you misrepresent where
they are sitting as being “a zone for visitors” and not for official guests.
This is an easily documented lie as “visitors” would only be able to have
access to the public standing room zones behind the areas reserved for guests
with official tickets to the swearing in ceremony. The CNN picture and their
tickets prove your statements to be false. The tickets with which we were
provided came from a member of Congress and a former Chair of the Republican
Party. We were also provided with
tickets in the Yellow (Senate) sitting zone by a Senator.
c. You imply that it was impossible for RS
representatives to obtain tickets to the official inauguration ceremony even
though you use a quote that I gave another journalist that talks about other
international guests at the inauguration. Again you fail to do even a simple
Google search to verify this statement, which is based on the fact that we had
met members of the Albanian Parliament, the Columbian Senate, The Greek Defense
Minister, and several other guests from Israel, Serbia and the UK. In fact here
are a few stories about foreign dignitaries who received similar invites to the
ones we received: http://www.vox.com/world/2017/1/20/14335410/israeli-settler-leaders-attend-trump-inauguration
d. You claim that I had lied about the RS
attendance of the inauguration from beginning to end, but the evidence shows
that everything that I had stated is based on fact and easily verified and
proven by evidence that has been provided. There was a clear lack of
willingness on your part to attempt to verify my statements both in your
failure to elicit a response to your claims that I lied to the public and in
your selective use of evidence. I have stated from the beginning that the
invitation to President Dodik came from people associated with the Trump
campaign and with the new administration. I also stated that he had been
invited to unofficial inaugural events organized by influential organizations
and individuals close to either the Trump campaign, the transition team or to
the new administration and I believe my statement is supported by the facts.
Your claims are based on your opinion, innuendo and a selective
misrepresentation of facts, unsubstantiated claims and outright lies.
e. You mock my contact with Mr. Priebus and other
members of the Trump administration and seem to think these contacts “bizarre”
but fail to publish the other pictures that were published by RTRS from that
private event that support my claims concerning the contact that we have made
with the new U.S. administration. Of
course the pictures only document one aspect of our efforts and contacts that
we have established over the last several weeks leading up to the inauguration.
2. Faulty,
Slanted and Misleading Use of Statistics and Evidence:
a. You use selected statistics in order to make
a cost/benefit analysis of the RS Office and our work that deliberately relies
on faulty methodology in order to create a facade of serious analysis and to
trigger an emotional revolt of your readers concerning “the waste” of RS funds. A fairer and more accurate cost/benefit
analysis of our office and of our work would have been to use at least three different
measurements/comparisons. One would have taken the reports of our activities
that are public documents from which you did take the financial information you
cite, and you would have listed what our office has done to benefit the RS. For
example you would have listed the opening of the NCR Office in Banja Luke which
has created over 140 jobs and which has seen an investment from this company in
equipment and know-how that exceeds one million (U.S.) dollars. This has not
only brought a major U.S. company to the RS but it also directly benefits
Bosnia and Herzegovina as it opens a totally new economic sector for jobs and
future investment. Hopefully this Center will grow and it will lead to
additional jobs for the RS and for the Federation. Furthermore, the agreement
with Johns Hopkins University Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
brought renowned surgeons and medical experts to Banja Luka. This increased the
educational and practical knowledge of our own surgeons and helped improve the
lives of two children and one young girl, who were given a new chance at a
normal life. The value of this can be measured in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars and has opened the door for several other children to travel to the
U.S. for more complicated surgery, (except for the airfare costs which will be
paid by the RS) U.S. based foundations will pay all other costs.
Our office has also promoted the work of artists, scholars and authors
from the RS and from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Among others, we helped arrange the
discussion and book promotion of Vladimir Pistalo at the Library of Congress.
All of our activities in the field of art, film and culture are paid for from
our modest budget.
If you want to fairly calculate the benefit of our work, this would be a
better and more accurate starting point. I am very proud of our work and of our contribution to the RS and I am
perfectly willing to provide an even more thorough accounting of the results of
our work.
The second approach to fairly obtain a cost/benefit analysis of our
Office and of our work would have been to compare it to the much larger and
better-funded Embassy of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Washington., DC. A comparison can and should include examining
the size of staff, cost and, of course, results. I will gladly participate in establishing
which representation is most cost effective and beneficial to RS taxpayers.
Finally, another fairer approach would be to compare our office to
similar representative offices in Washington, DC. For example those of
international cities or of regions like Wales, Bavaria or even previous Balkan
trade offices like those of Montenegro or Pristina (before they were recognized
as states).
b. You also misrepresent the RS lobbying
budget, lumping in all costs in the U.S. under lobbying, even when they have
very little to do with lobbying in Washington, DC. For example, you list the
firms that were/are advising the RS government on international law as lobby
firms. These firms provide the legal backbone of every argument, decision and
action made by RS institutions and elected officials that seek to right the
wrongs and illegal actions made by the High Representatives and certain western
embassies. We consistently are able to provide valid and compelling legal
arguments to show that RS actions are in compliance with the Dayton Agreement
and international law; while at the same time show the illegality and forceful
imposition of changes to the Dayton Agreement that are not in line with
international law. The legal case
prepared with their help against Paddy Ashdown helped rescind the violation of
human rights of dozens of Serbs and Croats who were illegally removed from
office and deprived of their constitutional and civil rights without due
process.
c. You selectively provide my professional
background and work history. For example you mention Milan Panic and ICN, but
fail to mention that my main role was to work with the opposition in Serbia in
order to bring about political change during the undemocratic regime of
Slobodan Milosevic. You also fail to mention that I was briefly the U.S.
representative of the Alliance for Change, the precursor to DOS. I believe you
also avoided mentioning my work with IREX (1991-1997), where I also worked for
the ProMedia Program, which at that time provided support for independent media
in the Balkans. This experience is now the basis for my conclusion that you are
deliberately manufacturing fake news in order to bring about political change
that you desire.
3. Opinionated
and Activist Journalism with a (un)Clear Political Agenda: Your
“investigative journalism” displayed in these articles is filled with opinions,
derogatory and insulting words and phrases such as “lies,” “farce” and “trick
the public” in order to cover-up the lack of evidence presented by your
“journalist”/political activist. This is not only highly unprofessional but it
also insults your readers because you show a lack of trust in their ability to
reach the desired conclusions you are offering based on the slated evidence
that you present. I am not sure what your full political agenda is, but I am
certain that it is driven by the interests of your funders and by your personal
political beliefs that you have expressed publically on numerous occassions. It
is clear that you are political actors that desire to influence political
discourse and debate within the RS without the burden of accountability. You do
not directly contest elections but your work and you are “weapons” used to
influence their outcomes and when your preferred candidates fail, then you do
everything you can to undermine the authority and legitimacy of those who won
the elections and were given a mandate to govern by citizens using their
democratic rights. Unfortunately, a similar situation exists in the U.S. It is
even more unfortunate because any democratic society needs the media to serve
as a “watchdog.” This role however must be earned and must be maintained with
high journalistic and ethical standards, to which you have failed to abide in
these two stories.
4. Lack of
Transparency: For organizations that are supposed to serve as “watchdogs”
for political parties, governments and political leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina
on the basis of holding them accountable for good governance, transparency in
decision-making and in spending public funds, you make it very difficult to
find out what your budget is and who funds your activism. Unlike our Office,
which spends its funds transparently and documents this expenditure both to the
U.S. government and to the RS government as required by law, your organizations
appear to be secretive and shy about this important information. When someone
is attacked in the way we are attacked by your politically motivated
journalism, it is important for your readers to understand who is paying you
for this service on their behalf. Based on what I have been able to find out,
it would seem to be driven by a combination of the U.S. Embassy, George Soros
and several EU funds. All of which have also been very actively engaged in
controversial political activism in other states (Albania, Macedonia and
Serbia) in the region and all of which have a vested political interest in
undermining the legitimacy and credibility of elected governments, politicians
and government institutions which do not comply with their wishes, blackmail or
demands. In the case of the RS, it is clear that all of your funders have
supported the illegal centralization of the joint state of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and because of this have been in a political dispute with the
President, Parliament and Government of the RS. This is a clear conflict of
interest for your “NGOs.” As you receive monies (without clearly identifying
where they come from and who your donors are) often from parties actively
engaged in disputes with the individuals and institutions you are supposedly
keeping an eye on, all supposedly on behalf of the citizens of the RS and of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
In closing I want to make note of the Code of Ethics to
which you have committed yourself – in
case it is not handy, you can access it here: http://www.poynter.org/fact-checkers-code-of-principles/
It would seem to me that you have violated all of the first
four principles listed on the Poynter checklist. I hope that you will not
violate the fifth and last principle of correcting your mistakes in a
transparent and honest way. A good starting point would be to print my response
in its entirety so that your readers’ can make-up their own mind about the
quality of our work and of your reporting.
Sincerely,
Obrad Kesic
Director
RS Office for Cooperation, Trade and Development
1701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006