Understanding the media coverage of the Bosnian war and genocide may clarify, to some extent, the reasons why there are conflicting notions and denial narratives about the massacre.
Although the war and genocide in Srebrenica were reported in the Turkish media extensively, the same could not be stated for the European media. This lack of media coverage in Europe may have been due to the media’s disinterest, different priorities, insufficient information, misinformation, or propaganda tactics. Understanding the media coverage of the Bosnian war and genocide may clarify, to some extent, the reasons why there are conflicting notions and denial narratives about the massacre. The prevalence of incomplete reporting and misinformation may also have been due to the propaganda tactics of the media in the region before, during and after the war. Propaganda had already begun in Yugoslavia before the outbreak of the war in 1992 through the injection of ideas of ethnic superiority, fear of ethnic violence etc., into the public discourse. Despite overwhelming forensic evidence of these crimes and unanimous rulings by several international courts regarding the Srebrenica Genocide, including the discovery of mass graves whose occupants had been reburied as part of a cover-up, the denial of the genocide continues on an international scale. However, considering that propaganda had started prior to the war, it is natural for false information to be a justification for the denial of the genocide based on the misinformation that was spread before the war.
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