B92's Insider stands ground on Kosovo series

BELGRADE B92’s investigative program Insajder (Insider) continues to reveal well-kept secrets and problems that many are afraid to even mention, a daily writes. In the new series dubbed Patriotska Pljacka (Patriotic Pillage), aired on Mondays starting Sept. 24 on B92 TV, the audience will learn how individuals, under the guise of patriotism, became rich by taking advantage of the state money that is allegedly appropriated for Kosovo citizens, Blic writes. B92's Insider stands ground on Kosovo series “This is not about whether Serbia should allocate money for the Serbs in Kosovo, this is about the fact that the money has not been going to those who really need it for years and why all governments from 2000 until today failed to investigate all the abuses that are taking place and where all the money is going to,” Insider author Brankica Stankovic says. “In the first two episodes we are dealing with a topic how damages were incurred to the Serbian budget with a decision of the state to repeal VAT for goods going from Serbia to Kosovo. The viewers will in the second episode see the smuggling that is happening today that we managed to film with hidden cameras on illegal roads that lead from Serbia to Kosovo,” she added. “This is one way of incurring damages to the budget and we proved in the other episodes of the series that an average of EUR 650,000 a day has been going from the Serbian budget for 12 years now, almost without any control,” Stankovic explained and added that the information was not some approximate figure and that the Insider team had reached it based on the official information. “We have revealed numerous abuses as far as unfinished projects that the state was paying for are concerned, which individuals had state positions and had an enormous profit, what great ‘patriots’ in Kosovo have their own firms and who is on (Kosovo PM Hashim) Thaci’s payroll. I suggest that everybody who is already commenting that we have skipped this or that, this or that topic, watch the entire series first and then come out with such claims,” the B92 reporter noted. She pointed out that the series was very demanding and that the investigation and preparations for it was done by the entire Insider team - Ivan Angelovski, Mirjana Jevtovic, Irena Stevic, Djordje Naskovic and producer Miodrag Cvorovic. “All of us stand behind every sentence that will be aired. We are not hiding behind various ‘analysts’, various ‘paroles’, unlike those who started judging us before the series even started. It is unbelievable that those are so-called journalists who are in advance trying in their texts to defend something that cannot be defended. The question is only why revealing abuse bothers any of them? It is not logical that someone who is honest is bothered by the revelation of malversations and pillages. They cannot grasp that everything stays written and that some day, once everything is released, they will be ashamed,” Stankovic told Blic. The reporter stressed that claims that the series’ aim was for Serbia to become disgusted by Kosovo and to present all Kosovo Serbs as criminals was absurd. “This is an utter nonsense. All those who will watch the series until the end will see that. Such disgraceful accusations against us are made exactly by those who are afraid that their business will be threatened. They are not interested in Kosovo, they are interested in how to make the biggest possible profit under the guise of patriotism. Well, unlike those, B92 has been bringing humanitarian aid to Serbs who live in enclaves in Kosovo for years. We do not brag about those things so not many people know about it,” she explained. “And there has been enough of saying that patriotism is measured by shouting ‘Kosovo is Serbia’ and by pillage. If we are going to use ‘their’ words, then I have to say that all those who robbed with an excuse ‘we won’t give Kosovo’ are plain traitors. The aim of the series is to stop the pillage and abuses and to help those who had to stay in Kosovo,” Stankovic was quoted as saying. “Only those who pillaged under the guise of patriotism and those who allowed them to do so should be afraid of the series,” she added. When asked who did not want to be interviewed this time, the B92 reporter said that names of all those who refused to speak for Insider would be revealed in the show. “We have been working on the series since August last year. We agreed then at a meeting that it should be investigated how much money is going from the Serbian budget to Kosovo without any control with an excuse that it is help for Kosovo Serbs. We gathered all publicly available data, went to Kosovo several times, had meetings with numerous interlocutors and all hell broke loose after all that. We realized that the topic was very extensive and that we will need a lot of time to finish it but that Ivan could not do it by himself. We split into groups, everybody did their job, every information was checked 100 times,” she explained. According to her, this was a very demanding and responsible job and that after all the hard work some, who are afraid of what is going to be made public, are saying that the new Insider series is aired now in order to “prepare the public for Serbia’s renunciation of Kosovo”. “Conspiracy theories have been piling up for years when it comes to Insider and they now claim we are working on Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) orders. And the same ones who used to claim that B92 TV worked for the Democratic Party (DS) claim that. Still, the theory that shows how shallow people are, how easily they fall for the lies is that Insider on Kosovo was not aired before the elections because we wanted to help Vojislav Kostunica’s party (Democratic Party of Serbia) to pass the threshold,“ Stankovic concluded. Brankica Stankovic Blic

B92's Insider stands ground on Kosovo series

“This is not about whether Serbia should allocate money for the Serbs in Kosovo, this is about the fact that the money has not been going to those who really need it for years and why all governments from 2000 until today failed to investigate all the abuses that are taking place and where all the money is going to,” Insider author Brankica Stanković says.

“In the first two episodes we are dealing with a topic how damages were incurred to the Serbian budget with a decision of the state to repeal VAT for goods going from Serbia to Kosovo. The viewers will in the second episode see the smuggling that is happening today that we managed to film with hidden cameras on illegal roads that lead from Serbia to Kosovo,” she added.

“This is one way of incurring damages to the budget and we proved in the other episodes of the series that an average of EUR 650,000 a day has been going from the Serbian budget for 12 years now, almost without any control,” Stanković explained and added that the information was not some approximate figure and that the Insider team had reached it based on the official information.

“We have revealed numerous abuses as far as unfinished projects that the state was paying for are concerned, which individuals had state positions and had an enormous profit, what great ‘patriots’ in Kosovo have their own firms and who is on (Kosovo PM Hashim) Thaci’s payroll. I suggest that everybody who is already commenting that we have skipped this or that, this or that topic, watch the entire series first and then come out with such claims,” the B92 reporter noted.

She pointed out that the series was very demanding and that the investigation and preparations for it was done by the entire Insider team - Ivan Angelovski, Mirjana Jevtović, Irena Stević, Đorđe Nasković and producer Miodrag Čvorović.

“All of us stand behind every sentence that will be aired. We are not hiding behind various ‘analysts’, various ‘paroles’, unlike those who started judging us before the series even started. It is unbelievable that those are so-called journalists who are in advance trying in their texts to defend something that cannot be defended. The question is only why revealing abuse bothers any of them? It is not logical that someone who is honest is bothered by the revelation of malversations and pillages. They cannot grasp that everything stays written and that some day, once everything is released, they will be ashamed,” Stanković told Blic.

The reporter stressed that claims that the series’ aim was for Serbia to become disgusted by Kosovo and to present all Kosovo Serbs as criminals was absurd.

“This is an utter nonsense. All those who will watch the series until the end will see that. Such disgraceful accusations against us are made exactly by those who are afraid that their business will be threatened. They are not interested in Kosovo, they are interested in how to make the biggest possible profit under the guise of patriotism. Well, unlike those, B92 has been bringing humanitarian aid to Serbs who live in enclaves in Kosovo for years. We do not brag about those things so not many people know about it,” she explained.

“And there has been enough of saying that patriotism is measured by shouting ‘Kosovo is Serbia’ and by pillage. If we are going to use ‘their’ words, then I have to say that all those who robbed with an excuse ‘we won’t give Kosovo’ are plain traitors. The aim of the series is to stop the pillage and abuses and to help those who had to stay in Kosovo,” Stanković was quoted as saying.

“Only those who pillaged under the guise of patriotism and those who allowed them to do so should be afraid of the series,” she added.

When asked who did not want to be interviewed this time, the B92 reporter said that names of all those who refused to speak for Insider would be revealed in the show.

“We have been working on the series since August last year. We agreed then at a meeting that it should be investigated how much money is going from the Serbian budget to Kosovo without any control with an excuse that it is help for Kosovo Serbs. We gathered all publicly available data, went to Kosovo several times, had meetings with numerous interlocutors and all hell broke loose after all that. We realized that the topic was very extensive and that we will need a lot of time to finish it but that Ivan could not do it by himself. We split into groups, everybody did their job, every information was checked 100 times,” she explained.

According to her, this was a very demanding and responsible job and that after all the hard work some, who are afraid of what is going to be made public, are saying that the new Insider series is aired now in order to “prepare the public for Serbia’s renunciation of Kosovo”.

“Conspiracy theories have been piling up for years when it comes to Insider and they now claim we are working on Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) orders. And the same ones who used to claim that B92 TV worked for the Democratic Party (DS) claim that. Still, the theory that shows how shallow people are, how easily they fall for the lies is that Insider on Kosovo was not aired before the elections because we wanted to help Vojislav Koštunica’s party (Democratic Party of Serbia) to pass the threshold,“ Stanković concluded.