Spinning false information has become common in Montenegrin society, particularly in the media. Those who are undeservedly boasting of their independence are the best example of it, which was confirmed yesterday on the Vijesti newspaper cover page, Dnevne Novine writes.
This newspaper, which insists that it is an independent daily, published the main article titled “Djukanovic’s friend involved in the coup in Turkey?”.
The article reports that the Turkish Dailysabah newspaper called out former Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan, who was granted citizenship of Montenegro and Serbia, that he had been involved in the alleged attempted coup, on 15 July last year, in which Turkish president Rexhep Tayyip Erdogan was supposed to be toppled. The Dailysabah newspaper is said to be a media outlet spreading Erdogan’s propaganda and his Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Vijesti uses one of the DPS leader Milo Djukanovic’s statements as the main point of its article. He said once that Dahlan was his close friend.
It would not be unusual, if Dan newspaper hadn’t published an article with almost the same title a year ago, ie on 26 July 2016. Vijesti even published the Dan’s article on its news portal then. And now, almost a year later, it carried the same text from the Turkish Dailysabah newspaper.
Only a person unfamiliar with the situation might find this unusual. It is clear that Vijesti was not intended to inform citizens about Dailysabah’s writing, but to discredit Milo Djukanovic.
Since the attempted coup in Turkey, some media have used Dahlan to attack Djukanovic, which, in a way, is not even controversial. But it is disputable to use old information. It seems that the readers of this paper will be forced to read this information (probably only “packed” in a different way) in the coming months as well. It is known that if you want to influence the public (and it often includes deceptions), you will have to carefully select the information you will publish and, if necessary, repeat. Vijesti shows exactly that, because it wants to have Djukanovic on the front page in a negative context at any price.
