Communicating power and resistance in democratic decline: the 2015 smear campaign against Serbia’s ombudsman

Abstract

The chapter explores diverging implications of global democratic decline for public communication in new and old democracies. It draws on empirical evidence from a government-sponsored smear campaign against Serbia’s ombudsman between January and May 2015, including data from quantitative and qualitative analyses of print and electronic media and of Twitter content and from semi-structured interviews with key political, civil society and media actors. The analyses of the main arenas of conflict showed the prevalence of emotions and personal beliefs, as opposed to evidence, in public debates, just like in old democracies. It also revealed, however, a much broader repertoire of strategic deception and authoritarian manipulation, which resulted in sharp polarization in public discourse, systematic violations of press freedom and political competition, and a sharply declining quality of journalism.