“Ingen Srebrenica-manipulation”

For the third time Tonchi Percan has attacked our film A Town Betrayed (Staden som offrades) and accused it of being Serb propaganda. This time with a new twist. Now he claims that he has been to Sarajevo and interviewed the Bosnian journalist Mirsad Fazlic, who was a reporter in the film: "Staden som offrades". According to Percan, Fazlic dismisses the film, accuses the rest of the team for manipulation and that we are agents for a Greater-Serbia. This is of course not true.

 

Firstly; no interview was asked for by Percan, and no interview was given by Fazlic. What´s correct is that they met at a party with a lot of drinks. The quotes in Percan´s article does not reflect Mirsad Fazlic’s view on the film. If this represents the ethical standard of Percan´s work, it is gutter-journalism at its worst.

 

Our team have been working on this project since 2006. Fazlic has been part of the team from the first day and like everyone else been fully aware of the content and interviews like the rest of the team. There have of course been healthy, challenging and fruitful discussions about the content, focus and form, but this is standard procedure in processes like this. It is a good way to avoid any errors and misconceptions.

 

The script and the film was finished in the summer 2010. Everyone in the team has read the script, made comments and corrections. Everyone also received a copy of the film and there were no stop-signs from anyone in the team. One year later, spring 2011, the film was broadcast for the first time.

 

In the film we state clearly that Bosnian Muslims (or Bosniacs) were massacred by Serb soldiers and what happened was known as the new genocide in Europe. Most of the people interviewed are Bosniac themselves and they are the ones who criticize former president Alija Izetbegovic for what they call a betrayal of the people of Srebrenica.

 

The film is an independent production and no strings attached to the funding. Most of our financing has come from EU Media and the Nordic broadcasters in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They would never support a film that promotes genocide-denial and Greater-Serbia propaganda.

 

We stand by our films.

 

Mirsad Fazlic, reporter, Esad Hecimovic, reporter, .JM Berger, reporter, Roger Charles, researcher, David Hebditch, director, Ola Flyum, director, Tore Buvarp, producer and Vibeke Haug, editor of NRK-Brennpunkt

 

 

Ola Flyum producenten för den kontroversiella filmen hävdar att den bosniske programledaren Mirsad Fazlic inte skulle ha tagit avstånd från hans film “Staden som offrades.”

Självklart är det så att Mirsad Fazlic liksom hans redaktion på Slobodna Bosna betraktar den norska filmen som manipulation. Det var det som de sa till mig.

Det som talar för min sak det är att Fazlic tagit avstånd från filmen i flera intervjuer och mejl.

Så här säger Mirsad Fazlic till Aftonposten tidigare i år, citat:

”Dette er et program på villspor. Jeg er sjokkert over sluttresultatet etter fire års jobbing med dokumentaren. Filmen er alt for proserbisk og går for langt i å bortforklare massakren i Srebrenica, sier Fazlic.”

Fazlic har genom ett mejl tagit avstånd även i tidningen Bosanska Posta i Norge som kommer ut på bosniska.

Alltså i minst två andra tidningar, förutom i Dagens Opinion,-tar Mirsad Fazlic avstånd från filmen. Menar Ola Flyum att han  i sin film har en programledare som ljuger?