Kusturica calls for ban on deepfake video aired by Mitrovic

The AI video appeared after Kusturica wrote an op-ed piece in which he blamed Mitrovic and his TV Pink for creating an atmosphere in Serbian society which led to the mass killings in a Belgrade elementary school and two villages outside the town of Mladenovac in 2023. The deepfake video using Kusturica’s image was published on Mitrovic’s X profile on Thursday right after the op-ed piece was re-published on a number of media outlets.

Kusturica’s article came as a surprise to some because the director was viewed as being close to the Serbian authorities. Mitrovic and his TV Pink are known to be fully on the side of the Serbian authorities.

Kusturica’s lawyers filed a request for a ban of the video with the Higher Court in Belgrade and called the Higher Public Prosecution and the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) to launch proceedings against TV Pink for airing the AI deepfake video.

The REM (the country’s top electronic media watchdog) did not launch proceedings against TV Pink over earlier deepfake videos, saying only that they should not be aired on news shows.