In the three days since Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav strongman, died in his cell in the fifth year of his trial as a war criminal, the news business, especially the cable news channels, has settled on a simple storyline. This is in keeping with modern journalism’s market-driven obsession to turn every big news event into a narrative. Instead of just giving the reader the facts and their context, stories now need a plot, with an implicit point of view, whether justified or not. In this case, the story­line on Milosevic’s death is simple – and simple-minded: Milosevic evaded (or denied, or even “cheated”) justice. And just how did he do this? The journalistic answer, of course, is: by dying.

What utter nonsense. After all, the man died in his cell, knowing he would never see freedom again – a fitting end for someone who started four wars (all of which he lost), causing 300,000 deaths, leaving more than 2m people homeless and wrecking the Balkans.