Original article (in Serbian) was published on 30/07/2022
A post from a fake Twitter profile of human rights activist Aida Corovic, in connection with the protests in Novi Sad, is spreading on web portals and social networks. In the fake announcement, Corovic allegedly admits that she tore up the flag at the protest and that she would do it again, that she wants “autonomy for Vojvodina and Sandzak”, with the message “stop the Serbian world”.
At the “Rebellion against the mafia” protest in Novi Sad, which was organized due to violence against the participants of the demonstration against the adoption of the General Urban Plan, there was an incident when a few gathered activists – among them Aida Corovic – threw paint at the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party. On that occasion, the gathered people removed the flags of Serbia from the SNS premises, which Miran Pogacar, one of the demonstrators, said were in “safe hands”, reports 021.
Srpski telegraf: “Disgrace, fake environmentalists tore up the Serbian flag”
The next day, Srpski telegraf published an article “Disgrace, fake environmentalists tore the Serbian flag”, which states the following: “In a hooligan manner, they first covered the rooms with eggs and paint, then broke the windows, and then, as if all that was not enough, they took the Serbian flag and started tearing it up”.
The available footage shows that the man in the black T-shirt, after removing the flags, told the demonstrators: “Here, now you can”, from which it can be concluded that he wanted to prevent the flags from being damaged by paint. FN Tragac, which had its own reporter at the protest, did not find any evidence that the flags were torn, nor did Srpski telegraf offer evidence for its claims.
Fake Twitter account of Aida Corovic
After the protest, the following message was published on a fake account of Aida Corovic (@AidaCorovicc), which is no longer active on Twitter, along with a photo of the activist: “I tore the flag of the Republic of Serbia in Novi Sad, and I will tear it again! It is the flag of war crimes and genocide. Serbia is not the country of only Serbs, but of all citizens of Serbia, and no one will impose a flag on us that we don’t want! Autonomy for Vojvodina and Sandzak! STOP THE SERBIAN WORLD!”.
A web portal Novosti reported a fake tweet and titled the text: “DESTROY EVERYTHING SERBIAN: This Tweet describes Aida’s actions at the protests in Novi Sad”. Such a text, with the same title can also be found in English on the web portal Aroj.net. The web portal Informer also shared a misleading tweet titled “STOP TO THE SERBIAN WORLD – Aida Corovic bragged about TEARING THE SERBIAN FLAG, calling for SEPARATISM!” The law says that she could be a PRISONER!”. On Twitter, certain posts (1, 2, 3) that share this tweet have gone viral, very often with insults against the activist, and there are also those calling for the immediate arrest of Corovic.
Aida CoroviC announced through her Facebook account that she is consulting with a lawyer and plans to file a complaint. She also shared that she received death threats because of the fake post.
