Original article (in Serbian) was published on 06/12/2022
The web portals Kurir.rs and Pink.rs published the alleged “shocking confession” and “horrific case” of a boy who suffered peer violence. However, this is not a real case – the web portals copied the literary story “Six” written by Jelena Tasic, which was recently published in a collection of short stories. However, none of the web portals mentions this, nor do they mention this writer as the author of the text, so it looks as if it is a real event. In the meantime, Kurir deleted the text, while it still appears on Pink.rs in the form of a “horrific confession of a boy”.
“A terrible case. SHOCKING CONFESSION OF A BOY VICTIM OF VIOLENCE: I spat blood for the first time at the age of 15! I have come to terms with the fact that Thursday is MY DAY TO GET BEATEN”, the web portal Kurir.rs announced on December 4, and Pink.rs also reported this news.
“The website Zelena ucionica published the confession of a boy who suffered violence because he did not want to join bullies. The family situation led to the fact that he had no one to complain about the violence, so he suffered terrible mistreatment”, write these portals, reporting the “story about him” in its entirety.
The boy from the text, however, does not exist in reality, and the alleged “confession” is actually a short story called “Six” written by Jelena Tasic.
On November 28, this story was found on the website “Zelena ucionica”, from where the web portals Kurir.rs and Pink.rs have taken it. The story can be found in the “comment” section. Although it is not explicitly specified on this website either, journalists could have suspected that it was fiction, either because of the highly literary style or because at the end of the text, it was stated that the author is Jelena Tasic, and that she has published two books so far.
Neither Kurir nor Pink, however, named her as the author, even though they reported her story.
The fact that this represents literature is confirmed by a post on her Instagram account from a few weeks ago, when she published a photo of the cover of the collection of stories “Mokri(n) cvor”, as well as a photo of the page on which her “Six” is located. From the first few paragraphs that can be read from the photo, it can be seen that the text is identical to the one presented as a “confession” by Kurir and Pink.
In the post’s description, she stated that “the goal of the story is to point out the problem of peer violence to which all those who do not fit are exposed today. The problem of peer violence will only be solved if everyone is involved, from parents, teachers and the school in general, to law enforcement and authorities. Otherwise, nothing will change”.
It can also be learned from Instagram that Jelena Tasis contacted Kurir’s editorial office by email and requested that the text be removed.
“You have misled the public, presented a fictional story (because it is literature) as true, put the text in the wrong category and threatened copyright”, she wrote.
After this, and after the public became interested in the case on Twitter, Vreme’s journalist Jovana Gligorijevic also addressed this issue. Kurir eventually removed the text from the site but without any explanation or apology.
The story, however, at the time of publication of this text, is still available on the web portal Pink.rs as an alleged “confession”, found in the “chronicle” section.