Original article (in Serbian) was published on 30/1/2025; Author: Teodora Koledin
The web portal of Srpski Telegraf, Republika, as well as Informer and Vaseljenska, published a photograph from the 2021 Belgrade Pride, claiming it shows Ela Zekovic, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences, who recently appeared on the Radio Television of Serbia’s show “Takovska 10”. “Just look at her photo where she proudly poses holding a flag with a red star”, stated one of the tabloids. However, the student in the photograph shared by the tabloids is not Ela Zekovic.
The news spread by the tabloids claims that “Antifa ideology members dominate” at the current protests, and in this context, the authors of the articles refer to Ela Zekovic as “the new star of the extreme left”, who is “virtually crowned as the new leader of the so-called student protests”.
However, the student who appeared on the show “Takovska 10” is not the same person featured in the provided photograph. The photo shared by the tabloids originates from a post published on X by BBC on the Serbian language, where an authentic quote from Ela Zekovic is paired with a photograph that does not show her. Later, a picture is shown that indeed features Ela Zekovic, but alongside a quote from someone named Dunja Milanovic.
In a brief statement to FN Tragac, Ela Zekovic confirmed that she is not the person in the photo shared by the tabloids. “That’s not me in the photo, yes, it’s my statement, yes, it’s my comment, but it’s not me in the photo”, Ela Zekovic told FN Tragac.
We asked Ela Zekovic how she comments on the claims that she was “virtually crowned as the new leader of the so-called student protests” after her appearance on RTS.
“I’ve said many times that we don’t have leaders, we don’t have guides, that’s not important to us. It just so happened that I was on RTS, but I hope that if there’s an opportunity on their part, there will be many more other students involved”, Ela Zekovic told FN Tragac.
