Belgrade University rector and deans fighting against the campaign of lies in tabloids

"The campaign peaked after the rector gave a statement to the Criminal Police Directorate on Friday, April 18. Taking advantage of the opportunity to manipulate information that the public is not familiar with, the creators of the campaign falsified the truth and brutally accused the rector of distancing himself from students who are fighting for values ​​that are both academic and universal. The campaign that Informer leads is based on shameless lies, serious insults and baseless accusations and is destructively aimed at paradigms within which knowledge and moral integrity have a dominant value," said the press release.

"For this reason, in the unceasing struggle to preserve the values ​​to which members of the academic community aspire, the rector and deans issue this statement in which they strongly deny that they are politically organized and that they act in this way at the University. The deans of the University of Belgrade who were directly called out in this media outlet do not belong to political organizations, nor have they ever heard that an organization such as the one described by the Informer exists at all. In order to protect the entire academic community from slander and insults, destructive hate speech and the danger that the spread of disinformation brings with it, the rector and deans will resort to all legal means at their disposal", it added.

The statement comes after University of Belgrade rector Vladan Djokic was questioned by the police on Friday on a criminal complaint for alleged discrimination against students who want to study. The rector's hearing was preceded by a campaign against him in the tabloids and on pro-government television, as well as statements by individual ministers and deputies of the ruling SNS party, calling for the arrest of Djokic.

Shortly after the hearing of the rector, the pro-regime media continued to campaign against him, spinning his statement to the police in such a way that it turned out that he distanced himself from the students who have been blocking universities for five months protesting corruption after the fall of the canopy at the Railway Station in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people.