There is a joke that goes like this: a wife unexpectedly comes home and finds her husband in bed with another woman. The lady in question quickly gets up and leaves, while the adulterous husband takes his cell phone to read the news. The annoyed wife says to him:
«How come you have no shame?»
«What?»
«What do you mean what? Now get that woman out of our bed!»
«Which woman? There is no woman here.»
« What do you mean what woman? Well, I saw her with my own eyes.»
«So who do you trust? Your husband or your own eyes!?»
What does this joke have to do with the title of this article?
The connection is this: the citizens of Serbia face the same dilemma as in the joke—whom do they trust? The government-controlled media or their own eyes? Nemly, some media outlets completely ignored one of the largest protests in Serbia’s history, while others, such as TV Pink, focused on a clash between hooligans over the EU flag. The state-run RTS, which is supposed to be the public broadcaster, covered the protests for a mere 72 seconds, sandwiched between two reports about the very person the students were protesting—President Aleksandar Vučić.
https://x.com/i/status/1870543223246258381
Meanwhile, Informer, a media outlet known for its loyalty to the government, even tried to downplay the protests by using a drone to capture an aerial view of Belgrade’s Slavija Square, claiming that the size of the crowd was exaggerated. According to their calculations, “only” 18,539 people attended. A pittance! However, the Archive of Public Assemblies of Serbia determined that there were about 100,000 citizens at the protest! Readers can watch the video and draw their own conclusions.
The protests in Serbia began as an outcry over the tragic collapse of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad train station, which claimed 15 lives. The people of Novi Sad are convinced that the authorities are covering up critical documents related to the incident, and the lies of the government are apparent. However, what began as a protest over the deaths of these 15 individuals has transformed into a broader movement. Young people—who represent the country’s future—are determined to shape that future themselves, because they know that those in power are failing them. They are calling out corruption, paid thugs, nepotism, obedience, and many other negative phenomena in society. They are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister and the mayor of Novi Sad.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DD4vR18scZi/?igsh=M2o5MWxqbDVha2w4
The government has made some public concessions – offering high school students an early winter break to prevent them from skipping class and joining the protests, with President Vucic promising favorable housing loans, and some who “don’t feel responsible” were arrested and then released to defend themselves from outside of jail. However, the government has been, quietly, firing anyone suspected of supporting the protests.
While the youth are protesting, the elderly listen to the president, who has addressed them over 350 times this year, and watch the controlled media, repeating the platitudes they hear there – whether it’s that the youth are fighting each other, or that the opposition is deceiving the youth, or “I didn’t see anything.”
If things continue like this, the situation may eventually mirror the joke at the beginning, with more “women” appearing in the bed, until the wife decides to turn the bed over and kick the “husband” out of the house.