Chronicle of a hug

You know that photo of the cop's hug and student- orderlies that occurred on January 28 around eight in the morning at Autokomanda, two hours before the end 24-hour lockdowns organized by students?

It is due to circumstances - I am the author of that photo (which is the least important), but the copyright to it is claimed by my parent company - FoNet News Agency, because it was originally published in the agency's photo service and on its portal.

That photo showed the morning at the end of the blockade of Autokomanda and a pure, sincere and spontaneous emotion, giving many people the hope that the student movement will spread the future mornings over Serbia.

Theft and lies

Subscribers to FoNet's services are mostly the media and they have the right to use that photo, and after the photo is published, someone undoubtedly liked it, and I completely understand that.

But, I don't understand the urge of that person to steal the photo, post it on X because it occurred to her that this very photo - taken after 18 hours at Autokomada - could make her profile viral.

It is also visible that the photo, published on her post, was previously passed through a filter and desecrated, without an adequate story about the event itself. It has been shared about 10.000 times, which means it has probably been seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

At the same time, the romanticized - and basically false - story that the father policeman and the son of a security guard are in the photo spread, followed by comments from bots that the photo was allegedly created during student protests in the 20s.

How the photo was created

The photo was actually created like this: I was standing somewhere near the central part of the loop at Autokomanda, next to the steward who coordinated the cleaning of the area after the blockade. A traffic officer started to meet him and - although I was afraid for a moment of possible reactions - I picked up the phone, intuitively feeling that a scene worthy of journalistic reaction would follow.

The policeman said something to the warden, they shook hands, exchanged a few more words and then that historic hug followed, which could change a lot in the minds of many frightened, angry or misguided people in Serbia.

A few minutes later, I sent the entire photo-story to FoNet's editorial office, and that's how the film began to unfold, which brought to the surface everything that students have been fighting against in recent days - principles.

The lady who doesn't understand

I wrote to the lady, who stole the photo and who is credited as the author in thousands of posts and media articles, and asked her to remove the photo, explaining to her who, how and why she claims the rights. We corresponded for hours, and she agreed to everything except to delete the photo that made her profile viral.

In the end she deleted it, but in the evening she wrote to me that she made that photo popular with her "creative description". She also told me that I was "vain", insinuating that "because of the virality of her post" she thinks the photo belongs more to her than to the author.

And as it happens in emotional and excited hasties, which have become the bane of social networks - many people who do not even want to hear the truth about the photo have spoken in the comments, false witnesses of the event appear... It's as if the photo itself doesn't carry an emotional message enough, so mythical descriptions should be added to it and its intensity intensified with a false story about a father and son.

Attacks on social networks

I became a target of people who - in a kind of internet violence (Internet bullying - disputing the need to explain the truth about that photograph, said that it is not important and that the historical moment and general social significance is more important, and that it does not matter at all who is the author of the photograph, nor who claims the copyright.

It was attributed to me that I was "putting my vanity above the student struggle", that I would "regret" that I asked one of the authors of the text - whose readership was probably also contributed by the photo - to withdraw from the text the falsehood that it is about a father and son, and to sign the photo as implied by the principles of elemental respect for authorship and copyright law.

So, let me be clear - this is not about vanity at all, but about simple respect for principles, which is one of the characteristics of the student movement that asks institutions and the state to function according to laws, codes and principles, which, I guess, would also we should all respect.

Principles and laws

For two months, students are being hated in the streets and - while they are being trampled and beaten - they are trying to clarify the dioptres of everyone and show how society is rotten and that it must be changed from the roots.

Judging by the reactions - especially by the comments on social networks - I would say that some people subconsciously react in the manner of those to whom students make requests every day to adhere to order, laws, and principles.

Society is a living organism made up of people, and if we don't change and if the changes don't start from each of us by respecting the laws, other people's rights and avoiding sensational lies, then the change of neither this nor any government will bring us anything new not even better.

I hope that these few lines that I am signing will contribute to the understanding of the principles and laws that respect the orderly society that the students are fighting for, a society that is aware enough to distinguish between lies and truth, justice and injustice, arrogance, arrogance and responsibility that everyone must first find in himself to ask for it from others.