Vojko i Savle

rdf:langString Vojko i Savle

rdf:langString "Vojko i Savle" (English: Vojko and Savle) is the title of the defamatory article targeting Serbian intellectual Gojko Nikoliš that was planted during early 1987 in the state-owned Politika daily. The term also refers to the subsequent political scandal the article caused in Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent federal unit of SFR Yugoslavia. Written using what on surface appears to be light humorous tone, the article viciously went after prominent Serbian intellectual and communist veteran of Spanish Civil War and World War II Gojko Nikoliš by tendentiously bringing up and value judging various aspects of his career and personal life in an effort to defame him. The article also mentions another prominent intellectual Pavle Savić, however, in contrast to the strong denouncement of Nikoliš throughout the piece, Savić is only slightly ridiculed. All this was done in somewhat veiled manner as their actual names were never mentioned in the article. Both Nikoliš and Savić were prominent Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) members at the time. In the years since, information came out that State Security (SDB) and political leadership of SR Serbia at the time were very much involved in creating the article and planting it in the high-circulation newspaper amid the political fallout caused by leaked SANU Memorandum excerpts that ended up in the Serbian press during September 1986. Since the immediate writer of "Vojko i Savle" was never discovered with certainty, the issue led to a lot of speculation and accusations over the years. The entire shady episode and the scandal it caused is today regarded as one of the most obvious examples of political elites and security apparatus using the press as a political instrument during the final years of socialist Yugoslavia.