The Belgrade Court of Appeals upheld a ruling against KRIK for a December 2021 article stating that the commander of the police Witness Protection Unit, Goran Živković, and two of his associates had filed a lawsuit against the newsroom. The judges’ explanation included statements not actually written by KRIK, such as claims that the police officers were „filing lawsuits under regime orders“. KRIK now must pay the three officers a total of 3,500 EUR in damages and legal costs, amounting to about 6,000 EUR overall costs for the whole trial. This is the second definitive ruling against KRIK this month.

“We can no longer even publicly complain about the fact we are being sued because we then get sued for that too and lose in court”, says KRIK editor Stevan Dojčinović. “The worst part is being found liable for something we never published, for sentences that don’t exist in our article and were invented by the judges, and for our opinion that these are SLAPP lawsuits. This ruling means any investigative media outlet can be convicted regardless of what they publish, as judges will interpret journalistic articles freely and add sentences to them.”

In December 2021, amid a surge of lawsuits against our newsroom, we published an article listing the names of those who had sued, with the editor’s opinion that these were SLAPP lawsuits intended to silence journalists.

In the article, we mentioned that the lawsuits against KRIK were filed by, among others, the then-head of the Security Intelligence Agency Bratislav Gašić, the Serbian president’s best man Nikola Petrović, the tabloid Kurir, and finally the police commander Goran Živković with his two associates, due to an article about the problems within their police unit.

It was precisely because they were listed in this group that Živković and his colleagues decided to file a new lawsuit against the newsroom. The police officers claimed their honor was damaged because Dojčinović stated they had filed a SLAPP lawsuit (a term used internationally for lawsuits filed by officials and powerful individuals against journalists and activists) and that KRIK labeled them as the people of the regime, which is not true as it is not written anywhere in the article. KRIK even noted at the beginning of that article how the lawsuits against the newsroom “were mostly filed by people in power or businessmen close to them.”

The case was handled by Judge Slobodan Keranović, who swiftly convicted KRIK’s journalists, but the verdict was overturned by the Court of Appeals. The case was returned to Keranović, who once again issued the same ruling against KRIK.

KRIK appealed again but the new panel of the Court of Appeals decided to confirm the ruling.

The panel led by Judge Irena Vuković, with Judges Jasna Lozuk and Stanislava Mitrović, accepted Keranović’s explanation that KRIK’s journalists had defamed the police officers by, as the judgment states, characterizing them as regime affiliates, even though this was not stated anywhere in the article.

The court’s explanation included statements KRIK never made, such as allegations that the police were „filing lawsuits under regime orders to suppress media freedom.”

“The defendants’ value judgment that the plaintiffs, as regime-affiliated individuals, filed lawsuits alongside others to jointly pressure and silence KRIK, portraying the plaintiffs as individuals who file lawsuits under regime orders to suppress media freedom, lacks factual basis,” the verdict states.

The judges also ruled out the possibility of this case being a SLAPP lawsuit.

“The plaintiffs’ right to file lawsuits if they believe their constitutionally guaranteed rights have been violated cannot be disputed, and there is no evidence of procedural abuse by the plaintiffs”, states the verdict signed by Judge Vuković.

The verdict is now final, and KRIK must pay the officers damages and legal costs. KRIK will seek a Supreme Court revision of the case and will appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Police Officers Lost Previous Case against KRIK

Before this lawsuit, the same three police officers had previously sued KRIK over an investigative story about the work of Serbian Witness Protection Unit, but they lost that case, as the final verdict was in KRIK’s favor.

Judge Jasmina Vukovljak Jovanović stated that KRIK addressed a matter of public interest and adhered to journalistic standards.

“The information pertains to public interest, it is informing the public about the activities of individuals employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not their private lives,” the judge noted in her ruling.

The judges deciding on the second lawsuit did not even consider that KRIK had previously won in court, with the court acknowledging that KRIK reported professionally on this police unit within the Serbian Ministry of Interior.

SLAPP Lawsuits Flood KRIK

This is the second definitive verdict against KRIK received just this month.

Recently, we were found liable in a lawsuit filed by Predrag Koluvija, who is on trial for allegedly organizing a criminal group that produced over a ton and a half of marijuana.

Besides these two cases, KRIK is currently facing 14 more lawsuits initiated as SLAPPs.

KRIK is facing numerous pressures and needs help! Donate to KRIK and help us continue to resist pressures and investigate crime and corruption! More about how to donate can be found here.

Read the article for which KRIK was found liable.

Source: KRIK

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo – AJK, is concerned about the threats that sports journalist Arlind Sadiku from Klan Kosova and Art Motion has received in recent days.

According to Sadiku, he has been subject to a significant number of life-threatening threats, the majority of which are believed to have originated from Serbia.

AJK strongly condemns the threats and urges them to cease immediately, as they pose a threat to the journalist’s physical safety.

Sadiku’s accreditation has been revoked by UEFA. This decision was made after the sports journalist gestured an Albanian “eagle” sign towards the fans of the neighboring country during the match between England and Serbia.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo is concerned about the reported vandalism of the logo belonging to the non-governmental organization Center for Information, Criticism and Action – QIKA.

In their statement, QIKA reported that the vandalism of the organization’s logo occurred after the broadcasting of the show “Colors of Love,” and the display of the LGBTIQ+ community flag on the balcony of QIKA.

For the Association of Journalists of Kosovo (AJK), this act is unacceptable, shameful, and a direct attack on human rights, freedom of expression, and media.

The vandalism of QIKA’s logo contributes to the language of hatred and verbal attacks against individuals of the LGBTIQ+ community. In addition, it also portrays the harsh environment in which women journalists have to perform their professional duties. Moreover, this is not the first time this organization has been the target of similar attacks.

The former head of the Belgrade center of the State Security Department, Milan Radonjic, one of the four accused in the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija who were acquitted by the decision of the Court of Appeal in February, sued the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation for a statement in which the Foundation expressed disagreement with that verdict. In the meantime, unofficial information appeared that lawsuits will be filed against the media as well. The Coalition for Media Freedom condemn this pressure on freedom of speech and the attempt to silence any criticism of a ruling regime.

After the announcement of the decision of the Court of Appeal, on February 2, 2024, many Serbian and international organizations reacted.

At the time, the Slavko Curuvija Foundation issued a statement stating that “those who killed the journalist were released. The journalist was followed by the secret service before the crime itself, his murder was announced on state television, he dealt with the highest state officials, monstrous lies were spread in the state media about him, his property the state destroyed, and his associates were persecuted”.

Although the names of the accused were not mentioned anywhere in the statement, Milan Radonjić decided to request through the Court that the Foundation pay him 500,000 dinars for damaging his reputation and honor.

Slavko Ćuruvija was killed 25 years ago, no one was found guilty for that crime, and now, some are trying to silence voices reminding that not a single case of journalist’s murder in Serbia has been solved.

At the trial for the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, many intentional and unintentional omissions were made, which showed that this government is unable or unwilling to deal with the criminalized parts of the secret service, which are responsible for numerous crimes.

We will not allow these pressures to discourage us and we will continue to fight against impunity for crimes against journalists.

The Coalition for Media Freedom: the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media (AOM), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”, the Slavko Curuvija Foundation and Branch Trade Union of Culture, Arts and Media ‘Nezavisnost’ 

Belgrade, June 12, 2024

Former head of the State Security Service (RBD) Belgrade center chief Milan Radonjic, one of the four persons charged with the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija and acquitted in February by the Court of Appeals, sued the Slavko Curuvija Foundation over a press release it issued expressing disagreement with the judgment.

Radonjic is seeking compensation of 500,000 dinars from the Foundation for injury to reputation and honor.

Twenty-five years after the Curuvija murder, after nine years of court proceedings, two first-instance judgments finding them guilty and the final acquittal of the defendants due to lack of evidence, the crime against the journalist and the owner of Dnevni Telegraf and Evropljanin remains unpunished and unresolved, said the Foundation.

We are now witnessing an attempt to eradicate all memory of Curuvija and silence the voices that will not consent to impunity and allow for things to be forgotten, it stressed.

This lawsuit is a result of the atmosphere in society created by the government. The captured state is not resolving and punishing the crimes done on its behalf. Violence and crime are glorified and encouraged, and villains are celebrated as heroes. Any criticism against current and former sins of the authorities is brutally suppressed, said the Foundation.

The persecution of Slavko Curuvija continues, 25 years after his murder, it added.

The Slavko Curuvija Foundation will continue to cherish the memory of the journalist it was named after but it will also continue to insist that all attacks against journalists are. Firstly, with an acquittal, and now with intimidation through lawsuits, such attacks are encouraged. We do not accept this, said the Foundation.

Source: N1

The Court of Appeal in Belgrade confirmed the first-instance verdict by which KRIK was convicted of violating the presumption of innocence of Predrag Koluvija, who sued journalists because they wrote that Koluvija was an “accused drug lord” when reporting on the “Jovanjica 2” case.

According to KRIK’s writing, the Court considers that KRIK’s use of the wording “accused drug lord” Koluvia “designated the perpetrator of a punishable crime, although there is no court decision on this” and did not accept the journalist’s explanation that the words “accused and accusation” and “according to the allegations of the prosecution” were used in the text. The court did not take into account the fact that Koluvija’s defense was also published, as well as the fact that it is a topic of great importance to the public.

KRIK journalists announced the continuation of the legal battle in this case.

The Coalition for Media Freedom believes that this verdict is unfair, because the Court did not take into account the entire text when deciding, but concentrated on only one phrase. We fear that such a decision may be an invitation to other powerful people and politicians to put pressure on investigative journalists.

Recently, the judge of the Court of Appeal filed two lawsuits against KRIK because of the “Judge Who Judges” database. In the lawsuits she filed, in addition to monetary compensation, she is also seeking a two-year ban on journalists and 10 months in prison – due to the alleged violation of the right to privacy.

There are currently 16 proceedings against KRIK journalists. The Coalition for Media Freedom, as well as many international journalists and media organizations, believes that these are classic SLAPP lawsuits aimed at silencing journalists. This, in contrast to the direct pressures that journalists suffered during the nineties of the last century, is a seemingly legitimate means to shut down independent media in a legal way.

That is why we call on the legislator to show that it wants to protect independent journalism and to adopt the Anti-SLAPP recommendations of the European Commission and the recommendations of the Anti-SLAPP Directive of the European Parliament as soon as possible. These documents contain key guidelines for early dismissal of unfounded claims against journalists and activists.

We also invite the judges to consider the aforementioned recommendations with particular attention in future proceedings against journalists, to recognize the characteristics of SLAPP lawsuits and, based on that, to decide how the proceedings will proceed.

The Coalition for Media Freedom: the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media (AOM), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”, the Slavko Curuvija Foundation and Branch Trade Union of Culture, Arts and Media ‘Nezavisnost’ 

Belgrade, June 10, 2024