The tabloid sued ‘Raskrinkavanje’, a project of Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), media freedom website Cenzolovka, independent Danas daily and the Center of Inter-cultural Documentation, an NGO from the northern city of Novi Sad.
The lawsuit was also launched against the state RTS TV.
Kurir said those media and the NGO published untrue, unconfirmed and offensive information about the tabloid in articles saying it often reported fake and manipulative news and systematically nourished hate speech as a part of its editorial policy.
Kurir said that “they (the sued media and the NGO) acted contrary to Serbia’s Journalists’ Code and Business Ethics Code, inflicting non-material damage to Kurir, bearing in mind that its business is tightly linked to its reputation.”
The tabloid added, “because of that, Kurir demands a total compensation of 93.5 thousand euros (11 million dinars) for damaging business reputation by unfair competition.”
This tabloid joined a series of the so-called SLAPPs, started by a private company, Millennium Team, against several local and independent media.
Later, the company reduced its compensation demands to a hundred euros per lawsuit but did not give them up.
Kurir has lost several lawsuits by media and individuals it falsely accused of different things.