10. 03. 2014

PRESS COUNCIL: ‘TELEGRAF’ AND ‘KURIR’ VIOLATED PRESS CODE

While the Commission believes that the author's intention was not to stigmatize Roma depicting them as thieves, but to point out a phenomenon, the newsroom had to take into account the fact that there are already numerous biases regarding Roma and that they are further encouraged by articles of this kind.

In the same session, the Commission concluded, deciding on the complaint of the president of the New Party Zoran Živković, that daily "Kurir" violated the provisions of the Press Code by publishing a series of article between February 5 and 8, 2014. The violated provisions concern the obligation of accurate, objective and complete reporting and clearly distinguishing between facts, comments, assumptions and speculation. The daily also violated provisions forbidding publishing of unfounded accusations, slander and rumors and proscribing the obligation of cultivating culture and ethics of public speech.

The Complaints Commission also decided that daily "Danas" did not violate the Code by publishing commentary "When Tanjug Fails", contrary to the claim of the complainant - the Tanjug news agency. According to the opinion of the Commission members, the weekly "Bečejski mozaik" also did not violate the Press Code by publishing a reader's letter.

Decisions of the Complaints Commission of the Press Council are available on the website www.savetzastampu.rs.