08. 08. 2002

Anem Object to Court Ruling Against Danas

BELGRADE, August 8, 2002 - The Association of Electronic Media has objected to a court ruling against Belgrade daily Danas over a report containing allegations against former Yugoslav President Dobrica Cosic. Danas publisher and its editor in chief were fined a total of 300,000 dinars (5,000 euros) by Belgrade's Third Municipal Court for the "emotional distress" caused to Cosic by a text published last year in which he is accused of ordering the bombing of Vukovar as president of Yugoslavia. In a statement today, ANEM noted the "serious professional error" by Danas in publishing the text, since Cosic was not in fact Yugoslav president at the time the Croatian town came under seige in 1991. The association adds, however, that the paper published the text "as an authorial text...without an editorial stance or comment - just as they published Cosic's denial as soon as they received it, providing an appropriate opportunity to deny the claims made in the text." ANEM urged judges to take into consideration the "threat of self-censorship" that could emerge from high-compensation rulings, "thus violating another basic human right of freedom of press and public information." The statement called for a Public Information Act to provide more detailed regulation of this field.