08. 07. 2005

B92 SUES MIRA MARJANOVIC

BELGRADE, July 8, 2005 – Broadcast company B92 has authorized the legal representatives of this media house to file legal complaint against the Editor-in-chief of Belgrade daily Srpski Nacional Mira Marjanovic. “After many years of touting for decriminalization of libel and defamation, we have come to the point where, for the first time, we have to file such legal complaint. Unfortunately, the slow implementation of the stipulations that need to provide for full respect of the freedom of expression and protection for those whose rights and reputation have been damaged, drove us to the only possibility we have been allowed by the laws of this country”, said in the statement of RTV B92. “Since the democratic changes in October 2000, B92 has never been exposed to such threats and attacks as today. After the explosive devices planted under the broadcast vans, broken cameras and death threats to journalists, the reaction of the state was always and merely the silence, or in some cases, the notice of the prosecution that these actions did not contain criminal attributes for official prosecution. No one was held responsible for all attacks on B92 in the past years. The state sends us the obvious, well understood message, while the attacks keep intensifying. Blatant attack on the editor of the TV B92’s program Insider, being a pattern of certain media for destroying a public person and preparing his public lynching, demands the final word of the local judiciary”, said in the statement. “We will continue to promote the decriminalization of libel and defamation, but also other amendments of rules which would enable more adequate protection of legal entities in the civil lawsuits from damaging their reputation. The reputation of the station B92 has been formed by the generations of journalists and correspondents for more than 16 years. The result of mutual endeavor is the trust of our listeners and viewers. We will fight for the positions we reached by respecting the principles to which B92 has been faithful to since the first day of its existence. When the sustainability of our arguments has been opposed with the fabrications, B92 will strive to protect all its journalists and associates individually by launching appropriate legal proceedings, and notifying the public of each of these lawsuits”, said in the statement of B92. The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) protested most strongly at the witch hunt being conducted by daily tabloids Srpski Nacional and Kurir for ANEM member RTV B92 and journalist Brankica Stankovic, the editor of B92's investigative program Insider. “In a program broadcast on July 4, the Insider crew examined the pattern by which a public figure is destroyed in the media and the ground prepared for a public lynching. We are now seeing an attempt to apply this same pattern to Stankovic herself and to discredit Radio Television B92. Thus Kurir, in its July 6 edition, in an article by Dragan J. Vucicevic, who had himself taken part in the Insider program broadcast two days earlier, condemns B92 for daring to talk about media witch hunts. He accuses B92 of “Goebbels-like totalitarian propaganda, manipulation and indoctrination,” as well as “malicious editing and the worst kind of frame-up”. He also labels Brankica Stankovic “a liar, a manipulator and a fraudster”. Srpski Nacional joined the fray, also in its July 6 issue, coming up with a fantastic story about how TV B92 and Insider are actually a smokescreen for sexual orgies. This is presumably intended to indicate that any findings which this program and this station come to, and any messages they convey, are not particularly important or credible”, said in the statement of the Association. ANEM calls on the democratic public and especially all media companies and journalism associations to react sharply to articles which breach professional ethics and journalist codices. These articles are aimed at a public lynching of people who think differently and ultimately at stifling public debate about the abuse of the media and the profession of journalism. Such abuses happen far too often in this society. We are seeing that every attempt to examine the events of the recent past, whether they be the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic or the crimes committed during the wars of the last decade, results in the same, undoubtedly orchestrated, attacks. ANEM believes that the pattern of media outlets acting as branch offices of various political, quasi-political and criminalised centres of power function must be dismantled and the lethal influence of these on media and society brought to an end. This task should be a priority for journalists, the media and professional associations”, said in the statement of ANEM. Media Council of the Belgrade Media Center stated that the monthly analysis showed numerous examples of violation of ethical codes in the Serbian tabloid press. The Council also stated that two journalists’ associations, Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) and Journalists’ Association of Serbia (JAS), have been working together on the ethical code of journalism in the attempt to regulate media sphere in Serbia. The code would oblige the media to regularly publish the reports on unprofessional conduct. Gordana Susa, the rapporteur of the Council, said that one such code would cause certain media to close down. The reporting of the print media on the author and editor of investigative program Insider has also been criticized by eight non-governmental organizations and Civic Alliance of Serbia, which has also accused the weekly Evropa for the same unprofessional conduct. Culture Decontamination Center’s Borka Pavicevic said that the official reaction was necessary: “This kind of addressing to public is simply scandalous and odious, but we have to talk about them. We must not keep our mouth and eyes shut, for no good will come out of it.” Cedomir Jovanovic’s Liberal Democratic Fraction has also announced taking the issue with several Belgrade papers to court. Cedomir Jovanovic will file a legal complaint against abovementioned dailies for the articles published recently. Jovanovic denied of having given the statement to the Nacional on July 7, 2005, nor having spoken to any journalist of this daily. Jovanovic is ready to repeat and append all that he publicly stated in the investigative program Insider, for the purpose of determining the whole truth, said in the statement of the Liberal Democratic Fraction.