21. 10. 2005

DANAS SUES PETROVIC AND NIN

BELGRADE, October 21, 2005 – Belgrade daily Danas has announced pressing charges against the weekly NIN and former Head of State Security service Goran Petrovic. The daily will sue Petrovic for serious accusations issued on the account of Danas journalist Vuk Z. Cvijic in the interview given to the weekly NIN. According to Danas, Petrovic has discredited and libelled both Cvijic and the daily by claiming Cvijic was a “drug addict” who a “military service collaborator”. The daily Danas also reminded the public on the chronology of events from the moment it was discovered that Cvijic was wiretapped. Danas stated that it did not sue the responsible ones at the time, however, after Petrovic’s attack of Cvijic and Danas in the interview of NIN, the daily was forced to take legal charges against both Petrovic and NIN. “It is vital to remind the former chief, the editorial of the oldest Serbian weekly and the public, that these outrageous and ungrounded accusations on Cvijic’s account are not only libel, but also violation of his privacy. It’s needless to say that the drug addiction is a disease, and every disease, even if it is accurately diagnosed, is not illegal and a police matter”, the daily stated, demanding from Petrovic to name his source of information on the alleged medical condition of Cvijic. Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS) protested over the insults and unsubstantiated insinuations by Petrovic. “These very grave qualifications are unfit for the serious people. But, when they come from the former head of one of the secret services, we are reasonably troubled with the question whether we are going back to the times of publicising unconfirmed claims from the secret files”, said in the statement of NUNS. “Obviously out of the need for sensationalism, Petrovic neglected the fact that there were papers and journalist who were doing their job honestly. NUNS is very concerned by the fact that one such a respectable weekly like NIN allowed that its pages be used as a field for making unverified and undue accusations against the fellow journalists. It only aggravates the situation of our media, most certainly infected by numerous violations of ethical and professional codes”, said NUNS.