Clash with Propaganda: The Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Serbia Files a Lawsuit Against Informer and Kurir Over Fake News

After years of spreading propaganda and disinformation, pro-government tabloids are finally facing consequences for their non-objective reporting, i.e., lies and defamation. Namely, the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office (VJT) announced that it will file lawsuits against Informer and Kurir with the competent court to determine journalistic and publishing responsibility for spreading false news concerning this prosecutor’s office.

This decision by the VJT was made after pro-government tabloids published an article titled “Did Dolovac Mislead the Public in Serbia? The Eurojust Website Does Not Confirm Her Hague Statements.” In it, as the prosecutor’s office stated, the public is presented with a false dilemma, i.e., the claim that the Supreme Public Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac was not present at the Eurojust headquarters in The Hague.

“Ignorance and lack of knowledge in obtaining information by the journalist and the responsible editor of the internet portals ‘informer.rs’, ‘kurir.rs’, as well as other media that may have transmitted the aforementioned false information, cannot justify the extremely malicious and false dilemma or information they spread, intentionally misleading the public in Serbia and continuing the negative and inciting campaign against Supreme Public Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac and the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Serbia,” the VJT statement reads.

Also, at the beginning of this month, the First Basic Court in Belgrade found the editor of Večernje novosti, Andrijana Nešić, guilty of the criminal offense of insult, following the lawsuit of lawyer Zdenko Tomanović, and imposed a prohibition on her performing editorial work as well as a fine of 450,000 dinars.

The announced lawsuits against tabloids raise two dilemmas – whether tabloids will finally calm down in spreading disinformation, and whether there is a possibility that independent media will also come under the scrutiny of the prosecutor’s office.

Gostiljac: It is necessary to reinstate the criminal offense of defamation in the Criminal Code

Lawyer Viktor Gostiljac says that, for the first time recently, the prosecutor’s office itself was targeted by false, unverified, and tendentious information, finding itself in the same position as hundreds of public figures exposed to the terror of spins and defamation due to their public statements.

“As a result, they have obviously decided to defend themselves by legal means and try in this way to stop further undermining the reputation of this institution. I fully support them in this,” Gostiljac points out.

However, he believes that we are far from introducing order in the media space, as no one enjoys effective protection from all kinds of slander and half-truths that have become the ruling method of behavior in the media space.

“Here we have several problems. First of all, it is necessary to reinstate the criminal offense of defamation in the Criminal Code, which was unjustifiably removed in 2012 precisely so that defamation could go unpunished. Second, it is necessary to tighten and consistently impose fines and other penalties for damaging someone’s reputation,” Gostiljac explains.

In this sense, the interlocutor of Danas supports the verdict against the editor of Novosti, because, as he says, it is a message that no one can be defamed without serious consequences.

“Journalism, on its side, must differentiate within its ranks and tighten the conditions under which someone can be called a journalist. We must not forget that journalism in the past 30 years of our wandering in building society was an active accomplice with political actors. All these are questions for another, new time. In the current situation, I do not expect any change in the conduct of tabloid propaganda services, and the announced lawsuits by the prosecutor’s office will not calm them down, but, on the contrary, will further inflame this war,” Gostiljac concludes.

Ilić: I do not remember VJT issuing a statement regarding falsehoods about dozens of prosecutors and me

Prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office Goran Ilić says that he does not expect any tabloid to stop spreading disinformation.

“It seems to me that tabloids in Serbia do not act in good faith with the idea of providing accurate and reliable information, according to the principle of journalistic diligence, but often their task is to lead offensive campaigns against opponents of the authorities. At the moment I saw your question, I was informed that I received a verdict against one tabloid for the offensive campaign once conducted against me,” Ilić points out.

He does not remember that the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, regarding falsehoods published about dozens of prosecutors and himself, issued a statement or in any way defended the prosecutorial profession.

“As far as I am concerned, I did not expect it either. However, for the sake of other prosecutors who may have expected some reaction from the current Supreme or former Republic Prosecutor’s Office when they were attacked, I must say that I am against institutions being used only when the reputation of one person is threatened if they did not act the same way when others were attacked and insulted. If I were in a position to advise the Supreme Public Prosecutor, I would recommend that she personally file a lawsuit for compensation if she believes she has grounds for it, as her prosecutors have done for years,” Ilić says.

Babić: Problems arise if legal mechanisms are used selectively

Lawyer of the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia Marija Babić believes that it is always desirable to use all available institutional mechanisms before initiating court proceedings, such as sending retractions, appealing to the Press Council, or relevant regulatory bodies.

“However, what certain media have been doing recently goes beyond professional and lawful reporting. The volume of disinformation, frequent violations of the law and the Journalists’ Code, as well as systematic misleading of the public, seriously undermine the media space and the role that media should have in a democratic society. When citizens are misled, and media content is used to conduct campaigns against individuals and institutions not favored by the authorities, the media move away from their primary purpose – accurate, responsible, and objective reporting. In such circumstances, we understand the need to apply legal mechanisms to protect the public interest, the integrity of institutions, and citizens’ right to truthful information,” Babić explains.

She emphasizes that past practice shows that neither court proceedings, Press Council decisions, nor reactions of competent regulatory bodies have had a significant impact on the editorial policy of tabloids.

“For years, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against these media, but despite that, the frequent spread of disinformation, smear campaigns, and open propaganda activity remain their recognizable mode of operation. Moreover, we witness that certain media, despite numerous violations of the Code and laws, are rewarded through public funding. Because of all this, it is difficult to expect that these lawsuits or any lawsuits will significantly change established patterns of their reporting,” she points out.

She assesses that freedom of the media is hardly more threatened than it is now, but not because of the actions of the VJT, but because of the long-standing approach toward journalists and media.

“Systematic targeting of critical media, smear campaigns, allocation of public funds to media that continuously violate professional standards, degradation of professional journalism, and undermining institutions and independent regulatory bodies… all this has affected the deterioration of media freedom over the past more than 10 years,” Babić says.

She adds that lawsuits seeking to establish a violation of a certain right cannot be considered a threat to media freedom when they relate to obviously false or manipulative content, especially given the content published by tabloids.

“The problem arises if legal mechanisms are used selectively or as a pressure instrument against journalists, as in SLAPP lawsuits. According to available information from the VJT statement, it does not appear that this is the case here. Until we are more thoroughly acquainted with the content of specific lawsuits, it is not possible to give a more precise comment,” Babić concludes.

We remind you that the verdict against the Novosti editor Andrijana Nešić, who was penalized for offensive writing about lawyer Zdenko Tomanović, attracted attention because it represents a precedent – for the first time, a journalist from pro-government media was punished with a ban on performing editorial work./Danas/