24 February 2005
Alert
Journalist given a one-year suspended prison sentence in libel case
Incident details
Milan Milinkovic editor(s) sentenced"(. . . ) the Serbian government has just released a new draft Criminal Code that would make attacks on a person's honour and reputation punishable by up to a year in prison, despite the fact that Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic pledged to decriminalise press offences, in November 2004, before a delegation of OSCE representatives," RSF said.
The one-year suspended sentence was handed down by municipal court Judge Ivica Lazarevic in response to a libel action brought by Nebojsa Jovanovic, the owner of Medikom, a company that distributes Kodak products in Serbia. The action stems from a March 2002 article about Medikom's links with former president Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and with the Yugoslavian United Left (JUL) party of his wife, Mirjana Markovic.
The judge ruled that the word "relationship" was inappropriate in the context of the article and that Milinkovic should have used the term "cooperation". The former editor was also fined 100 euros (approx. US$132) and ordered to pay 400 euros (approx. US$528) in court costs. Milinkovic's lawyer, Branislav Sekulovic, said he would appeal.
The new draft law proposing prison sentences for journalists was made public on 19 February. In cases where a journalist reveals information about a person's private life that is judged to be damaging to their honour and reputation, the journalist can be given a one-year suspended sentence. The draft Criminal Code also proposes suspended prison sentences of up to six months for libel.
Source:
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
@rsf_rwb
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