13. 11. 2004

MEDIA "RESPONSIBLE FOR POOR REPUTATION OF COURTS"

BELGRADE, November 13, 2004 - Speakers at a round table on corruption and the judiciary today blamed Serbian media for a negative public image of the nation's courts. There were claims that the media has contributed to persuading the public that the Serbian judiciary is generally corrupt at the round table "Open on corruption - three years later: the judiciary" which was organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The acting president of the Belgrade District Court, Sinisa Vazic, said that the public was convinced that the judiciary was corrupt because of frequent cases of incompetent judges and constant delays and prolonging of proceedings. "The courts are overcrowded. They have an average of about four hundred to six hundred active cases, but are barely able to settle about 25. The parties are unsatisfied, believing that the proceedings are unreasonably delayed," said Vazic. Serbian Supreme Court judge Novica Pekovic said that the reason the public believes the judiciary is corrupt is primarily the incompetence of judges in civil suits. The deputy president of the Belgrade District Court, Zvezdana Lutovac, said that incompetent comments by journalists and the statements of disappointed parties to suits create a mistaken image, making the problem of corruption appear greater than it really is. "The question is to what extent the inefficiency of the courts is a result of corruption or whether the reason is really the inefficient and incompetent bureaucracy. In addition we have too many cases and not enough judges," said Lutovac. Cedomir Cupic, from the Belgrade University Faculty of Political Science, was a lone voice against the general opinion of the jurists at the round table. Cupic claimed that, over the past fifty years, every attempt to review the functioning of the courts and any corruption had resulted in creating a deception about overcrowded courts and an inadequate number of judges. He also asserted that the judiciary is corrupt, attributing this to what he described as a catastrophic personnel and financial situation, as well as political obsequiousness to every new authority.