18. 11. 2004

Official secret or false information?

BELGRADE, SUBOTICA, November 18, 2004 – Public prosecutors in Subotica are seeking investigation of a journalist from the weekly news magazine Vreme. Milos Vasic is suspected of libelling Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic and Police Minister Dragan Jocic. At issue are articles by Vasic published in Vreme under the headlines “Associates, lawyers and old mates” and “What’s been denied by who and what hasn’t”. The Subotica prosecution says that in these Vasic claims that the prime minister and ministers knew about the transcripts of conversations between Dejan Milenkovic, one of the defendants in the murder of prime minister Zoran Djindjic, and his lawyer, Biljana Kajganic. Vasic last night described the demand of the Subotica prosecution that he be investigated as pressure on the free media which had no precedent, even during the communist period. “Not even Milosevic did this,” he said. Speaking to B92, Vasic said that he expected to be called in for interrogation in the near future. He added that he had discovered that, on the basis of the same articles, the District Public Prosecutor in Belgrade was conducting an investigation of an unnamed person on suspicion of revealing official secrets. “As far as I understand, false information doesn’t fall into the category of official secrets. If this is libel it must be false, otherwise it wouldn’t be libel. “So here we have an interesting story. The Belgrade District Public Prosecution is doing one job in connection with my article, and the Subotica Prosecution is doing another one, again connected with my article, and all this is two and a half months later, and at the same time Biljana Kajganic suddenly remembers she should write to correct Vreme, which she could have done immediately at the time. “This looks to me like an orchestrated campaign which is really a form of pressure on the free press unprecedented even in the communist era,” said Vasic.