30. 03. 2005

SLANDER OF OPINION AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

BELGRADE, March 30, 2005 – A panel “Slander of opinion, twenty years later” was held in Belgrade on Tuesday, March 29. The freedom of opinion and speech would be seriously jeopardized if people still went to prison for libel in Serbia, as provided by the Bill on Criminal Code, said the panelists. Zagorka Golubovic from the Institute for Philosophy and social theory said that Serbia has not gone far from old routine, when people were charged for expressing their thoughts, opinions and feelings, while scientific and research work were banned by court verdicts. Serbian President Boris Tadic said that the solution must be found for people who were sentenced because they had different opinion, but also those who created such reality with their verdicts. Tadic noted that imprisonment as sentence for libel should be abrogated from the Serbian Criminal Code. “I personally haven’t sued one weekly for calling me a cannibal, nor have I sued anybody for criticizing me. I hope that I would never be in position to sue somebody who libeled me because everything can be abused in this situation. Politicians cannot be protected more than other citizens. At some extent, they are even more exposed, but that does not make libel generally accepted today”, said the president. Milan Nikolic, charged for libel on probation at that time, said that he was appalled by Stojkovic’s appointment as justice minister. “During the process, my principal argument that I presented to him was that I had been sued for my standpoint that intellectuals were incriminated only for their opinion, which was exactly what he was doing, and which was the utmost perversion of that process”, said Nikolic. Dragoljub Micunovic was the publisher of the banned book of Nebojsa Popov at that time. “The fact that Popov would be the witness in the process in which the judge, who had banned his book, appeared as a man suing the Democratic Party for libel, was pure science fiction”, said Micunovic. Persons found guilty in the political lawsuits have announced the possible renewal of the processes, hoping to get the acquittal verdict after twenty years.