Belgrade, January 27, 2002 - In its statement on the decision of the Belgrade First Municipal Court to give NIN editor-in-chief Stevan Niksic a five-month suspended jail sentence, the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) repeats its stance on the unacceptability of the criminal-legal regulation of slander and insults within Serbian and Yugoslav legislation – It is in breach of the freedoms of expression, press and public information as guaranteed by the constitution.

In a private suit filed by Aleksa Djilas against Stevan Niksic, editor-in-chief of weekly NIN, the First Municipal Court in Belgrade gave Niksic a five-month prison sentence, suspended two years. Djilas sued Niksic over a letter published in NIN's column "Readers' letters" which contained a reader’s opinions of Aleksa Djilas' father, communist official Milovan Djilas. The readers' reaction followed a conversation with Aleksa Djilas published in NIN some two years ago.

In its statement, ANEM underlines that, besides being a reaction to the interview with Aleksa Djilas, the disputed letter is just one of two readers' letters published, containing different opinions on a historic figure. Stevan Niksic, in line with the highest standards of his profession, believed that the paper he edits should also publish different opinions on a period of our history and on the role played by the father of Mr. Djilas.

Particularly worrying is the fact that the court clearly did not accept the inevitability of various levels of tolerance of critical, even insulting stances when they refer to historic figures, politicians or state officials, which it was obliged to do, in line with the Serbian and Yugoslav legislation in force. Such practice of our courts, the passing of sentences, even suspended sentences, can lead to a situation in which editors and journalists will refrain from publishing certain "sensitive" opinions or information, i.e. self-censorship that prevents the media from performing their function in a democratic society. 

Stevan Niksic's conviction is also a sorry example of the practice of convicting journalists on criminal charges, continuing from the time of Slobodan Milosevic's rule, when, among others, Slavko Curuvija was given a prison sentence, as well as Dnevni telegraf journalists Srdjan Jankovic and Zoran Lukovic on charges filed by Milovan Bojic, health minister at the time. 

In its statement, ANEM points out that yet another criminal charge has been filed against Niksic for slander, by the Serbian Minister for Culture Branislav Lecic. If the court were to find him guilty on these charges as well, the NIN editor-in-chief could find himself in prison in line with the rules of the penal code on severe punishments for repetition of the same crimes, as the first journalist in Serbia to face what Miroslav Filipovic and Zoran Lukovic once faced, who were released from prison on October 10, and October 21, 2000. 

Finally, ANEM has asked the highest court authorities to overturn the decision to pass a prison sentence against the NIN editor-in-chief, and the authorities in Serbia and Yugoslavia to undertake serious efforts to reform criminal legislation, bringing our laws in this field in line with European standards.

Veran Matic,
ANEM Chairman