24. 12. 2012

AMENDMENT TO THE PROPOSED LAW ON AMENDMENTS TO THE CRIMINAL CODE

A working version of the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code was a subject of a public discussion, which ended on November 5, 2012. ANEM participated in the public discussion with its written comments, namely by proposing amendments to the text of the law that would decriminalize defamation and insult and retain Paragraph 3 of Article 138 of the current Criminal Code, which provided for greater protection to journalists in cases of exerted threats in relation to the work they were performing. ANEM also infomed the public on these proposals in its statement.

Following the public discussion, the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration decided to decriminalize defamation, but preserved, however, the provision that provided for the deletion of Paragraph 3 of Article of the Criminal Code in the Draft and Proposed Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code.

Believing that the specificity of the journalistic profession and risks it entails must be acknowledged and that there are no reasonable grounds for deleting a paragraph guaranteeing journalists, because of the importance of their profession, greater protection than to persons not performing the work in the public interest in the field of information, ANEM, together with its partners from the Media Coalition (NUNS, UNS, NDNV and Local Press), has undertaken joint actions aimed to prevent the deletion of this provision of the Criminal Code pertaining to journalists.

The Media Coalition addressed the relevant Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, as well as the National Parliament and proposed amendment to Article 13 of the Proposed Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code, as follows:

"Article 13 of the Proposed Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code is amended as follows:

In Article 138, Paragraph 3 is amended as follows:

(3) Whoever commits the offense referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article against a person performing the work in the public interest in the area of public information, in relation to the activities that person performs, shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment of one to eight years."

Without going into the reasons for deleting the qualified form of criminal offense endangerment of safety of other persons referred to in paragraph 3 of Article 138 of the Criminal Code, the Media Coalition sought, with this amendment, to retain a qualified form of this criminal offense in relation to journalists, which provided for their greater protection. The Media Coalition stated that it considered it necessary for the following reasons: the fact that journalists were often targets of attacks and threats, which usually lacked adequate reactions, while the perpetrators of these attacks and threats were rarely found or convicted, and even if they were processed, the penalties imposed on them were at the limit of legal minimum, or even below it. In addition, the importance of this provision lies particularly in the fact that, if omitted, the minimum prescribed sentence for threatening journalists would be four times decreased, which could only encourage perpetrators of threats and further endanger the safety of and position of journalists.

According to latest information, the request of the Media Coalition has been accepted and as a result, the paragraph 3 of Article 138 of the Criminal Code has been preserved, however, in a somewhat modified form, due to the need to synchronize levels of penalties with those imposed for other criminal offenses. Namely, the paragraph stipulates greater protection to persons performing the work of public interest in the field of public information, as well as to some other persons, in cases of exerted threats in relation to their work they perform, subject to a punishment for perpetrators of such threats from 6 months to 5 years in prison.