09. 02. 2004

Supreme Court on Mihajlovic claim

BELGRADE, February 9, 2004 – At the end of last year the Serbian Supreme Court overturned a Belgrade District Court decision ordering the editor in chief of Glas to publish Police Minister Dusan Mihajlovic’s response to a report published in the paper. The response was to be published in exactly the same place, and would have been as follows: Dusan Mihajlovic’s response to the report headlined “Parliamentary majority looking after Mihajlovic.” The Supreme Court ruled that the appeal of our lawyers was well-founded, among other things because the District Court had the obligation to establish, under the terms of the Information Act, that the editor in chief is not obliged to publish a reply if this reply does not refer to the information that the plaintiff claims it refers to. The Supreme Court is of the opinion that the response must be based on facts, i.e. on a claim based on facts rather than an opinion.