11. 05. 2004

Damages awarded against journalist

NOVI SAD, May 11, 2004 – A court in Novi Sad has ordered journalist Marija Males to pay 100,000 dinars (about 1,300 euros) in damages for mental anguish caused by an article published in daily Danas in May, 2002. Plaintiff Dusko Radosavljevic, deputy chairman of the Vojvodina Executive Committee, had sought 400,000 dinars over a sentence in the article, which appeared under the headline “Dog eats dog and all of them side with Djindjic”. The contentious sentence reads: “Radosavljevic had no scruples about lobbying among other parties, all of which, he said, gave them his support, as well as in foreign embassies in this country.” Males told Beta agency that she would appeal. She said she was shocked by the ruling because the court had accepted that Radosavljevic had been correctly quoted, but had said that she had not presented the statement in a context appropriate to him.