Appeal for assistance to the media outlet "Pančevo Si Ti" to pay the fine according to the ruling.
By a final judgment of the Appellate Court in Belgrade, the citizens' association Građanska akcija Pančevo, as the founder of the media outlet "Pančevo Si Ti", is obligated to pay the plaintiff, media worker from Vršac Aleksandar Čupić, the amount of 213,800 dinars within 15 days (which expires on January 28) as compensation for emotional distress due to the violation of the right to privacy (70,000 RSD) and for the costs of the first-instance (104,400 RSD) and appellate proceedings (39,400 RSD).
The editorial team invites everyone to help, within their means, to raise the necessary amount by the specified deadline, as they state, “this unexpected and detrimental expense calls into question the very survival of our media.”
Donations can be deposited into account number 325-9500600014458-35 with OTP Bank.
“Our media has a symbolic cash reserve of a few thousand dinars, which is far from sufficient to cover the awarded amount. Like many other local media outlets in Serbia, Pančevo Si Ti survives literally on the brink of sustainability, sporadically funded by the implementation of project activities from donors who do not impose conditions or threaten the principles and postulates of our editorial policy. This event places an additional burden on our already vulnerable financial resources, as PST does not generate income from marketing activities or from competitions for co-financing media content creation issued by government bodies,” the editorial team states.
Aleksandar Čupić filed a lawsuit against the media outlet “Pančevo Si Ti” in September 2021, dissatisfied with claims made in an article by Ivana Predić, who reported for Cenzolovka from a hearing in another case, having no insight into the medical documentation, and conveyed the words of the judge who stated that Čupić justified his absence from the hearing due to depression (https://www.cenzolovka.rs/pritisci-i-napadi/urednik-e-panceva-cupic-nije-se-nijednom-pojavio-na-sudu-u-dva-procesa-koji-traju-gotovo-dve-godine/).
Pančevo Si Ti published the article the following day (https://www.pancevo.city/na-granici/urednik-epancevo-cupic-nije-se-nijednom-pojavio-na-sudu-u-dva-procesa-koji-traju-gotovo-dve-godine/), which served as the basis for this lawsuit.
The first-instance lawsuit in the Higher Court in Belgrade, as the competent authority, resulted in a conviction against their website, but after an appeal, the Appellate Court overturned the ruling and ordered a new trial. The new first-instance proceedings concluded with an acquittal for PST; however, the new proceedings before the Appellate Court ended with the aforementioned ruling, which altered the new first-instance decision to their detriment.
