Veran Matić on the film "Beating in the Name of the People": Heroes and Victims

“Unimportant Heroes,” a film by Goran Marković and Free B92, immortalizes “ordinary people” from small and larger towns in the interior, who, through their absurd courage, tireless activism, and unwavering persistence, contributed to the awakening of the community in which they lived, in resistance to the destructive rule of Slobodan Milošević. They played a significant role in Serbia's liberation on October 5, 2000, paying a high personal price for their commitment.

Today, numerous brave activists fight for air, water, forests, and rivers, for justice and truth across the country, facing attacks, beatings, arrests, and being inundated with lawsuits.

Many of them say that they have endured all the harassment and sacrifices more easily, but the constant lawsuits and unending trials drain their energy, time, and money. SLAPP lawsuits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are a new way for the powerful to use numerous serial lawsuits to stop activists and journalists from engaging in public interest matters, revealing crimes, abuses, and environmental destruction. This plague is also recorded in numerous other countries. Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist from Malta, had 38 lawsuits that did not stop her from exposing corruption at the highest levels of government. Ultimately, she was killed by an explosive device planted in her car. The use of SLAPP lawsuits against journalists is well-known, but those against numerous activists and NGOs in the interior remain invisible to the public.

It is often difficult to explain what a SLAPP lawsuit really means. This film documents and explains through examples the mechanism and devastating power of this new form of pressure, censorship, often judicial violence, against activists, journalists, and whistleblowers who seek to protect the public interest, nature, and freedom of speech through their writings or activities.

“We have been fully engaged in activism – and now we are fully engaged in this institutional struggle,” says Vladimir Božić from Majdanpek, who, along with his association Ne Dam Nu Dao, fights against the destruction of nature by the Zijin Corporation. “We spend more time at police stations and courts than with our families.”

Dragana Arsić from the association Odbranimo Šume Fruške Gore has received five lawsuits for her noble fight to protect the forests of this mountain, including a demand for imprisonment.

Petar Živanović, defending every tree from illegal logging in Fruška Gora, was beaten, had his mobile phone confiscated, and recordings deleted. (This case was addressed by the president of the country, who announced that the perpetrators had been apprehended and would be sanctioned).

Dragan Dmitrović, an activist from “Ne damo Staricu,” survived violence, while Nikola Dragošanović reports that he counted slaps up to 28 in police custody, but afterwards lost count of the blows to his entire body.

They were in a camp-blockade for 100 days, protecting Mount Starica, which shielded Majdanpek from additional pollution from surrounding tailings. Then they spent 90 days in jail. Since then, they have faced countless court appearances.

“We were not defending our personal property, but the property of the Republic of Serbia” (Vladimir Božić)

Slobodan Švajner, who addressed the issue of garbage disposal in Kladovo under a pseudonym on social media, was soon uncovered and began receiving threats, both to him and other activists. He was followed by the police and detained. Classic “taking for a piss” methods were used, where pressure was exerted through alcohol and drug testing, and later, false positive results were fabricated.

Aladin Paučinac from Novi Pazar is one of the activists who, during the COVID-19 pandemic, led protests demanding accurate information from hospitals about the number of deaths from this disease, convinced that the real results were being concealed. He received a series of 13 lawsuits, which were later merged, but even after that wave, a new one followed with further lawsuits. The threats he experiences on the street, even in the presence of police, are terrifying. Lawsuits and threats have become his life: “The goal was to break me and to serve as an example to others.”

Journalists from the KRIK editorial team are the most frequent targets of SLAPP lawsuits. At this moment, more than 15 court cases with elements of SLAPP lawsuits are ongoing. They are the most frequent targets of politicians and their close allies.

The destructive nature of such lawsuits is highlighted by Stevan Dojčinović, the editor-in-chief of KRIK: “By 2021, we were sued at least 10 times, but we won every case in court. Since 2021, everything has changed, and we started losing cases…”

This wave of SLAPP lawsuits aims to redefine the rules in journalism: “I think that the authorities, which control the majority of the media, cannot find a way to stop us, and now they have found a way to succeed through future court rulings.”

“It is a systemic, fundamental, thoughtful, orchestrated campaign against independent media, as it is simply unbelievable that all of them – Šapić, Nikola Petrović, Koluvija – use the same methods,” testifies Aleksandar Đorđević, a journalist from BIRN, which has 5 SLAPP lawsuits.

Ana Toskić Cvetinović from the organization Partners Serbia says: “The goal is certainly intimidation and pressure. It is quite clear to you that this lawsuit is aimed at making you stop reporting or commenting on a particular topic, and I think that is an unmistakable feeling.”

The lawyers who stand by their clients are also a kind of heroes. In the film, lawyers Mihailo Pavlović, Kristina Todorović, and Danijela Nestorović, a lawyer and a member of parliament, speak out. She herself found herself under surveillance and listening measures alongside her client, despite having “double immunity” as both a legal representative and a member of parliament.

KRIK lawyer Kruna Savović states: “In a completely normal rhythm of life, I would see some clients much less frequently. If trials accumulate after a month of seeing each other daily, when the period comes when the court does not operate at full capacity, you see that you miss that person after some time. You feel the need to check how they are doing.”

Lawyers also emphasize that there is no need for new legislation on SLAPP lawsuits as we already have legal frameworks against such lawsuits. “A good way to prevent this phenomenon is to start from what the public interest is in each specific case.”

Kruna Savović adds: “You can sense that a struggle will end with an outcome you fear. But you are ready to fight, even before institutions outside this country, namely the European Court of Human Rights.”

These lawsuits are prolonged and exhausting; going through several instances can take years, and only when every possibility is exhausted does a lawsuit remain for the European Court of Human Rights. And then several more years. In the case of B92's lawsuit against Serbia, represented by Kruna Savović, which was filed in 2016, the ruling in favor of this media house was made only in 2023, with the state having to pay just over €5,000 in damages and an additional €2,400 for court costs over a decade-long legal battle. Certainly, money is not the satisfaction but justice and the establishment of judicial practice.

For all the actors in this film, protecting the public interest is paramount, along with a determination to fight all the way to Strasbourg, despite the enormous sacrifices involved.

This is just a part of the journalists and activists affected by SLAPP lawsuits. The media primarily follow the most notable cases of investigative journalists, but it is very important that every case in any part of the country is treated equally and that every SLAPP harassment is reported, so that the wider public can show solidarity with the defenders of the public interest.

Jelena Zorić is a journalist who is part of a community, highly regarded as incorruptible, professionally robust, without alternatives. She has experienced everything that we would not wish on anyone, an attack with various threats directed at her personally, and then at her family. She has remained unprotected by institutions and has continued to pursue journalism even more vigorously, which irritates the authorities. When I asked her what had the greatest impact on her in working with victims of SLAPP lawsuits, she told me:

“Only when I started investigating SLAPP against activists did I realize that the scale of SLAPP is unfathomable.”

This SLAPP in the Serbian way is not just litigation; it is literally the persecution of dissenters, where the state is either the biggest slapper or the most serious accomplice.

Somewhere in Serbia, far from the media spotlight, activists are ostracized from society, from work, arrested, beaten, and mostly already impoverished people are subjected to fines to force them into exile to pay their dues.

This is the destruction of individuals, communities, and society as a whole.

When it comes to journalists, the media, and activists, it is clear that the SLAPP mechanism is against freedom of speech; it is, in fact, a brutal form of censorship.

Jelena is the right choice for BIRN to make this documentary. She herself has been exposed to this kind of legal violence. Dragana Žarković Obradović has best understood what is happening to her and the BIRN editorial team. What Aleksandar Đorđević has done through his investigations related to state abuses, especially regarding social issues, has no other response other than that associated with conspiracy and SLAPP accusations.

Incredible heroes today suffer from SLAPP lawsuits in Serbia. They pay exorbitant prices for activism, which we can define as the protection of the public interest, and even of Serbia itself... Thanks to Jelena and BIRN, we become aware of what we have known and seen, but have not registered strongly enough. We have not fully shown solidarity with those who have fought battles in our name. Jelena and BIRN testify to the destructive role of the authorities, the dominant ones who can do anything, and the individual heroes who resist, even at the cost of their own existence.

We are fortunate that these heroes are becoming part of our everyday life, that they abound in Serbia, because only through joint struggle for the public interest and through solidarity can there be systemic change, without which there will be no progress in terms of protection from judicial persecution, as discussed in "Slapping." At the end of the film, it did not say “to be continued”... but it is clear that there are still many examples to bring to the public's attention.

To be continued...