The Belgrade Commercial Appellate Court has upheld the first instance verdict and dismissed the lawsuit filed by the publisher of Kurir against KRIK in 2021, in which they accused us of being disloyal competition and of damaging the reputation of the tabloid. The Kurir’s publisher filed the lawsuit after KRIK’s portal Raskrikavanje revealed that in 2020 this tabloid had published more than 100 false, unfounded or manipulative front-page stories. Under the final ruling, the publisher has been ordered to pay court costs to KRIK and the other media outlets that were also sued for sharing the Raskrikavanje investigation.
By: Isidora Martać
KRIK’s portal Raskrikavanje, which monitors the accuracy of information published in the media, published an analytical article in 2021 titled: “Close to 1,200 false and unfounded stories on the front pages of five newspapers in 2020.” In this investigation, which was also reported by other media outlets, Raskrikavanje journalists found that Kurir had published 163 false, unfounded or manipulative front-page stories in 2020.
In response, Kurir’s publisher filed a lawsuit against KRIK and several other media outlets that republished this information. The lawsuit, submitted to the Commercial Court in Belgrade, falsely claimed that KRIK was disloyal competition and that we had published false and offensive statements that damaged Kurir’s reputation. The publisher demanded compensation totaling 11 million dinars.
In April last year, the first instance court rejected the lawsuit as unfounded. Judge Ljiljana Stojković stated in the ruling that the allegations of unfair competition were unacceptable, as the information published on Raskrikavanje does not fall under the scope of the Law on Trade, under which the lawsuit was filed.
After Kurir appealed, the case was reviewed by the Commercial Appellate Court, which upheld the original ruling. The publisher was ordered to pay a total of 1.6 million dinars (approximately 13,500 EUR) in court costs to the media outlets it had sued without grounds. In addition to KRIK, this includes the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, the daily Danas and the Center for Intercultural Communication.
“These are organizations whose goal is not profit, but achieving a shared or public interest, i.e., public benefit goals… (these organizations) are not traders, they do not engage in commerce and therefore cannot be considered competitors within the meaning of the Law on Trade,” the ruling stated.
This verdict concludes one of several proceedings launched by Kurir’s publisher against KRIK. Two additional lawsuits are still ongoing, filed after Raskrikavanje continued analyzing front pages and published two more reports detailing the number of false and manipulative headlines published by Kurir.
The KRIK newsroom continues to face numerous SLAPP lawsuits, which are filed with the intention of intimidating and exhausting journalists in order to stop them from reporting on certain topics.
Among those who have sued KRIK are state officials and individuals closely linked to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. Among others, Belgrade Appellate Court Judge Dušanka Đorđević has sued KRIK twice, seeking prison sentences and work bans for our journalists.
Domestic and international media and journalist organizations have repeatedly condemned these lawsuits, stating that their aim is to intimidate and exhaust the KRIK newsroom and have offered their full support to our team.
