Serbia’s pro-regime tabloid sues four media, NGO, demands € 93,000 compensation

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‘Adria Media Group, the founder and publisher of the pro-regime Kurir tabloid, filed lawsuits against four media and an NGO for ‘damage to business reputation’ and demanded 93.5 thousand euros in compensation, thus joining the SLAPP suits against leading independent media in Serbia.

The tabloid sued ‘Raskrinkavanje’, a project of Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), media freedom website Cenzolovka, independent Danas daily and the Center of Inter-cultural Documentation, an NGO from the northern city of Novi Sad.

The lawsuit was also launched against the state RTS TV.

Kurir said those media and the NGO published untrue, unconfirmed and offensive information about the tabloid in articles saying it often reported fake and manipulative news and systematically nourished hate speech as a part of its editorial policy.

Kurir said that “they (the sued media and the NGO) acted contrary to Serbia’s Journalists’ Code and Business Ethics Code, inflicting non-material damage to Kurir, bearing in mind that its business is tightly linked to its reputation.”

The tabloid added, “because of that, Kurir demands a total compensation of 93.5 thousand euros (11 million dinars) for damaging business reputation by unfair competition.”

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This tabloid joined a series of the so-called SLAPPs, started by a private company, Millennium Team, against several local and independent media.

Later, the company reduced its compensation demands to a hundred euros per lawsuit but did not give them up.

Kurir has lost several lawsuits by media and individuals it falsely accused of different things.