According to Stevan Dojcinovic, the Editor-in-Chief of the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), the verdicts courts handed down against his organisation are only the beginning of a crackdown on media and activists in the country. He said that the government has decided to use SLAPPs instead of physical violence in its efforts to deal with critical media.
Dojcinovic spoke at a forum as part of the „Festival of Reconciliation“. He stressed that the fact that the government has started using SLAPP mechanisms does not necessarily mean that the violence will stop.
„Things have changed in recent years and I think that the government in Serbia no longer controls the circle of hooligans and right-wingers as it did before. Before, every kid with a baton had someone above whom he would ask if he could beat someone,“ Dojcinovic said.
Dojcinovic expects that KRIK will also lose most of the remaining court cases because the mechanism is set up in a way that makes it impossible for the media to win such cases.
„Then if you have a corrupt judiciary, you have an obvious situation,“ said Dojcinovic, noting that the judiciary targeted KRIK after it published the property database of judges.
Dojcinovic warned that the proceedings against KRIK will establish a practice for the future and will be used in other cases against the media.
„Judges in Serbia like to work in the shadows and get goosebumps when they hear their name, which is why we are now making everything related to the proceedings public. And in the future, we will also bring foreign observers to court,“ he announced.
Source: N1
