Police Minister Nebojša Stefanović's lawsuit against Vesna Pešić and the editor of the "Pesčanik" portal, which was announced to the public on October 14, fit perfectly into an otherwise schizoid media week in Serbia. She very concretely demonstrated and vividly illustrated the fact that the highest authorities in Serbia not only do not know what the media are and what they are for, but also have a serious problem with a deficit of knowledge about human rights, freedom of speech, and even basic media literacy.
photo: fonet / dragan antonićTHAT'S HOW IT IS WHEN THE SOUL HURTS: Nebojsa Stefanović...
Stefanović is neither the first nor the last politician to sue the media for this or that analysis, report or column, just as Vesna Pešić, Svetlana Lukić and Svetlana Vuković are not the first to be sued for what they wrote or published.
It is the first time, however, that a politician completely misses the point in his lawsuit, showing that he does not know what he is suing for, or even who he is actually suing.
LOCATIONS, IT CAN BE BETTER: First of all, Nebojša Stefanović is suing "journalist Vesna Pešić" because of the article "Salination" published on the "Pesčanika" website on May 14, 2016. The fact that Vesna Pešić is not a journalist, that she has never been one in her life, and that she is for a minister it's really a shame and a shame that he doesn't know who she really is - she's of secondary importance here. It is important, however, that for Minister Stefanović, everyone who writes in the media is a journalist.
In contrast to the literate world, let alone the world that holds doctorate or master's degrees, and even occupies the highest state positions - the Minister of Police is not yet familiar with the fact that, in addition to journalists, sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, analysts can write in the media , researchers, writers and various others.
Stefanović's lawsuit refers to Vesna Pešić's thesis that the minister is stupid.
In the disputed text she says:
"Until now, we haven't found out why exactly he was assigned the role of being the dumbest." Maybe because he always appears after Vučić to 'plug' the remaining holes. And what kind of pearls did he spill this time? He stated that it is 'spin' that the main news in Serbia is the demolition of three illegal buildings in Savamala. Just three objects? And we saw that pile of rubble that the excavators have been removing for days, and the demolition lasted all night. The minister wisely added that demolition in such a way must not happen, but even when it happens, it should not be the main news in Serbia. But I guess it should be secondary, or there is no news that masked people are illegally demolishing the city center at night and committing hundreds of crimes. It was very stupid of him, but what follows is the stupidest. When asked by the journalist why the police did not react when the injured guards and owners of the facilities in Savamala informed them what was happening, he said that the police should not have reacted because it is not allowed to endanger the lives of police officers! According to the minister, they could have been killed by electric current from the destroyed buildings. And that's what happened - the police serve to protect the police!"
photo: milovan milenković...against V. Pešić
Apart from the fact that he believes that his "business honor and reputation" were injured by such a text, Stefanović states that "due to the publication of false information" he suffered "mental pain, due to the violation of reputation, honor, freedom and personal rights", as well as "due to the creation of untrue and misconceptions about his personality". With that, Vesna Pešić and the editors of "Peščanika" "caused him the greatest degree of damage" for which he is seeking material compensation of 200.000 dinars.
The first problem here is that Stefanović complains about "untruth", i.e. to the fact that - as stated - what he said to other media was incorrectly reported. That's why he attached to the complaint an interview he gave to RTS, where he spoke about "spin" and "demolition of three illegal buildings", exactly as Vesna Pešić reported. He says, however, that he did not tell the story about the electricity from the destroyed buildings, which could have killed the police.
Along with all the other problems that plague him, it turns out that the minister also has a problem with his memory.
As Dejan Ilić reminds on the "Peščanika" website, he spoke about electricity on May 12, when he reacted to the finding of the Ombudsman that the police had left citizens "at the mercy of people in phantoms". Responding to that thesis, the minister literally said: "Certainly no one from the top of the police really ordered anything illegal." But when there is a threat to the lives of police officers, for example when we have cut power cables, then the police really do not approach that part until the danger to the lives of police officers is removed."
It may be that Minister Stefanović forgot his own statement, but it is truly devastating that neither he nor the team representing him bothered to see what Vesna Pešić was actually writing about and what statements she was referring to. Maybe it didn't really matter: an accusation of lying, after all, sounds much better than a review of one's own words spoken only a few months ago.
STUPID, STUPID AND STUPIDEST: Here, finally, we arrive at the domain of human rights, for which Stefanović also laments. The problem, apparently, is that Vesna Pešić calls him "the stupidest", and his statements "stupid" and "the stupidest". If he had ever read not a book, but even the most superficial newspaper article about freedom of speech and reporting, Minister Stefanović would have known that in the media and in the public space in general there is a difference between factual statements and value judgments.
If you say that someone is a thief, you would have to prove it, because it is an assertion and accusation, based on someone's concrete actions. But, if you say that someone is stupid, that is your opinion about him, which you have the right to and which you are not obliged to argue with anything. From the point of view of freedom of speech, it is sufficient, although not necessary, that you explain the context that led you to such a conclusion.
In this sense, the case of Oberschlick v. Austria from 1991, which came before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, is already proverbially mentioned.
Journalist Gerhard Fritz Oberschlick commented on the speech of politician Jörg Haider, i.e. his thesis that in Austria "all soldiers fought for peace and freedom in the Second World War... including the Germans", and that "only those who have the right to freedom of speech have the right to freedom of speech" risked their lives in the war". To all this, Oberschlick said that "Heider is not a Nazi, but he is an idiot." Offended, Jörg Haider sued the journalist, and the Austrian court ruled in his favor. Later, however, the case reached Strasbourg, where it was concluded that in the disputed case "it is not a question of a personal attack, since the author offered an objectively understandable explanation for his position." The explanation also states: "Although calling a politician an idiot in public may be an insult, the name (idiot) is not disproportionate to the outrage that Haider knowingly caused."
If we now draw a parallel between Haider and Stefanović, it is not difficult to come to the conclusion that calling a politician the stupidest "in public can be an insult", but that it is not "disproportionate to the outrage" that Stefanović caused.
Although it is an area in which there are many "gray zones" and in which a lot depends on personal interpretation, the fact is that in the civilized world, value judgments are allowed, as long as they do not contribute to discrimination (on any basis), hate speech or the propagation of violence.
RISE OF PRESSURE: Of course, a key question arises in all of this: has Serbia reached an evolutionary stage in which everyone - whether his name was Stefanović, Vučić or Mr. God - is allowed to say that he is stupid, if he is already promoting such evaluations with his actions?
Apparently, that hasn't happened yet.
Stefanović's lawsuit, as it is - unforced, imprecise and based on incorrect premises - first of all means that the nervousness of the Vučić regime has entered a developed phase in which professional help is already necessary. Namely, it would be good if the prime minister and his closest collaborators finally understood that the job of the media is to impartially report on their activities and to criticize them (if they deserve criticism). It is not the media's job to approve their every move. Even if they do something good, the media is not obliged to praise them. They were elected and paid to work in the interest of citizens, so good, and any thanks are unnecessary.
Personal animosity towards the media, those who work in the media and the role of the media in general, is a completely different story - here the representatives of the regime, led by the one in charge, show an incredible amount of immaturity and take everything they are told very personally. Minister Nebojša Stefanović remained silent on the accusations of a falsified doctorate, on all the media criticism of Savamala and the inaction of the police, but the pressure rose on him because of his assessment that he was the "stupidest". So, you can write and say what you want, but if you don't love me - that doesn't work!
Worryingly bad relations between the media and those who currently govern Serbia are illustrated perhaps more than anything by the fact that a minister sued a media outlet just because he was called stupid in that media outlet (although this was not put in the foreground).
Although he could have complained about it at the press conference (which is already a common practice), to ask for space to react to "Sandbox"; although he could have addressed the Press Council, or presented his side of the story in one of the pro-government media outlets – he folded and sued for alleged untruths and alleged mental pain.
Such an action is a message to all journalists and analysts, pressure on the already pressured media, but above all - a sign that this society is deeply sick, that the role of the media has officially been called into question, but also that state officials in their arrogance , self-sufficiency and blindness to everything that happens outside their little world - they are slowly but surely losing their compass.
