"I knew that I was bothering them and that they would sue me, but I did not know that the proceedings would last eight years and that even after the verdict in my favor, it would not be over."
That's how journalist Predrag Ćurčija of Vojvodina Radio and Television for US talks about SLAPP lawsuit which was filed against him ten years ago by businessman Vladimir Vrbaški from Vojvodina.
Although they are jointly and severally sued journalist, the editor and the media received justice in 2024 with the judgment of the Appellate Court, they have not been reimbursed for the large costs resulting from the compensation claim of 10 million dinars.
This is the story of an exhausting eight-year process, which began during the active work of the correspondent of RTV Ćurčija, and ended when he retired. About the only trial this experienced journalist faced in his career.
Citizens' call to a journalist they trust
In May 2016, Ćurčija was the head of RTV's correspondence office in Sombor. He reported on daily current affairs, did reports, researched problems faced by citizens and made contributions. It was quite normal for the First Administration from the small town of Gakovo to visit them at the invitation of the residents of the settlement. They told him that they don't have electricity and water, even though they pay all their bills regularly.
"It turned out that the company 'Graničar', which managed the property, stopped forwarding the money that the tenants paid for communal services. They said 'we have problems with the new owner named Vladimir Vrbaški', and I wondered how he could be the new owner when it comes to state land," recalls Ćurčija.
A few days after the phone call, Ćurčia's report on the problems of the residents of Gakovo was broadcast by RTV.
In the TV report, the interlocutors mentioned Vladimir Vrbaški, the company Graničar, and the journalist stated that this is a man who is "known for the fact that his company usurped state arable land."
Since the report contained statements from citizens about Vrbaško, the journalist tried several times to get in touch with him. Vrbaški did not answer, but his lawyer did.
Without answering the questions, Ćurčija says, he wrote in an email: "We will sue you."
Dozens of trips from Odzak to Belgrade
The lawsuit arrived, shortly after the program was broadcast. Vrbaški sued RTV, the then editor-in-chief Marijana Jović Lainović and journalist Predrag Ćurčija, demanding compensation of ten million dinars for "injury of reputation and inflicted emotional pain".
Far more than the amount that could otherwise be awarded, says UNS lawyer Nenad Krajnović, who defended Ćurčija from the beginning.
"The lawsuit was set up so that the factual situation was complicated. In my opinion, it was obvious that the plaintiff's intention was not to receive compensation for the so-called mental pain, but only to cause financial damage - both to the media and to the defendant journalist," says Krajnović.
What followed, Ćurčija today describes with the word "mortification". Ćurčija crossed 300 kilometers, the total distance from Odžak to Belgrade and back, for each hearing, waiting for Vrbaška to appear at the trial.
"For years, he did not come to hearings. It was allegedly for health reasons, or because he was unable to do so due to other obligations. Each visit required a futile trip by the representatives and attorneys of the parties to the High Court in Belgrade in order to ascertain that the prosecutor could not attend the trial that he himself initiated," says Krajnović.
The procedure thus exhausted both Ćurčia and RTV in terms of time and money.
Every hearing, explains Krajnović, meant the access of at least three lawyers with travel expenses, for access to the hearing when the value of the dispute was 10 million dinars.
"Then, apart from money, the defendants would also spend their time preparing for the trial, going to the trial in another city, and during that time they did not do their basic journalistic work. This proceeding was initiated and conducted as a classic example of a SLAPP lawsuit," says Krajnović.
Three to four hearings were held annually. In eight years - about thirty arrivals to Belgrade, says Ćurčija.
Every time he drove his own car, paid for parking, gas. He estimates that he spent more than a thousand euros on the trip and related expenses alone.
"I remember asking the judge: 'Excuse me, what is this about? I come from Odzak every time, and he just doesn't show up,'" says Ćurčija.
Ćurčija received justice, but not compensation for court costs
After eight years, the first-instance verdict arrived, which was bad for the defendant journalist and RTV.
The judge reasoned that the journalist acted with due journalistic attention, but that he still insinuated that the plaintiff was a usurper of the land and that therefore it is necessary for the defendant Vrbaška to jointly pay 30.000 dinars.
"The court qualified the presentation of facts that were proven to be correct as the opinion of a journalist," said Krajnović at the time.
An appeal followed, for which, given that the claim amounted to ten million dinars, a new, high fee had to be paid.
At the end of 2024, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade decided differently and instead of the businessman, gave the right to the journalist and the media, ordering to compensate the defendants for the costs of the proceedings.
"When I received that verdict, I saw that there are still judges and lawyers in this country who refer to international practice. The way I was acquitted shows that the court can really work properly. I think that the series of protests that were organized at that moment also contributed to that brave decision," said Ćurčija.
With interest and executor's costs, the total cost compensation, say Ćurčija and Krajnović, should amount to one million dinars.
And just when they believed that everything was over and that they would recover the expenses from the trial, Vrbaški, as Krajnović says, went abroad and withdrew money from the state. Apparently, says Krajnović, there is no other property.
"Now Ćurčija, after more than eight years of exposure to expenses, traveling to trials, when it needs to collect its costs from the civil proceedings, only has additional costs of paying the executor who has nothing to collect the claim of the defendants," says Krajnović.
However, for Ćurčia, the most important thing is that justice is served.
What are SLAPP lawsuits?
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) are processes initiated or conducted as a means of harassing or intimidating journalists, according to the Council of Europe's definition.
According to this view, they seek to prevent, limit or punish free expression on matters of public interest and the exercise of rights related to public participation. They are led, as written in the European Union Directive, by powerful and influential actors.
For him, this was the first trial in his journalistic career and the first time he had heard of the term SLAPP, which at the time of the lawsuit was not as common as it is today.
"At first I thought it was a classic story of a powerful man oppressing the poor. However, colleagues who follow international cases told me: 'trust me, it's a classic. Classic intimidation of journalists to get off the subject.'
He is not inclined. But the tenants of the First Administration in Gakovo, whose electricity and water were cut off, no longer live there today.
"This whole case is a strange story that will probably never get the epilogue it should in this country," says Ćurčija.
Source: UNS
