The media against the judiciary

Niš, 25.04.2024.

Vida Petrović Škero, former president of the Supreme Court of Serbia and member of CEPRIS, delivered a lecture on the contentious relationship between the media and the judiciary. This was the twelfth lecture for the second generation of participants within the framework of the training program Strengthening capacities for judicial reform - southern Serbia. The lecture title is The media against the judiciary. 

One of the most pressing issues we have observed is the media's frequent disregard for the participant's right to privacy and fundamental human rights. This is directly linked to the problem of media reporting on actions taken by judicial authorities, and criminal prosecution authorities in general. It begs the question, do our journalists consult legal experts before publishing such information if they lack an appropriate legal education? This is primarily to avoid their criminal or civil liability. The most glaring anomaly in the media-judiciary relationship is the unfounded and audacious attacks of the tabloids on the judiciary, through the dissemination of falsehoods and untruths. 

The lecture discussed whether the media report sufficiently professionally on the work of the judiciary, whether there are organized "media" attacks on representatives of judicial authorities, what the connection between government and tabloids is, how courts act in proceedings in which representatives of the legislative and executive authorities and, in general, politicians appear as prosecutors; whether there is different treatment of pro-regime and independent media before the domestic judiciary; whether journalists are sufficiently protected and what the judiciary is doing to that end, but also whether there are responsibilities and abuse of journalists and how to prevent it. The lecture was moderated by Mihajlo Čolak, program director of the Committee for Human Rights Niš (CHRIN). 

The lecture was realized with the support of the Open Society Foundation.