Serbia: KRIK journalists facing SLAPPs after publishing the profile of Judge Dušanka Đorđević in database
Cenzolovka 20.06.2024
The undersigned journalists and media freedom organisations condemn the legal actions filed by Judge Dušanka Đorđević and her husband against Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), its editor-in-chief Stevan Dojčinović, and journalist Bojana Pavlović. The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) coalition considers those legal actions as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), aiming at silencing KRIK for its investigative work. The SLAPPs are vexatious legal actions that are pursued
The lawsuits followed KRIK’s publication of Judge Dušanka Đorđević and her husband’s profile on the “Judge Who Judges” database on 24 January 2024. Launched in 2021, this database is a public source monitoring information on the Serbian judiciary. After the database was updated with information about Judge Đorđević and her husband, KRIK was notified of the lawsuits for data protection violations on 13 May 2024. One lawsuit is criminal, based on the Criminal Code