SDP members from Novi Grad flood Patria News Agency with lawsuits over the same article, demanding 30,006 KM

(Patria) - In April of this year (04/26/2025), the Patria News Agency portal published an article by author Nermin Alihodžić titled "How the entire leadership of SDP Novi Grad employed themselves and their spouses?". This is an author's text about the events in the Municipal Board of SDP BiH Novi Grad, of which Alihodžić was a long-time member, and then he, along with 25 other members, left the Municipal Board of SDP Novi Grad.

The only reaction to the aforementioned article was sent by Damir Filipović through his lawyer Amin Hasović, which we duly published on 06/11/2025.

However, in August, unprecedented legal pressure followed. Six individuals whose names are mentioned in the article - Haris Džihanić, Dino Selimović, Nermin Bojčić, Amra Hašimbegović, Selma Alić, and Damir Filipović - filed separate lawsuits against NA Patria, its editor-in-chief Amina Čorbo-Zećo, and the author Nermin Alihodžić. All plaintiffs engaged the same legal representative, lawyer Amin Hasović, and each claim seeks 5,001 KM, totaling 30,006 KM.

The lawsuits were filed due to a single sentence in the article that referred to them individually.

In its 12 years of existence, the Patria News Agency has not encountered a similar case, despite publishing thousands of investigative and authorial texts mentioning hundreds of names in various contexts. Only a few have been subject to defamation lawsuits, which have been ruled in favor of Patria in almost one hundred percent of cases.

However, such a large number of lawsuits, as filed by the members of SDP Novi Grad for just one article, represents a classic example of SLAPP lawsuits.

As lawyer Jovana Kisin Zagojac recently explained, SLAPP lawsuits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are a tool used by individuals, politicians, and companies to obstruct the publication of scandals. She explained that such lawsuits are filed as a means of intimidation and silencing the media.

Such disputes can last for several years, causing both psychological and financial exhaustion for the media, with the aim of shutting them down if the claims are paid, which will not be the case in this instance. Patria will continue to report professionally and objectively on all processes and phenomena in society that are of public interest.