Constitutional Court of BiH ruled: FTV did not defame Zlatko Lagumdžija 12 years ago

(Patria) - The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the end of last month (sitting in a plenary session), put an end to a legal wrangling that has lasted for almost 12 years, writes Slobodna Bosna.

The judges granted the appeal of Radio-Television of the Federation of BiH, filed against a verdict issued to this public service by lower courts in a lawsuit filed by Zlatko Lagumdžija at a time when he was the head of the Social Democratic Party of BiH.

FTV's appeal followed verdicts from regular courts - the Municipal Court of Sarajevo, the Cantonal Court, and subsequently the Supreme Court of the Federation, which ruled that this television station had defamed the plaintiff Lagumdžija in its program TV "Mreža" in December 2013, and was obliged to pay him compensation of two thousand KM with default interest.

The immediate cause for Lagumdžija's lawsuit was a statement by Enver Bećirević, a businessman from Konjic, made on camera for FTV, who claimed that the then leaders of the SDP BiH had told him that his company "Proinvest" would never get any job on the highway because he "did not want to pay a bribe".

According to him, the "top brass from the SDP and the director of Elektroprivreda BiH" were involved in this. At the insistence of the journalist, he revealed that it was Zlatko Lagumdžija and Damir Hadžić - at that time the Minister of Transport and Communications.

The director of Elektroprivreda BiH, whom Bećirević accused of also being involved in extorting him, was Elvedin Grabovica at the time.

Numerous media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina reported these accusations by Bećirević at the time.

Zlatko Lagumdžija, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, promptly informed the public that he had sent a request to the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the BiH Prosecutor's Office to investigate the claims of the director of "Prominvest".

"Bećirović made a series of untruths about me, linking me to actions and activities that have the characteristics of a criminal offense within the jurisdiction of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Lagumdžija stated in his letter, among other things.

Shortly thereafter, he filed a lawsuit against Enver Bećirević and Federal Television.

The Municipal Court in Sarajevo determined that the defendants Bećirević and FTV had committed the defamation alleged in the lawsuit. This court ruled in favor of Lagumdžija and awarded him compensation "for damages caused by defamation".

Following appeals by FTV's lawyers, the verdict was upheld in the following years by the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo and the Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH. Subsequently, FTV's legal representatives filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court of BiH.

In its ruling, the Constitutional Court of BiH, referring to the case law of the European Court, stated that "the press not only has the task of conveying information and ideas on all matters of public interest in a manner consistent with its duties and responsibilities, but the public also has the right to receive information and ideas on such matters".

This court found that in the specific case/verdicts, there was an interference with the right of Federal Television "to freedom of expression... given that the contested verdicts obliged them to pay damages for the statements they made about the plaintiff" (Lagumdžija).

The Constitutional Court concluded "that there has been a violation of the appellant's (FTV) right to freedom of expression... because the regular courts did not provide sufficient and relevant reasoning on the key issues they were supposed to consider in the specific case before determining that the appellant was responsible for defamation, or that the interference with the appellant's right to freedom of expression was necessary in a democratic society".

The Supreme Court of the Federation was ordered to "inform the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the measures taken to implement this decision within three months from the date of delivery of this decision".

The ruling of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is significant not only for Federal Television and its legal team, as a satisfaction for years of legal struggle for media freedom, but it represents encouragement for the entire media community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For years, media and journalists have been exposed to so-called SLAPP lawsuits, which are most often initiated by politicians with the aim of restricting the space for free journalism and public action through court proceedings.

In previous years, Zlatko Lagumdžija very often initiated such lawsuits, ostensibly to defend himself from defamation.

Two to three years before suing Federal Television and its interlocutor Bećirević, the then SDP leader, along with party colleague Damir Hadžić, sued Slobodna Bosna, also for writing about their attempts to extort money from prominent businessmen, in this case from businessman Nihad Imamović.

He did not turn to the BiH Prosecutor's Office for clarification at the time because official information arrived at the court from that institution that the SDP BiH leader had already been questioned about the bribe "as a suspect". However, this did not change anything, and in the first-instance verdict of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, Slobodna Bosna was ordered to pay more than 10,000 KM to the plaintiffs Lagumdžija and Hadžić.

The verdict was issued by judge Lejla Fazlagić, who a few years later fled BiH to avoid arrest for involvement in real estate crime in Sarajevo. She is currently on trial in the "Pravda" case.

The Cantonal Court in Sarajevo overturned Fazlagić's shameful verdict and ordered the SDP plaintiffs to pay the court costs.