I did not intend to enter into a polemic with Dr. Vanja Bajović, regarding the title of the text "The verdict is not valid outside the EU", published in Vijesti on May 5 of this year. She, I thought at the time, claims that the title does not maintain the essence of her position on the verdict, I do not agree with that, there is no need to open any discussion. I didn't even want to wallow in the mud with Draško Đuranović, the editor-in-chief of Pobjeda, regardless of his reminiscences apropos the mentioned text and Dr. Bajović's position on the title, because it still serves no purpose. Now, "oh, I have to", to quote Šomi Roganović again.
In yesterday's issue of Pobjeda, the author's text by Dr. Bajović was published, taken from her FB profile. And there would have been nothing controversial if it had not been kept silent as it was actually about the reaction of the professor of the Faculty of Law to the text published in the Belgrade Politika. As Dr. Bajović states, the "Politika" journalist omitted certain parts of her statement in order to justify the title "Evidence from 'Skaja' will not be contested in proceedings in Serbia". In "Pobjeda's" explanation of the "frequent media abuses" of Dr. Vanja Bajović's views, the unsigned author puts Vijesti and Politika on the same level, insinuating that this professor's FB post also refers to Vijesti, which is simply not true. If they wanted to, they could have checked with Dr. Bajović, but they didn't, even though they are dealing with "abuse of words".
As for the headline in Vijesti, I will quote Dr. Bajović who, in her latest response to FB, reported in Pobjeda, literally says:
"This is where Fr decision of the EU Court of Justice which is correct does not bind Serbia and Montenegro, but all the more these criteria should apply to these countries and much more strictly, because we are not in the system of European Investigation Orders (EIN)." (bold - original author)
The decision, therefore, says Dr. Bajović, does not bind Montenegro. The headline in Vijesti, which Dr. Bajović was not satisfied with, read, to repeat, "The verdict is not valid outside the EU."
In journalism, especially daily, this explicit and unequivocal position of Dr. Bajović, at the moment when the interview was published, represents the essence, and "The verdict does not apply outside the EU" is news and hence this title, and not something else. On the same pages of Vijesti, for the sake of comparison, a report from a meeting of lawyers was published on that day with the title "Mićović: The verdict will be binding for all countries". In science, unlike journalism, it is probably different. Because of this, as well as because of the statement that her words, unlike Politika, were faithfully and entirely transmitted in Vijesti and, above all, the fact that Dr. Vanja Bajović does not have to know the theory and technique of journalism, I did not want to enter into a public polemic with professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Law.
Now, since both I and Vijesti have been accused of unprofessionalism, I must also add that Dr. Bajović was delivered the printed version of the interview on the same day, in the morning. She did not say a single word to the News with, say, denial or reaction, which would be correct. She decided to publish her position on the title on FB only around 13 p.m. That, let's be clear, is her right, as is her decision to discuss the headline in Vijesti at length with the editor-in-chief of Pobjeda. Perhaps, instead, he should have referred to the generally accepted standard in such situations and just said, say, "my words are faithfully transmitted and the title is editorial". If she had done so, one would not have gotten the impression, perhaps wrong, that she was justifying herself to someone again and again.
Neither I nor Vijesti, on the other hand, have any reason to apologize to anyone.
Bonus video:
