The higher court overturned the verdict: It fell because it was illegal

The Higher Court in Podgorica annulled the verdict of the Basic Court in Podgorica, which refused to grant the female journalists Milka Tadić Mijović i Milena Perović Korać awarded damages for insults and hate speech in the texts published by "Pobjeda" from June 2011 to April 2012.

That court assessed that the verdict of the judge of the Podgorica Basic Court Dragan Šćepović unclear and illegal and returned the case for a new decision.

Judge Šćepović concluded in the first-instance verdict, which was handed down six years after the start of the dispute, that the contentious texts in which the journalists were called "scumbags", "mutts", "sluts", "criminal team of journalists", "hollow-headed" "professional forgers", to "hunting bullies", "media thugs in skirts", "stupid as a wheel", "kilomudic girls", "rallying bullies in skirts"..."represent a critical review of the work of prosecutors as public figures".

Council of Judges of the High Court Verice Sekulić, Tatjana Ljujic i Zoran Šćepanović concluded that the first-instance court did not answer the key question - whether there was a misuse of information, and whether the publication of offensive allegations created a situation where people believe in the truth of something that has not been proven.

The verdict of the High Court gives us great satisfaction and shows that there are conscientious judges in Montenegro who judge according to the law and are not politically instrumentalized. This verdict confirms in the best way what we pointed out in the appeal - that judge Šćepović in the first-instance verdict made a decision that was in all respects contrary to Montenegrin laws and indicated legal uncertainty, because it was even against the practice of Montenegrin courts that awarded compensation for much smaller insults", said Tadić Mijović

It remains undetermined, it is added, whether the balance between freedom of expression and personal rights has been violated, to the detriment of female journalists.

"The first-instance court failed to determine whether the published texts are considered examples of 'exaggeration' and 'provocation', which at that level is not admissible in expression and publication through the media, especially if we take into account the expressions, derogatory names and qualifications that abound in the subject articles accompanied by continuous vulgarism and awareness of the same", it is written in the explanation of the judgment of the High Court. The court also refers to the Montenegrin Constitution, but also numerous examples from the practice of the court in Strasbourg, which, as they say, the first-instance court "loses sight of".

"Transferred to a specific case, the first-instance court did not deal with determining whether the reporting was motivated by an effort to create a negative impression on the readers and discredit the personality of the plaintiff, and whether the limits of acceptable speech and reporting were exceeded," reads the explanation of the High Court's verdict. That court adds that the position of the first-instance court that the company Pobjeda that was sued no longer exists is also unclear, and that the court did not even determine whether there is a legal successor to that company.

"It is also pointed out to the court of first instance that according to the case files, he is a lawyer Nikola Martinovic authorized to represent a legal entity that the first-instance court states has ceased to exist," the explanation reads.

By reading the disputed texts, Šćepović, in the annulled verdict, concluded that it was about the publication of essays in parts, which, as it is added, was confirmed by the testimony of witnesses Šemsudin Šeki Radončić who emphasized that the texts were created because 'Monitor' and 'Vijesti' did not want to publish their denials of their texts, so they had to do it in Pobjeda.

With the canceled decision, he ruled that the journalists should pay about 3.000 euros in court costs. Journalists initiated a dispute against the state, "Pobjeda", which published these texts, and the former editor-in-chief Srdjan Kusovac, who called those texts a literary work.

In addition to the Montenegrin media, Tadić Mijović was brutally attacked by the media on the Belgrade portal E novine, with similar insults as in the texts. Marko Vešović and Radončić. Dispute against that portal and editor Petar Luković, she received in the Belgrade court, when it was ordered that she be paid the largest compensation awarded so far in Serbia for injury to honor and reputation - 8.000 euros.