The Basic Court in Podgorica partially accepted the claim Radovan Aleksić for posts on the "Udar" portal and ordered the state to pay him 3.000 euros for violation of his personal rights.
In the judge's reasoning for the verdict Arsenija Gatolina It states that the court has no doubt that the publication of Aleksić's name and the claim that he, as a foreign citizen, is spreading the agency of a foreign network in Montenegro violated his right to psychological integrity.
"All of the above points to the conclusion that the unproven factual claims are not well-intentioned and that the text was published with the intention of creating a negative impression of the plaintiff in the public and discrediting his personality, and that the abuse of freedom of expression has grossly disrupted the balance between protected goods - freedom of expression on the one hand and the personal rights of the plaintiff on the other, to the detriment of the plaintiff," the explanation reads.
It is also stated that the court has undoubtedly come to the conclusion that the publication of the disputed text caused non-pecuniary damage to the plaintiff, which is why it is fair to award him monetary satisfaction.
"Namely, the testimony establishes that the plaintiff experienced discomfort due to the texts he wrote, and that his family members experienced unpleasant situations, which led them to move away from Montenegro," the decision adds.
The "Udar" portal appeared on the eve of the 2020 parliamentary elections, and it ran a campaign against critics of the then government - journalists, politicians, civil activists, and citizens who were then labeled as collaborators of foreign services and enemies of the state.
A few days after the election, it was removed from the internet, while the YouTube channel still contains videos published during August 2020.
This is another in a series of rulings in the "Udar" case, and the dispute with the state was won by the journalists of "Vijesti". Siniša Luković and Vuk Lajović, politician Velizar Kaluđerović, priest Gojko Perovic, former military officer Vlado Bulatović...
The reasoning of the verdict states that the Agency for Electronic Media determined that the existence of a portal was observed that had not fulfilled its legal obligations, including registration and providing identification.
It also states that the Ministry of Culture and Media had an obligation to ensure compliance with the law in terms of initiating proceedings to impose fines in cases of, among other things, failure to publish the content of media imprints.
"In order to initiate such proceedings and punish the legal entity-founder of the media, it was necessary to first establish its identity, and since the ministry supervises the implementation of the provisions of the Media Law relating to the content of media imprints, there was an obligation to check the registration of the domain name, which the defendant (the state) clearly did not do," it says.
Aleksić, testifying in the proceedings, also emphasized that he had been a counterintelligence officer for almost four decades and that when he found himself the target of the "Udar" portal, proceedings were still being conducted against him in a case where he was accused of attempting to murder the former head of the Special Police Department. Dear Šuković.
"I have been involved in counterintelligence work for 40 years, where from 1999 to 2006 I was employed in the Army, that is, I was the head of the Counterintelligence Service of the Army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) on the territory of Montenegro. In the intelligence sphere, I am recognized as someone who opposed all forms of abuse by the Security Service. During the period when I worked in Montenegro, I had disagreements with the then Security Service, and I am mentioning all of this today to explain the context why the "Udar" portal targeted me," said Aleksić.
At the hearing, he also said that after publishing false information from that portal on social networks, he received death threats and that his residential address was published.
"Everything that was said on the "Udar" portal is a lie and untruth, and an insidious intention to attribute an act of espionage to me. I have never in my life heard of Željko Bukilić and Stevan Ponoš, with whom I was brought into operational contact and who were given code names on that portal. This was intended to create the impression that the security service of a foreign state, Serbia, is expanding its influence in Montenegro," said Aleksić.
He also said that he has been in a decades-long misunderstanding with the ANB, and that the highlight of the campaign that the agency is waging against him is "the attempt to frame the murder of Predrag Šuković."
Bonus video:
