Journalist associations and parties: The decision of the Court of Appeal is a terrible blow to journalists in Serbia, the darkness is thicker than ever

Representatives of journalist associations and political parties reacted almost unanimously today to the acquittal of the Court of Appeal in the case of the murder of journalist, editor and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija.

The president of the European Federation of Journalists, Maja Sever, said on the X social network that the acquittal of those accused of Ćuruvija's murder was "a terrible blow to journalists and the media community in Serbia, but also to democracy and the rule of law."

"This is a complete breakdown of the system that sends a clear message that the crime, the murder of a journalist, remains unpunished," Sever wrote.

Lawyer Rodoljub Šabić stated on the same network that it took almost a quarter of a century for the state to tell the citizens that "no one is to blame for the brutal murder of Slavko Ćuruvija".

"Well, 'the most important thing is that the institutions do their job,'" Sabić added ironically.

The president of the Democratic Party, Zoran Lutovac, believes that after the passing of that verdict, "the darkness is thicker than ever".

"The verdict was reached that Ćuruvija was killed in accordance with the regulations. The darkness is thicker than ever," Lutovac wrote on Iks.

The president of the Movement of Free Citizens, Pavle Grbović, assessed that the verdict sent a message to "everyone who thinks differently."

"The state kills. First they killed a man, then they killed justice, and now they killed any thought that anyone can be free and protected if they think differently from the protagonists of the Milosevic-Seseljev policy," said Grbovic.

The Court of Appeal in Belgrade announced today that it overturned the first-instance verdict of the Special Department for Organized Crime of the High Court in Belgrade and acquitted the four accused of murdering journalist Slavko Ćuruvija on April 11, 1999 - Radomir Marković, Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak.

Four members of the former Department of State Security were previously found guilty twice by the Special Department for Organized Crime and sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison.

The journalist and owner of the newspapers "Dnevni Telegraf" and "Evropljanin" was killed on April 11, 1999 in Svetogorska Street, with multiple shots, and the then head of State Security (DB) Radomir Marković and three high-ranking officials were charged with that murder only in 2015. DB officials Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and his godfather Miroslav Kurak.