October 16, 2023<\/p>\n
\u201cThe anticipation and playing with the emotions of people, including family members and colleagues of the late \u0106uruvija, is horrific. Rumours have been circulating for months that a verdict has been passed; that someone is keeping it in a drawer for some reason, while elsewhere people who loved Slavko \u0106uruvija await the serving of justice,\u201d said Maja Sever, president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), speaking for portal Cenzolovka.<\/p>\n
The EFJ was among the nine organisations that announced on 11th<\/sup> April \u2013 the date marking the anniversary of \u0106uruvija\u2019s murder \u2013 that the upcoming binding final verdict of the Court of Appeal would be \u201cthe most consequential for media freedom and journalism in Serbia\u2019s modern history, and will act as a litmus test for the rule of law and democracy more widely\u201d.<\/p>\n Also speaking for Cenzolovka, Jamie Wiseman of the International Press Institute (IPI) said that an acquittal would deal a fatal blow to media freedom and the fight against impunity for murdering journalists in Serbia.<\/p>\n According to Massimo Moratti, of the think-tank Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa,\u00a0\u201can acquittal would be a disappointment\u201d, while it would also indicate that \u201cthe system that was created during the 1990s is stronger than today\u2019s system\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWith each day that passes, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why justice has not been achieved for the murder of a journalist. Apart from being a symbol of impunity for crimes committed against journalists in Serbia, it is also becoming the definition of the phrase \u201cJustice delayed is justice denied\u201d,\u201d says Pavol Szalai, head of the European Union and Balkans desk at international organisation Reporters Without Borders.<\/p>\n According to Dragan Sekulovski, director of the regional network Safe Journalists, failure to hold the perpetrators accountable could have a horrific impact on journalists and media outlets, leading to them self-censor out of fear for their own safety.<\/p>\n \u201cNo cold-blooded murder of a journalist can take place without planning, coordination, money and weapons sourced from someone, and subsequently also a cover-up. If we still, after many years, lack just verdicts for all those responsible for the murder, from top to bottom, that\u2019s not due to a lack of evidence, but rather due to the state being captured,\u201d said journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia, son of murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and director of the foundation named after his late mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 16, 2023 Seven months after the culmination of the Belgrade Court of Appeal trial for the murder of journalist Slavko \u0106uruvija, a final verdict has yet to be formally delivered. However, in the meantime there have been unofficial statements suggesting that a verdict has allegedly been handed down and has acquitted the four accused former members of the State Security service. \u201cThe anticipation and playing with the emotions of people, including family members and colleagues of the late \u0106uruvija, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-en"],"yoast_head":"\n