Justice

Serbia, no justice for the Ćuruvija murder

07/02/2024 -  Massimo Moratti

Twenty-five years after the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija and nine after the start of the trial against the four accused of the murder, after a first conviction in 2019 and the repetition of the trial, on Monday 5 February the Court of Appeal of Belgrade acquitted the defendants

Croatia: fighting femicides

07/12/2023 -  Jelena Prtorić

The Croatian government has announced its intention to recognise feminicide as a distinct type of crime. An important novelty - but a much broader social change is needed, warn those fighting for women's rights

Resolute efforts on dealing with the violent past are required in the region of the former Yugoslavia

29/11/2023

“The failure to fully deal with wartime atrocities and the root causes of conflicts in the 1990s continues to have devastating consequences on respect for human rights, the rule of law and social cohesion in the region”, said Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, while releasing a report on the state of play of transitional justice efforts in the countries of the former Yugoslavia

Surveillance: how the Greek legal system threatens press freedom

25/09/2023 -  Alessio Giussani

As part of the surveillance series, we interviewed Evita Papakiriakidou, criminal lawyer from the Athens Lawyers law firm, who represents Thanasis Koukakis, a Greek journalist who was the illegitimate target of spyware surveillance

BiH: Republika Srpska reintroduces the crime of defamation

24/07/2023 -  Arman Fazlić Sarajevo

On Thursday 20 July, the People's Assembly of the Republika Srpska adopted the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code envisaging criminalization of defamation. Calls from international and local actors to protect freedom of speech and withdraw the controversial provision that qualifies defamation as a criminal offence have gone unheeded

Femicides: the undeclared war on women in Europe

12/07/2023 -  Janine LouloudiNikos MorfoniosKostas ZafeiropoulosThanasis Troboukis

An unprecedented cross-border investigation, conducted by EDJNet with the participation of 19 newsrooms across Europe, attempts to shed light on femicides and rising violence against women at the time of the pandemic, as well as on the staggering shortage of up-to-date data on these phenomena

Femicide in Serbia: Crime and Lesser Punishments

10/07/2023 -  Teodora ĆurčićJovana Tomić

Over the past ten years, more than 300 femicides have occurred in Serbia. The families of the murdered persons look for justice in court, but CINS’s investigation reveals that they often do not find it there.

Fire in Tetovo hospital: no one will go to jail

16/06/2023 -  Aleksandar Samardjiev Tetovo

In September 2021, in the midst of the Covid-19 emergency, a fire at the Tetovo hospital in North Macedonia led to the death of 10 patients. Now, the trial has come to a controversial conclusion

“The Killing of a Journalist”, interview with director Matt Sarnecki

08/06/2023 -  Aleksej Tilman

The documentary “The Killing of a Journalist” (2022), by the American director Matt Sarnecki, covers the murder of Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kušnírová and its aftermath, unveiling the political corruption in Slovakia

South Tyrol, journalism of "curiosity, enthusiasm, and tough skin"

22/05/2023 -  Paola Rosà

The acquittal of the authors of an investigative book on discontent within the majority party comes in a local context where the rule of law is severely tested by the interweaving of media concentration, economic interests, politics and business, family ties, and various anomalies

Slavko Ćuruvija: Cycle of impunity for killing of journalists in Serbia must be broken

16/03/2023

Partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and the SafeJournalists Network (SJN) renew their call for justice for the assassination of Serbian journalist Slavko Ćuruvija to finally be secured and the cycle of impunity for the killings of journalists in Serbia to be broken

South Tyrol, the information monopoly and a new case of SLAPP

15/03/2023 -  Paola Rosà Rovereto

The Bolzano Salto.bz web portal has received a claim for damages for 150,000 Euros from the South Tyrol publishing giant Athesia. According to defence attorney Nicola Canestrini, it is a clear case of SLAPP, a gag complaint

Georgian government withdraws controversial legislation amid protests

Following two nights of protests that saw riot police use tear gas and water cannon, the Georgian government announced that it has withdrawn controversial legislation that critics say would set back democratic development in the country and reverse the country’s stated policy of joining the European Union. Photos and text by Onnik James Krikorian, from Tbilisi

Montenegro: after a new acquittal, the hopes and projects of journalist Jovo Martinovic

30/01/2023 -  Paola Rosà

After over seven years of judicial ordeal and after spending fifteen months in pre-trial detention on drug trafficking charges, investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic was acquitted for the second time by the Appellate Court on 17 January. We interviewed him while waiting for the final verdict

Time is running out for war crimes prosecution in Bosnia

20/12/2022 -  Massimo Moratti

“A race against time” is the title of a recent report by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) highlighting the delays in implementation of the country’s strategy for war crimes prosecution. The risk is to see the process prolonged for a number of years. While the completion of those trials was a top priority for the country only 15 years ago, it has now become hostage to political tensions in Bosnia

Child thieves: illegal adoptions in Armenia

18/08/2022 -  Armine Avetisyan

A newborn child stolen by deception from his mother, in the hospital, and then sold to an Italian family. He is one of the many children involved in a network of illegal adoptions in Armenia

Why the "Greek Watergate" earthquake has only just begun

24/08/2022 -  Alessio Giussani Athens

A digital surveillance scandal targeting PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis and investigative journalist Thanasis Koukakis, via Predator spyware. The so-called "Greek Watergate" is shaking the Mitsotakis government

Srebrenica: denial in the European public narrative

11/07/2022 -  Marco Siragusa

Almost thirty years after the genocide we are very far from starting a dialogue and a public discussion – in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Europe – on the memory of what happened in Srebrenica. An interview with Andrea Rizza Goldstein

Synergies and training are needed against SLAPP, or gag complaints

08/07/2022 -  Paola Rosà

Media expert lawyer Andrea Di Pietro positively comments on the anti-SLAPP package of the European Commission and stresses the need for training initiatives aimed at legal practitioners, to recognise and combat the gag complaints that threaten freedom of expression and the right of citizens to participate in the public debate

Greece: going to jail for saving lives?

11/02/2022 -  Mary Drosopoulos Thessaloniki

Twenty-four volunteers involved in rescuing migrants and refugees at sea are on trial in Greece. A controversial case, which targets that part of Greek and European civil society committed to saving lives in the Mediterranean

The impact of the pandemic on prisons in Europe

22/12/2021 -  Kira Schacht Berlin

Prisons make fertile breeding grounds for viruses, yet administrations have revealed little about Covid-19 cases, deaths and vaccinations in Europe’s prisons. Data from 32 countries show the pandemic’s impact on prisons

Slovenia, the European Parliament and the rule of law

16/12/2021 -  Juan Torregrosa Rodriguez

On 17 November, the results of a monitoring mission on the rule of law carried out in Slovenia in October by some members of the European Parliament were presented

Montenegro, a justice free country

24/08/2021 -  Željko Pantelić

Interview with Milka Tadic Mijovic, one of Montenegro's leading journalists and president of the Center for Investigative Journalism, who has always been at the forefront of the fight for a better country and for the defence of freedom of expression

Bulgaria, the state sentenced to compensate Turkish journalist

05/08/2021 -  Francesco Martino Sofia

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Bulgaria for the 2016 extradition of a Turkish journalist, hastily handed over to the Turkish authorities who accused him of being part of the Fehtullah Gülen movement, in violation of national and international rules

Violence against migrants in Croatia: Amnesty International denounces the silence of the EU

11/06/2021 -  Toni Gabrić

What is the attitude of Croatia and the European Union towards migrants and refugees trapped at the external borders of the EU? Massimo Moratti, deputy director of Amnesty International’s office for Europe, explains in detail

Jens Woelk: Status quo in Bosnia and Herzegovina is an illusion

22/03/2021 -  Lejla Gačanica

Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot wait any longer. It must embrace the constitution, which can no longer be just an "annex" to the Dayton Peace Accords. The opinion of the jurist Jens Woelk

What about the survivors? The importance of a victim-centred approach to transitional justice in the Western Balkans

22/02/2021 -  Giulia Levi

The path of transitional justice has proven difficult and discontinuous, yet it has had a real impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. Survivors’ families and associations, who invested the most emotional labour in the process, however, have often felt left out of the official transitional justice processes

Serbia: denouncing sexual violence, a matter of courage

21/01/2021 -  Antonela Riha Belgrade

With great courage and determination, Serbian actress Milena Radulović publicly denounced being raped as a child by her then acting teacher Miroslav Mika Aleksić. Her gesture encouraged more testimonies and Aleksić is now under investigation

Europe against SLAPPs, the malicious lawsuits

11/11/2020 -  Paola Rosà

As the list gets longer of European journalists and activists targeted by vexatious lawsuits, institutions deliver concrete commitments for legislative actions and interventions that OBCT has also solicited in the last, intense year of transnational advocacy

Greece, Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation

09/10/2020 -  Elvira Krithari Atene

With a historic sentence after five years of trial, the Athens Court of Appeal declared the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn - grown under the economic crisis and author of murders and attacks against persons and property - a criminal organisation