ZAGREB, Sept 12 (Hina) - Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic has announced that nobody in Croatia will be sentenced to prison for slander any more, saying that the changes to the Penal Code envisage only pecuniary penalties
for this criminal act.
ZAGREB, Sept 12 (Hina) - Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic
Marinovic has announced that nobody in Croatia will be sentenced to
prison for slander any more, saying that the changes to the Penal
Code envisage only pecuniary penalties for this criminal act. #L#
Under the amendments which the government will propose next week
and which Minister Marinovic presented at a news conference on
Friday, the crime of slander applies to everybody, including
reporters.
However, the latest amendments introduce a new criminal act of
gossiping, which would not be applied to reporters. Reporters would
be also excluded from a possibility of being sued for a criminal act
of defamation.
"The abolishment of prison sentence for slander ... is a great
novelty and exception in comparison to justice systems in European
and transitional countries," the minister said.
She added that any possibility of limiting the freedom of the press
by slender suits would be removed. This type of criminal offence
would be defined as a deliberate act of saying and disseminating the
untruth.
The minister went on to say that gossiping was considered a criminal
offence in Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Switzerland.
The difference between the crimes of slander and gossiping is that
in the latter case the perpetrator expresses facts whose
untruthfulness cannot be established, namely the perpetrator does
not know whether the facts they reveal or relay are true or not.
In this context, the minister said in cases when such facts are
given in a scientific paper, a work of art or while performing
political duties and in journalism, those who disseminate them will
be excluded from the possibility of being sued.
The minister said that the government, prompted by journalists'
stormy reactions to earlier changes which no longer gave them
immunity from being sued for slander, had decided to reconsider the
entire chapter on protection of reputation and dignity and regulate
it in line with modern standards.
She stressed that nobody would go to jail even if they fail to pay
fines for slander.
(hina) ms