On Wednesday, a trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found the former editor-in-chief of Slobodna Dalmacija, Josip Jovic, guilty of contempt of court and ordered him to pay a fine of 20,000 euros within 30 days.
Jovic was charged with obstruction of justice and violation of the tribunal's orders for making public six years ago the identity and testimony of protected witness Stjepan Mesic, now the President of Croatia, and for continuing the publication of excerpts from the transcripts of the testimony the witness had made in closed session in defiance of the court order to stop doing so.
The trial chamber found that the accused was aware that he was violating the court orders. Judge Robinson said that Jovic had demonstrated extreme contempt of the court order to stop the further publication of the transcripts by bragging around that he was continuing the publication.
Mladen Krnic said that the decision on covering Jovic's fine was made "following regulations of the collective agreement and common practice in this media company".
The newspaper will pay the fine, if necessary, which means that it will wait for the completion of the appeals procedure. In the case of Jovic's appeal being upheld, no fine will need to be paid, Krnic said.
Commenting on his verdict on Wednesday, Jovic said that the fine of 20,000 euros was no small matter to him. "I might rather exchange the fine for a prison term, because I cannot pay it without going into debt," he added.
Following today's announcement by Slobodna Dalmacija, Jovic told Hina on Thursday evening he was "pleased with and grateful for this move", although, "as far as I know, this is common practice in such cases, and no exception has been made".