Since the beginning of the year, 50 complaints to the Press Council

(Source: Niške vesti) General Secretary of the Press Council Gordana Novakovic said today in Nis that since the beginning of the year, the Council has received about 50 complaints from citizens.

“People complain most often and this has been the case since the Council has existed, about the violation of the first chapter in the Code of Journalists. This chapter refers to the truthfulness of reporting and the publication of unverified and inaccurate information, unfounded accusations, defamations, rumors, non-discernment of facts from comments, assumptions and speculations,” Novakovic said.

She said the Council has a lot and more complaints about invasions of privacy.

“Frequent violations are also violations of the presumption of innocence and we have that in connection with the events in the school “Vladislav Ribnikar” and in Mladenovac,” Novakovic said.

She reminded that the Press Council, after receiving a complaint from citizens, first tries to resolve the case through mediation between the complainant and the editorial board.

“If the editorial board does not publish an apology, does not remove the text or publishes a denial, then the  Complaints Commission decides on the complaint,” Novakovic said.

According to her, the media, which accept the competence of the Press Council, are obliged to publish the Commission’s decision if it is found that the Code of Journalists of Serbia has been violated.

“Unfortunately, there are a number of media outlets that do not accept the authority of the Press Council and we cannot oblige them to publish our decisions, we issue a public warnings that we publish publicly.”

The Complaints Commission today considered citizens’ complaints to articles published in Sremske vesti, OzonPres, Pančevac, Informer, Nova.rs portal and Kurir.

The session of the Commission was held in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Philosophy and was attended by students of journalism.