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YIHR activists at a protest in Belgrade. Photo: Milan Obradovic/Beta.

The Belgrade Appeals Court has upheld the ruling that allegations published by the Serbian tabloid newspaper Informer against Anita Mitic, a former director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, YIHR, constitute hate speech and ordered editor Dragan Vucicevic to pay compensation.

The court ruled that Vucicevic should pay 100,000 Serbian dinars – about 840 euros –as compensation to Mitic, as well as the court expenses of 71,700 dinars. He is also obliged to publish the verdict.

Informer, which is seen as close to President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party, published an article in 2017 that accused NGOs of trying to create “chaos” in Serbia ahead of that year’s presidential elections.

It also called the YIHR a “Soros-Shiptar-Fascist organisation”, thereby linking it to the billionaire philanthropist George Soros – a hate figure among nationalists in Eastern Europe – as well as using a highly insulting term for Albanians.

The texts about YIHR were published after its activists staged a protest against the speech of a convicted war criminal, Veselin Sljivancanin, at a Progressive Party event in January 2017.

The activists blew whistles and unfurled a banner with the message: “Criminals should shut up so we can talk about victims.”

In October 2018, a misdemeanor appeals court ruled that activists had violated the law by protesting at the event, and fined eight YIHR members 50,000 dinars each, or 420 euros.

Read more:

BIRN Editor Wins Case Against Serbian Pro-Govt Tabloid

Serbian Court Finds ‘Informer’ Editor Guilty of Hate Speech



NOTE: This story was amended on January 21, 2019 to clarify that the appeals court upheld the verdict against Dragan Vucicevic.