The High Court in Podgorica confirmed the judgment of the Basic Court in Podgorica establishing that the defendant “Pink M company” in its news programme “A minute, two” injured the honor and reputation of the HRA director Tea Gorjanc – Prelevic and obliging it to pay thousand euros in damages and publish the judgment “in the same terms, the number of broadcasts,” which means ten times during one day.

The Basic Court found that TV Pink M in its news program “A minute, two” unfoundedly claimed that Gorjanc-Prelevic, together with the international community invented sex trafficking affair of the Moldovan woman S.Č. in order to to influence Montenegrin political situation and therefore needed to go to jail. The Court established that defendant did not provide any evidence to substantiate the allegations.

The Agency for Electronic Media of Montenegro has recently found that TV Pink M has by the same report, as well as several other reports within its news programme, conducted a biased campaign to the detriment of Gorjanc-Prelević and HRA, and issued a warning to this media. The Media Self-Regulation Council also found that TV Pink M has on several occasions by reporting on HRA and its Executive Director violated the Code of Ethics of Montenegrin journalists.

On the occasion of the final judgment, Gorjanc-Prelevic stated: “I hope this judgment encourages further fighting dishonest journalism that serves selfish interests, groundlessly humiliates people and deceives the public. I will donate the award of damages to monitoring compliance of the Code of journalists in TV news programs and assistance in writing complaints of violations of journalistic ethics. “

The first and second instance judgments (in Montenegrin) are available here.