Supreme Court Overturns Defamation Ruling Against Janša Over Journalist, Prostitute Tweet

By , 07 May 2020, 08:08 AM Politics
Prime Minister Janez Janša Prime Minister Janez Janša Wikimedia - European People's Party CC by 2.0

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STA, 6 May 2020 - The Supreme Court has quashed a ruling that ordered the incumbent prime minister, Janez Janša, to pay EUR 6,000 in damages to a journalist for calling her a "washed-up prostitute" in a tweet. The journalist has announced she will take her case to the Constitutional Court.

The Supreme Court rejected the journalist's damages claim after upholding Janša's appeal against the December 2018 ruling by the Celje Higher Court that upheld an earlier decision by the local court in Velenje ordering Janša to pay damages to Mojca Šetinc Pašek, a journalist and editor with TV Slovenija.

Šetinc Pašek brought the defamation suit over Janša's post on his Twitter profile in March 2016 reading "the FB page of the public house is offering cheap services by washed up prostitutes Evgenija C. and Mojca P.Š. One for 30 euros, the other for 35. #ZvodnikMilan".

The Supreme Court has ascertained that an average follower of Janša's Twitter profile could understand the tweet referred to Šetinc Pašek's work for the public broadcaster rather than her private life, so the second instance court's surmise that the contentious tweet could be understood literally was inaccurate.

The latest judgement, which runs to 17 pages, argues that as TV Slovenija news programme editor Šetinc Pašek performed an extremely important and responsible job from the aspect of the public's right to know, hence her work was exposed to public criticism.

The Supreme Court infers that like Janša the editor was a public figure, for whom "the boundaries of permissible criticism are broader than with private persons".

"In this conflict between the defendant's freedom of political expression and the plaintiff's right to dignity and good name", the majority of the judging panel thus decided in favour of "the enlightenment principle that only free debate on major political topics makes it possible to near the truth".

"Thus, the position prevailed that priority needs to be given to the freedom of political expression. The Supreme Court has therefore not taken a stance on the non-legal aspects of the plaintiff's statement," reads the judgement passed on 6 February.

The court ordered Šetinc Pašek to compensate Janša for costs of the procedure within 15 days.

Šetinc Pašek described the judgement as "outright scandalous", adding that it meant Janša as the leader of the largest parliamentary party and the most powerful person in the country could insult unrestrained any journalist or editor who publishes what he disagrees with.

"Since in the opinion of a majority on the judging panel Twitter is a medium typical for bitter, rough, even insulting content. As if Janša was forced to publish on Twitter," commented the journalist, who called it a black day for Slovenian journalism and the public.

Janša was also sued by Carl, and both journalists brought criminal charges against him. In the criminal procedure Janša was sentenced to a three-month suspended sentence by the Celje District Court in November 2018, but the Celje Higher Court ordered a retrial last year.

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