Nikola Petrović, the godfather of the Serbian president and former director of the national power grid company Elektromreže Srbije, filed a lawsuit against the editor and a journalist of BIRN Serbia over the publication of information about his property and business activities. Petrović claimed that BIRN unlawfully collected data about a plot of land in Dedinje worth around €840,000, as well as about his business connections with other well-known figures such as Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radoičić. In its reports, the portal relied exclusively on information obtained from publicly available sources, such as the real estate cadastre, the Republic Geodetic Authority, and the Business Registers Agency.
In his lawsuit, Petrović claimed that BIRN had committed the criminal offense of “unauthorized collection of personal data,” but the First Basic Court in Belgrade determined in September 2024 that there were no elements of a criminal offense. The court concluded that publishing information from public registries cannot be considered unlawful since there is a clear public interest, especially given Petrović’s former position as director of a state-owned company and his close ties to the country’s leadership. The ruling became final because Petrović did not file an appeal.
BIRN’s editor-in-chief, Milorad Ivanović, emphasizes that all investigations were conducted legally and that Petrović has never disputed a single fact published in the reports. “Our investigations were carried out exclusively based on data from publicly available sources such as the Real Estate Cadastre, satellite images from the Republic Geodetic Authority, and information from the Business Registers Agency. That is why the claims of unauthorized data collection are completely unfounded,” Ivanović said.
This case is now cited as an example of a SLAPP lawsuit, showing how high-ranking officials and people close to the government can use court proceedings to drain investigative media through legal costs and pressure. Despite the lawsuit being dismissed, BIRN’s editors point out that they still had to hire lawyers and allocate resources to defend their reporting in court.
This text was prepared within the framework of the “Western Balkans Civil Society Development Hub” project, financed by Sida and implemented by BCSDN.
The content of this text, including the information and views expressed, does not represent the official position or opinion of Sida and BCSDN. Responsibility for the information and views lies solely with the author.
