The adjudication of the Press Council of Kosovo on the appeal of Vesta Nura, the coordinator of visual arts in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, filed against the newspaper “Express”
3 June 2008The Press Council of Kosovo, in Prishtina, in its session held on 28 of may 2008, after reviewing the appeal, of the Gallery of MCYS, filed against the newspaper “Express” referring to the article “”The groan for the opera”, published on March 29, 2008, took this:
D E C I S I O N
The appeal is rejected.
R e a s o n i n g
The appeal of the Gallery of MCYS, filed against the newspaper “Express” referring to the article “The groan for the opera” published on March 29, 2008, considers that the above mentioned article contains contemptible defamation and lies for the work of the Gallery of MCYS and proposes that the reaction of the appellant “the insult against a journalist” published in the newspaper “Express”, on April 4, 2008, be re - published, but now in page 2 of this newspaper and in the same time the newspaper “Express” shall apologize publicly for the contemptible defamations or they should have to prove that there is a bribe”.
The Press Council of Kosovo, after reviewing the appellant claims, found that the claim to have the reaction of the appellant, “the insult against a journalist, published in page 2 of the newspaper, is not grounded on the provision with the Press Code of Kosovo, because according to the definition “it is the obligation of journalists, editors and newspapers to publish the reaction…” (Chapter IV. Item 1 of the Code), but it does not specify in which page of the newspaper the reaction should be published; therefore, we consider that this appellant claim is ungrounded.
The assertion of the newspaper “If I call tomorrow on the phone, I may schedule my “art” for a week but I have to pay something” is groundless since this assertion does not have a support in any real fact, since neither the article nor the supplementary data, which was received from the “Express” newspaper upon the request of the Office of the PCK can prove the existence of the take-a-bribe practice in this gallery.
However, this article of "Express" is an individual's opinion. According to the Chapter II, point 4. of the Code of Conduct " opinions convey thoughts, ideas, beliefs or value judgments on the part of publishers, journalists and editors." This can also happen in hypothetical cases like with the Gallery.
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