Adjudication of the Press Council of Kosovo in the Complaint of Mr. Selman Bogiqi, versus Koha Ditore newspaper
28 December 2009In its regular Board meeting held on 8 December 2009, while adjudicating on the complaint of Mr. Selman Bogiqi versus Koha Ditore newspaper filed on 28.10.2009, Press Council of Kosovo issued the following:
ADJUDICATION
- Not to uphold the complaint
REASONING
The Complainant Mr. Selim Bogiqi from Prishtina, has filed a complaint against Koha Ditore, under contention that in two of its articles dated 14 and 24 of July 2009 this newspaper published untrue allegations and defamation, aiming to damage his reputation and prevent him from being reappointed at the District Court in Prishtina.
The Complainant contents that Koha Ditore newspaper, without any research and without any Grounds supported by facts has published an allegation that Selman Bogiqi, is under investigation for four criminal offences foreseen in the Criminal Code of Kosovo. He also maintains that the newspaper falsely published the fact that Selman Bogiqi did not disclose his property before the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency.
Following an overall discussion on every point of the complaint separately and review of the complaint entirely, the Board of Press Council, unanimously held that the complaint of Selman Bogiqi versus Koha Ditore should be rejected.
Originally, following the review of data possessed by the PCK Secretariat, it was found that the complainant Selman Bogiqi, had fined his complaint after the deadline foreseen by the Rules of Procedure which is one month from the day of publication, however, despite this fact the PCK decided to adjudicate on the complaint, with the aim of verification of factual situation regarding the foundation of contentions contained in the complaint. The representative of Koha Ditore agreed with this fact and proposed that this complaint is adjudicated.
Press Council assessed the factual situation following the detailed statements by Koha Ditore, responses received in the questions of PCK Secretariat, and comparison of written documents.
The Board of Press Council of Kosovo was unanimous in its ascertainment of the fact that the above mentioned articles were published at the time when the complainant was under investigation for four criminal offences namely offences as in Article 305, 311, 343 and 345 of the Criminal Code of Kosovo, which means that actions regarding above mentioned offences were undertaken by the Special Public Prosecutor during the investigation procedure. It is undisputable fact that following the termination investigations, the complainant Bogiqi was accused for a criminal offence as in Article 347 of the Criminal Code of Kosovo. So Koha Ditore newspaper published the article based on the information obtained by the Public Prosecutor.
In relation to the contention of the complainant regarding his property disclosure before the Anti-corruption Agency, based on the official letter of the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency dated 28.07.2009, Press Council found that although the complainant was obliged to declare the eventual changes in his property in 2009 for the previous year, namely 2008, he did not do so.
Press Council found that mentioning of the name of the complainant in the Article of Koha Ditore on 24.7.2009, entitled: “11 Lawyers, a judge and an insurance official were arrested” is information that gives the number or the names of judges who were removed from the District Court of Prishtina some years ago, and does not treat only the issue of the complainant Selman Bogiqi.
Following the ascertainment of all these facts, PCK adjudicated to reject the complaint of Selman Bogiqi, as it did not found that the above mentioned articles constitute a violation of any rule of the Press Code of Kosovo.
PCK found that Selman Bogiqi, never sent his objections to “Koha Ditore”, and that Koha Ditore based on the Code of Ethics, has published the Decision of the Prizren Court in relation to Selman Bogiqi.
Based on the above, Press Council adjudicated as indicated in the ruling of the present decision.
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