Defamation

Less than a week before making a similar complaint against the government, the union representing the country's judges on Tuesday issued a statement condemning "improper, slanderous and inappropriate expressions" by Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has dismissed criminal charges against some media organs by the lawyers of two Turkish hunger strikers for targeting and labeling them as "terrorists," daily Cumhuriyet reported on June 4. 

Journalist and publisher Costas Vaxevanis handed himself over to the police on Monday after the wife of Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras lodged a legal suit against him for slander over an article in his Documento newspaper accusing her of abusing her husband's influence to secure state funding for medical conferences.

Reporters Without Borders has condemns the prison sentence of 2 years and 3 months handed down by a Serbian court on the freelance journalist Stefan Cvetkovic.

Cvetkovic was found guilty on charges of defamation and unauthorized publication of documents.

The German government has threatened companies like Facebook and Twitter with fines of up to EUR 50 M unless they take certain measures against the publication of incinatory materials and slander, reported DPA.

The First Basic Court in Belgrade has ruled in favor of Dragan Sutanovac in a defamation case he brought against Bratislav Gasic.

Gasic will have to pay RSD 200,000 to Sutanovac for damaging his honor and reputation when he said the latter eavesdropped on former Serbian President Boris Tadic. He will also have to pay the legal expenses of the trial.

The German government voted on Jan. 25 to scrap a "lese majeste" law that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had sought to employ against a popular German television satirist. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet decided to abolish by Jan. 1, 2018 the rarely enforced section of the criminal code that prohibits insulting organs or representatives of foreign states.

Greece's main journalists' union and opposition parties have expressed concern over the arrest of an executive in a small media group for allegedly trying to blackmail the country's defense minister.

The Parapolitika group's manager was arrested in his office Tuesday. The publisher of Parapolitika newspaper also turned himself in to police later.

Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks has reacted to a Belgrade court's ruling in a defamation case involving a cabinet minister.

The leader of Ataka Volen Siderov has remitted BGN 35,000 in legal expenses incurred by Boyko Borisov in the slander case against Siderov initiated by Borisov.

"If Siderov had not turned out to be human, my entire salary as PM would have been forfeited," commented Borisov to journalists.