Truth is no defense in Slovenia
Stephen Esrati
Behind the News � January 20, 2010 12:12 PM
The Truth Is No Defense
How an op-ed in a Slovenian daily left one American facing a prison sentence
By James Smoot
I was five minutes from my house in Ljubljana, Slovenia when my neighbor
called. The police were there looking for me, he said. I had no idea why
I would deserve such attention, but I stayed elsewhere for a
while�whatever it was, it couldn�t be good. When the police are looking
for you it�s best not to be found, particularly when the police don�t
speak English.
A few days later, my boss showed me a newspaper story that explained
their presence. Apparently, I had missed a court date: the criminal
defamation suit that Zmago Jelincic, a member of the Slovenian
Parliament, had filed against me a year earlier had finally come to trial.
I�m just an American citizen, teaching English to high school students
in Slovenia. But during the run-up to the 2008 U.S. election, colleagues
in my Ph.D. program, who knew of my journalistic past suggested I write
an op-ed for the daily Dnevnik. I wrote that the Americans who would
vote for McCain-Palin were much like those who voted for Jelincic. It
wasn�t a kind comparison: I also referred to Jelincic, a fervent
nationalist of the Radovan Karadzic stripe, as a dangerous
fundamentalist and a quack pharmacist.
Both these statements were grounded in truth. I had evidence of
inflammatory statements Jelincic had made, as well as proof that he had
no license or degree in pharmacy. Still, Jelincic alleged that I had not
only defamed him but also offended the Slovene nation�s desire for the
independence and self-preservation. And, taking advantage of a Roman law
provision in which individuals can bring criminal actions against each
other, he�d pressed his claims in court.
The law, I learned, was not on my side. According to Article 169 of the
Slovenian penal code, insulting someone is punishable by up to three
months in prison; when the insult is delivered through the mass media,
the punishment can grow to six months. I presented proof for my claims
to a lawyer Dnevnik had retained for me and my editor. The attorney
informed us that if it had been libel suit, that would be useful. But
for defamation, he said, �The truth is no defense.� Derogatory intent
alone is criminal regardless of veracity.
Of course, this legal environment doesn�t mean Slovenes are more
restrained than other people when it comes to insulting each other.
Jelincic himself has had some very nasty things to say about minorites
such as Gypsies, Croats, and Muslims, and has accused me of being a
danger to the youth of the nation who should not be employed in public
schools.
What it means, instead, is that those with the means to hire the best
lawyers can prosecute and harass their less-powerful critics. Indeed,
Jelincic is not the only politician who is currently suing a journalist
for defamation. The mayor of Celje, brother of a disgraced beer tycoon,
is suing journalist Biserka Karneza Cerjak over her allegations of
corruption. Former prime minister Janez Jansa is suing a Finnish
journalist over bribery allegations in a military procurement scandal.
In another case, a citizens� group is suing journalists who circulated a
petition protesting government interference in the media; the litigants
claim the petition defamed the nation.
Rather than do something to rein this in, the Slovenian parliament last
year amended the defamation law to extend liability to editors and
publishers. According to The Economist, similar uses of defamation laws
are being used to prosecute journalists in other post-communist
countries like Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
So what happened after I dodged the police that day in December?
Usually, the Slovene court system takes months to accomplish the
simplest clerical task. But on Saturday, just a month after the initial
visit, two policemen showed up at my house with a document I couldn�t
read and they couldn�t explain. (Even though I am entitled to English
translations of all documents, throughout these proceedings I have been
provided with none.) One of them scrawled on a scrap of paper a
courtroom number and a time on Monday morning.
I scrambled to find an attorney to represent me, locating one just half
an hour before the session started. The hearing proceeded as if I
weren�t there� I never knew more than the allegations against me. In the
end, my attorney put a document in front of me that would settle the
suit. I would pay court costs, Dnevnik would publish one of Jelincic�s
anti-Croat screeds, and he would drop the charges against me. Again,
there was no English translation for me. But I signed it anyway,
desperate for this to go away.
Slovenia tries very hard to deny its past and present itself as a
showcase for the New Europe. Yet there is an entire section of the penal
code covering �crimes of honor,� as if dueling were just being phased
out. Instead of pistols at dawn, there is lawyers and endless
litigation. This is the opposite of the delusion of Jeffersonian
democracy that brought me to this tiny new republic. I still can�t
really believe that I almost went to jail for what was, at the end of
the day, just name calling.
--
Stephen G. Esrati
Author of "The Tenth Prayer: A Novel of Israel" ($10 for a PDF from me)
and �Comrades, Avenge Us" ($7.50 postpaid from me)
120 Bonner St.
Dayton, OH 45410
Igor Kraner
nehaj ga srati". Cel zapis je pa klasicen primer ameri�ke arogance in
obcutka vecvrednosti.
"Stephen Esrati" <st...@esrati.com> wrote in message
news:5d042$4b58da72$4ad7ce0d$13...@FUSE.NET...
> From the Columbia Journalism Review:
>
>
>
> Behind the News � January 20, 2010 12:12 PM
> The Truth Is No Defense
>
> How an op-ed in a Slovenian daily left one American facing a prison
> sentence
>
> By James Smoot
>
> I was five minutes from my house in Ljubljana, Slovenia when my neighbor
> called. The police were there looking for me, he said. I had no idea why I
> would deserve such attention, but I stayed elsewhere for a while�whatever
> it was, it couldn�t be good. When the police are looking for you it�s best
> not to be found, particularly when the police don�t speak English.
Zakaj pa bi policija govorila angle�ko? Pri nas je uradni jezik �e vedno
sloven�cina. Ce �e dela v na�i dr�avi naj se tudi nauci jezika na�e dr�ave.
A v ZDA pa bi policija z mano govorila slovensko? Mogoce celo nem�ko? Ali pa
gr�ko? Pa saj �e angle�ko ne znajo spodobno.
> A few days later, my boss showed me a newspaper story that explained their
> presence. Apparently, I had missed a court date: the criminal defamation
> suit that Zmago Jelincic, a member of the Slovenian Parliament, had filed
> against me a year earlier had finally come to trial.
>
> I�m just an American citizen, teaching English to high school students in
> Slovenia. But during the run-up to the 2008 U.S. election, colleagues in
> my Ph.D. program, who knew of my journalistic past suggested I write an
> op-ed for the daily Dnevnik. I wrote that the Americans who would vote for
> McCain-Palin were much like those who voted for Jelincic. It wasn�t a kind
> comparison: I also referred to Jelincic, a fervent nationalist of the
> Radovan Karadzic stripe, as a dangerous fundamentalist and a quack
> pharmacist.
Klasicen izgovor. On je samo AMERI�KI dr�avljan in on nic ne ve in njemu ni
nobeden nic povedal in on razume samo "english".............
> Both these statements were grounded in truth. I had evidence of
> inflammatory statements Jelincic had made, as well as proof that he had no
> license or degree in pharmacy. Still, Jelincic alleged that I had not only
> defamed him but also offended the Slovene nation�s desire for the
> independence and self-preservation. And, taking advantage of a Roman law
> provision in which individuals can bring criminal actions against each
> other, he�d pressed his claims in court.
>
> The law, I learned, was not on my side. According to Article 169 of the
> Slovenian penal code, insulting someone is punishable by up to three
> months in prison; when the insult is delivered through the mass media, the
> punishment can grow to six months. I presented proof for my claims to a
> lawyer Dnevnik had retained for me and my editor. The attorney informed us
> that if it had been libel suit, that would be useful. But for defamation,
> he said, �The truth is no defense.� Derogatory intent alone is criminal
> regardless of veracity.
�ment, nepoznavanje zakona �koduje. Vseposod, tudi v USA.
> Of course, this legal environment doesn�t mean Slovenes are more
> restrained than other people when it comes to insulting each other.
> Jelincic himself has had some very nasty things to say about minorites
> such as Gypsies, Croats, and Muslims, and has accused me of being a danger
> to the youth of the nation who should not be employed in public schools.
Ce �e dela in �ivi v Sloveniji, bi �e lahko vedel, da Hrtati in musliji niso
nobena manj�ina pri nas. In res, kako lahko dela v javni �oli brez znanja
sloven�cine. A ns sestankih pedago�kega zbora zaradi njega ves zbor govori
angle�ko, oz. so najeli mogoce celo prevajalca.
> What it means, instead, is that those with the means to hire the best
> lawyers can prosecute and harass their less-powerful critics. Indeed,
> Jelincic is not the only politician who is currently suing a journalist
> for defamation. The mayor of Celje, brother of a disgraced beer tycoon, is
> suing journalist Biserka Karneza Cerjak over her allegations of
> corruption. Former prime minister Janez Jansa is suing a Finnish
> journalist over bribery allegations in a military procurement scandal. In
> another case, a citizens� group is suing journalists who circulated a
> petition protesting government interference in the media; the litigants
> claim the petition defamed the nation.
Samo cevlje sodi naj kopitar. Nikjer ne more� nekoga iz novinarske svobode
odsodit da je ne vem kaj, dokaz za to pa kakor "ne more� pokazati, ker
�citi� vir".
> Rather than do something to rein this in, the Slovenian parliament last
> year amended the defamation law to extend liability to editors and
> publishers. According to The Economist, similar uses of defamation laws
> are being used to prosecute journalists in other post-communist countries
> like Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
>
> So what happened after I dodged the police that day in December? Usually,
> the Slovene court system takes months to accomplish the simplest clerical
> task. But on Saturday, just a month after the initial visit, two policemen
> showed up at my house with a document I couldn�t read and they couldn�t
> explain. (Even though I am entitled to English translations of all
> documents, throughout these proceedings I have been provided with none.)
> One of them scrawled on a scrap of paper a courtroom number and a time on
> Monday morning.
Ja, decko, pri nas mora sodi�ce po zakonu postopek voditi v sloven�cini in
tudi vsi dokumenti morajo biti v sloven�cini. Pri nas ni angle�cina nic
drugega kakor tuj jezik.
> I scrambled to find an attorney to represent me, locating one just half an
> hour before the session started. The hearing proceeded as if I weren�t
> there� I never knew more than the allegations against me. In the end, my
> attorney put a document in front of me that would settle the suit. I would
> pay court costs, Dnevnik would publish one of Jelincic�s anti-Croat
> screeds, and he would drop the charges against me. Again, there was no
> English translation for me. But I signed it anyway, desperate for this to
> go away.
A so te Hrtati �e podkupili. Z razlogom g.Jelincic govori o Hrtatih tako
kakor govori. So genociden in okupatorski narod, ki okupira slovensko
ozemlje. To je vsa resnica.
> Slovenia tries very hard to deny its past and present itself as a showcase
> for the New Europe. Yet there is an entire section of the penal code
> covering �crimes of honor,� as if dueling were just being phased out.
> Instead of pistols at dawn, there is lawyers and endless litigation. This
> is the opposite of the delusion of Jeffersonian democracy that brought me
> to this tiny new republic. I still can�t really believe that I almost went
> to jail for what was, at the end of the day, just name calling.
>
> --
> Stephen G. Esrati
>
>
> Author of "The Tenth Prayer: A Novel of Israel" ($10 for a PDF from me)
> and �Comrades, Avenge Us" ($7.50 postpaid from me)
>
>
> 120 Bonner St.
>
>
> Dayton, OH 45410
Vse skupaj pa je kup ameri�kega sranja. Izbrali ste si super prijatelje na
Balkanu. Take, ki sosednji dr�avi grozijo z voja�kim posredovanjem. Ja, se
bo moral pa stricek Sam malo naprezat. Pa tokrat brez NATO pakta, ker ne
mislimo kriti hrtatske okupatorske te�nje po tujem ozemlju.
Pa en lep SS pozdrav.
Igor
Vla...@volcanomail.com
affairs in connection with World War II and teaches, as he says
English in Slovenia.
Apparently he is unaware that nothing ever changes in Slovenia and it
is not likely to change. Why would someone want to live in Slovenia is
beyond comprehension. In fact, as I recall, even Eleanor Roosevelt,
the dyed in the wool socialist, once observed that the two good things
in Slovenia [Yugoslavia at that time] are slivovka [plum brandy] and
an exit permit...
Vla...@volcanomail.com
wrote:
Apparently it is Mr Smoot and not Mr Esrati who got involved with the
Balkan "justice" system.
My mistake. So Mr Esrati does not teach English in Slobovia -- as yet.