Today Raskrikavanje is “debunking” Kurir, alleging that we are misleading our readers by the designation “exclusive” on the frontpage of our 15 March issue announcing an article about the report by Wiesbaden experts regarding the murder of Zoran Đinđić.

In its own interpretation of the journalistic standards, Raskrikavanje holds it against us for putting a designation “exclusive”, claiming that we have mislead our readership, that they were able to read it all free of charge rather than paying 50 dinars, as well as that we are aware that the documents are not exclusive, so that we have “toned down” the frontpage content in the article by saying that “what is exclusive are actually the photographs”.

We understand Raskrikavanje’s wish to blemish Kurir by such announcements as we often object to their self-proclaimed right to indisputable truth, but we have an obligation towards our readers to say that Kurir has not “clickbaited” anyone, as well as that it has not lied at all.

Yes indeed, the frontpage does say that it is an exclusive document available to the general public for the first time. And it is a fact that the document in question was made public for the first time, as it had not been published before by anyone, other than excerpts from it, which Kurir itself confirms by stating that the report had been read during the trial. Both the frontpage and the text in the article section make that perfectly clear, with the added information that the photographs – which are an integral part of the document – are published exclusively for the first time. Therefore, it is a fact that no one has published them as yet, i.e. that Kurir has published them as an exclusive!

Anyone who has spent no more than a day in a school journalism club learning about journalism knows what headlines, running heads, decks, layout, frontpage, and article are, …

… as well as that the frontpage cannot contain the entire content of an article.

A title must reflect the gist – and that is precisely the case here. We have not lied to anyone, or engaged in clickbaiting readers into spending 50 dinars anywhere in the article in question or the layout. We announced the gist of what is contained in the issue.

Those are the facts, irrespective of Raskrikavanje claiming otherwise.

Due to everything stated above, we demand that they issue a retraction. In case they fail to do so, we will be forced to seek justice from the relevant institutions.

Petar Jeremić

Ethical Standards Manager at Adria Media Group