How to complain if you believe that you have been a victim of defamation?
If you believe that defamatory statements have been made public about you, there are several ways that you can protect your rights:
Complaint to the media
According to the Croatian Media Act, everyone has the right to demand from the editor-in-chief to publish a correction of the published information that violates their rights or interests, free of charge. Legal entities and other organizations and bodies also have the right to correction if their rights and interests have been violated by the information. The purpose of corrections is to correct incorrect or incomplete data.
The publication of the correction can be requested within 30 days from the publication of the information.
The request for correction is submitted to the editor-in-chief in writing. The request must be explained and signed by the applicant, and contain all the necessary information about the applicant and his address. The term correction does not mean only a correction in the narrower sense, i.e. a correction of wrong claims or incorrect statements in the published information, but also the presentation of facts and circumstances which the injured party refutes or supplements with the intention of significantly refuting the statements of the published text.
example If the information was initially printed on the first page of a newspaper in bold capital letters, the retraction should be published in the same typestyle and on the same page as it was originally printed.
Civil claim
You may bring a civil claim to the court against the author and disseminator of the defamatory expressions. You can also bring this claim if you have already asked the relevant media to retract the information that you believe is defamatory, but the editor has refused to do so.
It is also possible to file a civil claim where the defamatory expressions were not published in the media, but expressed in front of a considerable audience or otherwise distributed.
The civil remedies which you can claim in a court may include one, or a combination, of the following measures:
- request for an apology for the defamatory opinions
- request for the retraction of the untrue statements
- a claim for monetary compensation
If you are asking for compensation, you should indicate to the court why you are asking for that amount specifically. Municipal courts are competent, and local jurisdiction is usually the court in whose territory the criminal offense was committed or attempted. Since it is a private claim for defamation, it can also be submitted to the court where the defendant has his residence, i.e. their place of residence. A private lawsuit must contain certain parts prescribed by the Croatian Criminal Procedure Act.
Also, the Croatian Law on Civil Relations states that whoever injures the honor of another, makes or transmits untrue statements about his past, knowledge, abilities, or anything else, and knows or should have known that they are untrue, and thereby causes them property damage, is obliged to compensate them. But a person who makes an untrue statement about another without knowing that it is untrue is not liable for the damage caused if they or the person to whom they made the statement had a serious interest in it.
It is important to emphasize that the lawsuit in this procedure is decided according to the Civil Procedure Act.
Criminal proceedings
It is not possible to initiate criminal proceedings against the author or disseminator of defamatory expressions. Even if you report it, your report is not accepted if it is about criminal offenses against honor and reputation. In that case, a private lawsuit is submitted to the competent court within three months from the day when the authorized natural or legal person became aware of the criminal offense and the perpetrator.
The police is not obliged to take action if there are grounds for suspecting that a criminal offense against honor and reputation has been committed.
If a police officer happens to be at the scene of a criminal offense against honor and reputation, at the request of the victim, he will verify the identity of the perpetrator and communicate personal information to the victim.
Appeal
If the police reject your request to initiate criminal proceedings and you consider that this decision was not well-reasoned, you can appeal it to the supervising prosecutor in your case. You must submit the appeal within 15 days of the date you received the decision. The procedure and time-limits for the appeal must be indicated in the decision.
Additional civil claim
If the police initiate a criminal case and indict the accused, you may claim the monetary compensation from the accused during the criminal proceedings. However, if your claim for monetary compensation is not fully satisfied within the criminal proceedings, you may bring a separate civil claim.
Criminal offenses against honor and reputation are prosecuted by private lawsuit. If criminal acts against honor and reputation were committed against a deceased person, criminal proceedings may be initiated by a private lawsuit by the spouse or common-law partner, life partner or informal life partner, parents, children, adoptive parents, adopted children, brothers or sisters of the deceased person. It is important to emphasize that the lawsuit in this procedure is decided according to the Criminal Procedure Act.