Dirty Minds

In the cartoon, the protagonists of the Jahorina Assembly (where the Bosnian Serbs rejected the Vance-Owen plan) are playing a well-known children's game, called "rotten mares" (the Balkan variant of the leapfrog). Divided into two teams, Konsatantin Mitsotakis (Greek Prime Minister), Slobodan Milosevic (President of Serbia), Dobrica Cosic (now former President of Yugoslavia) and Momir Bulatovic (President of Montenegro) are playing the "mare", while Biljana Plavsic (Vice-President of the Bosnian Serbs), Momcilo Krajisnik (Speaker of the Bosnian Serb Parliament), Radovan Karadzic (Bosnian Serb leader) and Vojislav Seselj (leader of the Serbian Radical Party) are trying to "mount" it. The point of the game is that the team which is jumping on the mare actually overthrows the team playing the "mare" (that's where the name of the game comes from). Various tricks are allowed, some of which may be very cruel. In terms of a competition, the situation in Koraksic's cartoon is still unsolved: the team, playing the mare, is still holding on.

The District Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad (where VREME is printed) has, ex officio, submitted a request that criminal proceedings be conducted against editor-in-chief of VREME, Dragoljub Zarkovic, due to a founded suspicion that he has committed the criminal acts quoted in Article 157, Item 1 (violation of the reputation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and in Article 158 (violation of the reputation of a foreign country). A request for the approval of the criminal proceedings arrived at the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office from the Novi Sad office on May 13th, and was immediately approved. Some lawyers commented dryly that the speed with which everything had been done was praiseworthy. The District Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad deems that the criminal acts of violating the reputations of two states at the same time, those of Yugoslavia and Greece, were committed by "publicly exposing President of the Federal Yugoslavia, Dobrica Cosic, and Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Greece, Konstantin Mitsotakis to derision", "portraying them in an offensive and degrading position." The reasons why the portrayal of the two statesmen is offensive and degrading were not specified, nor were they explained in the request for the criminal proceedings.

On June 25th, 1993, the Examining Judge of the District Court in Novi Sad reached a verdict on instituting criminal proceedings against Dragoljub Zarkovic, Editor-in-Chief of VREME on charges of the above mentioned criminal acts. Zarkovic's defense attorney, Slobodan Beljanski from Novi Sad, lodged an appeal. It is said in the appeal that the arguments cited are insufficient to establish the criminal acts for two reasons: firstly, the Public Prosecutor's request is generalized and confusing; secondly, Beljanski referred to Item 2 of Act 157, which says that a person who has expressed himself in an insulting manner in his work of art or while following a journalistic profession will not be punished if "his manner of expression or other circumstances clearly indicate that this has not been done with the intention to insult."

Defense attorney Beljanski has listed the following arguments in his appeal, "The Prosecutor has not made any effort to provide a concrete description of the position, so that his conclusion boils down to a mere assertion whose quasi-arguments represent a fallacy which is well-known in logic as circulus in demonstrando. Derision is interpreted by offense and degradation, even though these terms are on the same semantic level, and, therefore, cannot be properly explained, and let alone proven by each other. Thus, it was necessary to provide the particulars of an offensive and degrading position, which would by themselves or in the context represent an act which is offensive and degrading. A cartoon, especially one without the script, the kind in question here, can by no means represent an explicit statement. Etymologically speaking a cartoon is an exaggeration, while according to the definition of visual expression it uses the means of deforming, derision, grotesque and satire. Therefore, to say, with the intention to incriminate, that the cartoon is insulting to the characters it portrays and that it portrays them in a degrading position is nothing but an adverbial contradiction...Naturally, it is possible, in principle, to commit a criminal act, such as the one in question, even in a cartoon, but in that case, especially because of specific features of this artistic genre, it is necessary to explain and describe it so that the conclusion could be at least checked, if it isn't convincing. In what characters has the prosecutor recognized Cosic and Mitsotakis? What is so offensive and degrading, that they are doing? Since when has the game of "rotten mares" which is the main motive of the cartoon, become a dishonorable, insulting and lascivious thing? Is the prosecutor, perhaps, scared of his own imagination, so that he doesn't dare reveal not even to the author himself what exactly he has seen better than other?"

The Council of the District Court in Novi Sad took the appeal into account, abolished the verdict of the Examining Judge with its decision of June 30th returned the subject for further consideration. The Council concluded that the verdict is "unintelligible and lacks clear reasons why the accused was found suspect." Moreover, the Council believes that the verdict on instituting the proceedings does not make it clear who is guilty: the editor-in-chief or the author.

Looking for "what does not exist" is a task dangerous for one's reputation as proved many times in the political history of the Yugoslav communist state. Everybody is responsible for their imagination and for what they see, and, therefore, is obliged to substantiate it. Yet, there is one successful example in our recent history: a long time ago on the same page of the children's supplement of the Belgrade daily "Borba" a children's poem, entitled "The Monkey on a Trip to Asia and Africa" was published, and, right above it a photograph of the deceased head of state on board the famous ship "Galeb" during a tour of Non-aligned countries. When the patriot on duty tried to turn it into a criminal act of offending the head of state (if nothing worse) the editor of the supplement, a poetess and experienced in matters dealing with the Party, launched a preventive counter-attack. In a sweet voice, she asked how the respective comrade had come to such an association? And, would he be kind enough to explain it?

When it comes to susceptibilities, this is what the author of the disputed cartoon from VREME had to say, "Forty years of experience in caricature and portraiture have taught me that the more primitive a person, the more he sees the caricature as an insult, and vice versa: the more educated, the greater the sense of humor, the more he laughs at his own caricature, the less it bothers him." A sense of humor is the first and foremost trait of humanity; when it is missing, then the scandals related to looking for that which does not exist ensue.

Rarely have such cases of interpretation reached the courts. They were usually solved in party pogroms in the good tradition of working groups of various committees, which boxed the ears of erring newsrooms during smoky party meetings for days and hours on end. The members of those working groups of five-six years ago are the great democrats of the transformed ruling party today.

In VREME's case the ball (which should also be called a hot potato) was passed back to the Examining Judge. Caricaturist Predrag Koraksic (who was given a hearing as a witness), says he does not understand what it is all about, "It never crossed my mind to draw what crossed the Prosecutor's mind. That's what I've told the Judge. I tried, as I usually do, make my characters likable persons. That is an idyllic scene in the Valley of Eden, while my dog Zika, who is watching everything, assumes the role of UNPROFOR" (the Schnauzer that can be seen in the hills). "I tried as hard as I could to instill humor into it. I cannot believe that anyone who is well-meaning could find something else in the drawing."

Dragan Rancic, press advisor to former President Cosic, told VREME that the initiative to bring charges had not come from the President's Cabinet, "Whenever we thought that the President was libeled or insulted we pressed private charges," he said. We were unable to get in touch with Cosic and ask him to comment before this issue went to the press. The Athens daily "Katimerini" has already published a lengthy report on the role of Prime Minister Mitsotakis in the incriminated cartoon, to the great joy of the Greeks.

However, the political aspect of this case is very interesting: the very state governed by law which duly ousted its own President in the way it did, is now insisting, for reasons of principle, on criminal proceedings because of a harmless caricature. Unfortunately, considering the overall political context of this trial, the impression created is that of the well-known message from the old times: no one in Serbia has been prosecuted for freedom of speech (said Justice Minister Ivic), but only for a drawing, gesture, wink, exclamation or sentence. Has anything changed?