Belgrade 1/29/2023

PUBLIC STATEMENT & APPEAL

FREEDOM OF SPEECH SHOULD BE A RIGHT, NOT A RISK

Forum for Security and Democracy’s Group 46 condemns in the strongest possible terms the Kafkaesque persecution through which the lawyer Čedomir Kokanović is going through since January 27th  2023 and which stands as a painful reminder to what extent is the freedom of speech not a Right but a Risk in Serbia.

G 46 wishes to underscore as particularly shameful the fact that this gross encroachment upon a fundamental right – within which the right to criticize the conduct of persons holding public office stands out as one of it’s essential aspects – without which the very notion of a democratic and open society is inconceivable originates from the president of Serbia’s second biggest bar association!

G 46 reminds that public figures, which the president of the Vojvodina Bar Association undoubtedly is, have a special responsibility to, within their competences and through the example of their own conduct, show through action a tolerance and openness for all manner of criticism, especially those critiques that address that part of their work which is open to public scrutiny.

G 46 underscores that even when the critique seems unfounded and frivolous, it too must enjoy an unquestionable right of citizenship for it is the very process of critique through which, in the space where freedom resides, people can share the opinions and ideas that make this freedom available to all and which is what makes an open society, within which that space of freedom exists, open in the truest sense of the word.

G 46 for this reason deems that not only does the conduct of the president of the Vojvodina Bar Association deeply discredit the professional association which his colleagues gave him a vote of confidence to represent, but the entire legal profession in Serbia which as a truly liberal profession should be the greatest and staunchest protector of that space of freedom which Mr. Beljanski, through abuse of his social influence and through frivolous lawsuits, is trying to deny and fence Mr. Kokanović out of.

Coordinator of FSD Group 46
Luka Jovanovic attorney-at-low