Defamation

Academy award-winning actor Geoffrey Rush Friday filed defamation proceedings against a News Corp newspaper in Australia over a story claiming he engaged in “inappropriate behavior” at a Sydney theater.

Greece's foreign ministry accused the British newspaper Financial Times of defaming and lying and accused it of "violating journalistic ethics" for an article about Minister Nicos Kodias.

The Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement on Wednesday over an article in the Financial Times citing concerns about the independence of the Greek judicial system in the wake of a court ruling vindicating Minister Nikos Kotzias in a defamation suit against a small Greek publisher.

Less than a week before making a similar complaint against the government, the union representing the country's judges on Tuesday issued a statement condemning "improper, slanderous and inappropriate expressions" by Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has dismissed criminal charges against some media organs by the lawyers of two Turkish hunger strikers for targeting and labeling them as "terrorists," daily Cumhuriyet reported on June 4. 

Journalist and publisher Costas Vaxevanis handed himself over to the police on Monday after the wife of Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras lodged a legal suit against him for slander over an article in his Documento newspaper accusing her of abusing her husband's influence to secure state funding for medical conferences.

Reporters Without Borders has condemns the prison sentence of 2 years and 3 months handed down by a Serbian court on the freelance journalist Stefan Cvetkovic.

Cvetkovic was found guilty on charges of defamation and unauthorized publication of documents.

The German government has threatened companies like Facebook and Twitter with fines of up to EUR 50 M unless they take certain measures against the publication of incinatory materials and slander, reported DPA.

The First Basic Court in Belgrade has ruled in favor of Dragan Sutanovac in a defamation case he brought against Bratislav Gasic.

Gasic will have to pay RSD 200,000 to Sutanovac for damaging his honor and reputation when he said the latter eavesdropped on former Serbian President Boris Tadic. He will also have to pay the legal expenses of the trial.

The German government voted on Jan. 25 to scrap a "lese majeste" law that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had sought to employ against a popular German television satirist. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet decided to abolish by Jan. 1, 2018 the rarely enforced section of the criminal code that prohibits insulting organs or representatives of foreign states.