A senior official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has decided to drop his law suit against a web journalist working for a local news portal in the town of Pancevo.

The Pancevo.city news portal said on Monday that SNS executive committee vice-chairman Branko Malovic had withdrawn the lawsuit he filed over an October 1 story by Nenad Zivkovic titled What’s Coming for the SNS When Their Time Passes. The law suit was filed on October 11 with a demand for damages of 500,000 Dinars (1 Euro – 118 Dinars).

Malovic is the SNS official in charge of the part of Vojvodina in which Pancevo is located.

“We feel that Malovic’s decision to withdraw one of the two law suits he filed against Zivkovic is a small but significant victory in defending freedom of expression in Serbia. That fact will not diminish our readiness to continue reporting on social anomalies and problems, injustice, the destruction of society and the efforts of the current authorities to establish absolute control,” Pancevo.city said in a press release.