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FREEDOM
OF EXPRESSION AND OPINION
WITHIN THE RULE OF LAW
"Lies
substituted with hiding the truth"
Media
gap within the Legal System
At
the yesterday meeting under the title: "Freedom of
expression and opinion within the Rule of Law" it was
confirmed that Serbia is a country highly positioned on
the list of press freedom breach facing the phenomena of
if not direct lies then hiding the truth within the media,
as well as the existence of numerous gaps in media and
some other fields in the Legal System . This open dialog
with the moto: "Be aware!" was organised by
Center for Democratic Culture, Belgrade and Hellenic
Non-Governmental Organisation European Perspective with
the participation of representatives from other
non-governmental organisations.
"The
aim of such kind of gatherings is not only to offer
complete solutions but to open a dialog regarding critical
topics that target our and the territories of other states
of Balkan Region, to exchange the ideas and point out to
the ways of solution" - said Mr. Pantelis Sklias,
Director of European Perspective.
Ms.
Dijana Vukomanovic from Center for Democratic Culture
reminded on data concerning inquiry that activists from
different NGOs participated in, which showed that more
than one half of the interviewed considered there was
still censure of speech in Serbia, the first placed theme
freeely spoken about was inability of the previous
Milosevic's regime and taboo theme no. 1 was war crimes
and discrimination on ethnic base.
The
issue of freedom of expression -
in accordance with the appraisal of Dr Vesna Rakic
Vodinelic - implies the latent conflict of two human
rights: right of expressing personal opinion and freedom
of information on one side and right to private and human
dignity on the other side. In the civilized country, these
tensions are solved by judiciary system but in our country
experiences are different. During the ex-Law on
Information, conflict resolution of two mentioned rights
were left to the police court judges that were
state-political and not legal entities. When the Law was
abolished punishing
of police court judges began. This process seemed more
like a revenge then alleged lustration, as it was
presented by the Minister of Justice
– Mrs. Rakic – Vodenilic estimated.
It
is paradoxically, according to her opinion, that all the
judges defended themselves by the fact that they only
applied the Law but no one of them mentioned human rights
that have been breached by the same act, as well as demand
for the estimation of constitutionality since it was
logical procedure. However, there is still anxiety because
representatives of judicature do not react or protest when
some governmental officials request commencement of
criminal proceedings against journalists as it is case
with collaborators of
“Blic” and “Reporter” newspapers – as she
said.
If
Milosevic’s period in media was characteristic as a
period of manipulation with information and lies, the time
after his leaving would be described as a time of hiding
the truth in media, that could be also considered as a
kind of lie – reminded Mr. Dragan Djokovic, a
representative from Forum for Media Initiative, yesterday.
Within our legal system there are some legal gaps and one
of the biggest is Law on Media Rights– Mr. Sasa Gajin,
representative from the Institute for Comparative Law,
stated. Although, media laws are prepared long ago, they
are still not adopted without regard to the Law on
Radio-diffusion that is formally adopted but it is not in
use.
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