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08. 11. 2013

HOW TO COMBAT INTERNET ABUSE

Belgrade, November 8, 2013 (Politika) - The Government of Serbia is determined to facilitate the full respect of media freedom, the Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said yesterday in his address at the opening of the two-day ministers' conference "Freedom of expression and democracy in digital age", organized under auspices of the Council of Europe and the Ministry of Culture and Media at the Belgrade Metropol Hotel.

The message from this event was to stop hate speech, racism and xenophobia on the internet.

Emphasizing the position of the government to have the media policy aligned with European standards, Dacic said that the freedom of media and responsibility were the key words and the most powerful controlling mechanism.

"The Government of Serbia strives to regulate the media sphere with respect of the principles of freedom of expression and protection of citizens' rights and sanctioning possible violations", the Prime Minister said at the event.

He also said that the internet had affected moving of the boundaries, making every individual a potential media. These freedoms have however been violated and the regulatory framework for traditional media is not applicable to online media. It is therefore necessary to find a model that will do so, while not violating the freedom of speech at that.

Speaking for 200 thousand municipalities from 47 European countries, the Chairwoman of the Chamber of Regions of European Local and Regional Authorities Congress Natalia Romanova from Ukraine said that today we could speak about the "civil jouralism" on blogs and social networks.

Support to the Commission for investigating murders of journalists

Chief of EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said that the Delegation had supported the establishing of the Commission for investigating murders of journalists in Serbia. Davenport stressed that the European criteria in the media sphere were applicable to all state candidates, including Serbia, and that EU was acknowledging the efforts of the Serbian government in passing new media regulations.

Armenian Justice Minister Hrair Tovmasyan, who is also chairing the Committee of the Ministers of the Council of Europe, reminded that 43 journalists had been killed in this year.