19. 06. 2002

Public Discussion of the Information Bill

BELGRADE, June 19, 2002 - The first public discussion of Serbia's planned Information Bill was held in the Media Center on Tuesday. An expert team drawn from the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and JUKOM has drafted two versions of the bill. The discussion revealed the complicated nature of regulation and legal definition in the public information sector. Speaking for one version of the bill, Professor Vladimir Vodinelic called for more extensive legal regulation and proposed, among other things, the introduction of a "ban on distribution" as a way of preventing the dissemination of racism or vilification. Journalist Rade Veljanovski, speaking for the second version, put a greater emphasis on self-regulation and expressed reservations about the way the ban on distribution would be executed.