“Any democratic society striving to become a EU member should not censor or put the freedom of speech under pressure, but it should ensure the existence of such a public space, in which other stakeholders, individuals or organisations do not put the freedom of speech of others under pressure either,” said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport, addressing the participants of the “Blog open-blog closed” conference.
Here in Serbia we have been discussing these days three important phenomena that surely have their impact on the freedom of speech, whether offline or online: the issue of self-censorship, issue of websites being taken down, as well as the issue of “intimidation” of individuals, said Davenport at bloggers’ gathering at Dom omladine Beograda.
Looking for an answer to the question of whether the freedom of speech is put under pressure in Serbia, it is highly important to bring up and analyse the facts, especially in the light of constant and rapid development of Internet and social networks, Davenport said.
