THE PRESS: AN UNCHANGED MATRIX Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia THE MEDIA AS A PART OF THE ANTI-EUROPEAN FRONT TTHHEE PPRREESSSS:: AANN UUNNCCHHAANNGGEEDD MMAATTRRIIXX Belgrade, December 2004 Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Zmaj Jova str. no. 7, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro phone +381 11 3032408; 637116; 637294; fax +381 11 636429 e-mail:
[email protected]; povelja@1 eunet.yu; www.helsinki.org.yu THE PRESS: AN UNCHANGED MATRIX Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia THE MEDIA AS A PART OF THE ANTI-EUROPEAN FRONT THE PRESS: AN UNCHANGED MATRIX Authors: Sonja Biserko Radovan Kupres Nemanja Stjepanovic Izabela Kisic Obrad Savic The research was conducted with the assistance of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Belgrade, December 2004 2 THE PRESS: AN UNCHANGED MATRIX “In the quest for ethical standards in the struggle against moral damages made by hate speech, we should remember that freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society. Civil society does not depend on state or social control of expression, no matter how insulting it may be. The real antidote for hate speech is not the suppression of speech, but rather much more speech. The key for civil society lies in the public, inasmuch as in those who convey (…) The reality is that if we really want and deserve an ethical society, then the apostles of virtue and politeness should victoriously appear on the market of ideas in an open confrontation with the cynical protectors of hate speech.” Louis Alvin Day, "Ethics in Media" "Freedom of information is... the touchstone of all the freedoms." UN, Freedom of Information Cnoference 1948.