FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND EUROPEAN STANDARDS

Abstract

Protection of human rights is, on one hand, achieved on the basis of national legislation and international conventions that set the normative framework, and on the other, by applying international and European standards for their protection. As the normative framework without concrete application does not have significant effects, it is necessary that in every individual case concrete measures be defined for their application. As the application of law, both national and international, is primarily the function of courts, the concrete realization of international and European standards (e.g. of human rights protection) is defined by the decision of the respective court (or other government agency). Freedom of expression is one of the fundamental human rights and freedoms. This field in Serbia is legally regulated by the Law on Public Information (1998) that caused a series of controversies, particularly in respect to the protection of the freedom of expression as a fundamental human right as it is prescribed by the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), i.e. Article 10, as well as in the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on these issues (e.g. Lingens v. Austria; Castels v. Spain, etc). In this context, the way that the freedom of expression is regulated within the framework of the constitutional and legislative system and their practical realization in Serbia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia can present a significant factor in showing the direction in which human rights protection in this and other fields should be followed, and together with this the road towards the European tradition and standards of the rule of law, democracy and individual freedom.