Digital media and media legislation of the Republic of Serbia

In: Zbornik radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu: Collection of papers, Faculty of Law, Niš, Band 60, Heft 92, S. 195-217

Abstract

The contemporay technological developments have been redefining human communication, concurrently raising the question whether users of online services and various media platforms can cope with so much freedom. Thus, the Internet as a global medium opens new legal issues and poses new challenges in the field of media legislation. Information policy, and legislation must adequately respond to the challenges of the new digital age. New media pose a new challenge for law and values, not only in a speculative sense but also in a real procedural and human sense. In times of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), law should not turn a blind eye to the developments in the virtual space. The development of new digital environments and media platforms raises the question whether the legislation should be the same for all media, traditional and new ones alike. The first step in addressing this issue should be the provision of a broad and realistic definition of the concept of media, which will ensure the recognition of the new media. Secondly, media regulations and principles referring to the new media should be more flexible and less strict as compared to the traditional media (but only provisionally), which is more purposeful than turning a blind eye to the new media. Non-recognition and non-regulation of information dissemination via the Internet opens the possibility of causing much greater damage to the public interest.