Nearly 60pct of Serbs Want to Bring Back the Death Penalty

BELGRADE - If a referendum on the need to bring back the death penalty was held today a record 58 percent of Serbs would say "yes," according to the latest poll conducted by the public advocacy group Serbia Against the Death Penalty.

The rash of shocking crimes recently committed in Serbia, like the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl, would certainly make anyone see red. In an interview with Sputnik, sociologist Sandra Radenovic said, however, that the public wrath was in large part excited by the local media's sensationalist coverage of such incidents which he described as a new tactic all too eagerly embraced by Serbian media.

"They are breaking the most elementary norms of journalistic ethics by constantly bombarding people with all sorts of grisly details. We emotionally react to this of course and immediately think about what we would do to this bastard. The...