Dunja Mijatovic

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic and Serbian Foreign Minister and OSCE Chair Ivica Dacic will take part in the solidarity march in Paris on Sunday which will be organised in response to the terrorist attack on the editorial of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The new, third consecutive trial for the murder of the journalist Dusko Jovanovic began on Tuesday in the High Court in Podgorica, with the only defendant, Damir Mandic, pleading innocence and accusing the police of "planting evidence".

Mandic said he had been kept in prison for 10 years although he was innocent, and his human rights had been violated.

VIENNA - Serbia respects freedom of the media and freedom of expression and the Serbian government condemns any attempt to violate these freedoms, Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Ivan Tasovac stated in the talks with OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic on Tuesday.

VIJESTI
American magazine Hollywood Reporter published a review of Nikola Vukcevic's film "Bojs from the Marx and Engels street", which is the Montenegrin candidate for an Oscar. Critic Steven Dalton was not particularly fond of the film, describing his action as illogical and unintentionally comical.

The head of Europe's top human rights watchdog is set to visit Turkey to discuss the recent detentions of senior journalists thought to be linked to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland will visit to Turkey on Jan. 6-7, according to his spokesperson.

OSCE countries urged to break cycle of impunity

VIENNA -- OSCE's Dunja Mijatović has called on countries to take real steps to track down and prosecute those who commit crimes against journalists.

The appeal of the media freedom representative to OSCE participating states came ahead of International Day to End Impunity (IDEI).

Media community urged to raise ethical standards

VIENNA -- The OSCE representative on media freedom welcomed the readiness of the media community in Montenegro to launch a process to improve media self-regulation.

Dunja Mijatović also welcomed their readiness to start the process of confidence-building between media actors.

The head of the Montenegrin police, Slavko Stojanovic, said on Tuesday that media freedom is the basis of any democratic society, and that his force is working to protect it.

VIENNA - Representative on Freedom of the Media of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Dunja Mijatovic said in her regular six-month report on freedom of the media in Serbia that her office is ready to help improve the situation in the media in the country, and she also called on the government to protect the freedom of the Internet.

Albanian special forces units using armoured vehicles combed through the village of Lazarat on Tuesday, while drug traffickers shot back, attempting to halt the crackdown on their cannabis-growing operations.

One police officer and two shepherds were wounded as authorities tightened their grip on a village that has become synonymous with uncontrolled crime.