Ethics

Croatia urged to respect free speech in social media

VIENNA -- OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović last week called on the Croatian authorities to respect free speech on social media platforms.

The statement came following a case where an individual was fined for offending the police on Facebook.

The UN committee called on the government to suspend the eviction of the families until a complaint filed by their lawyers on the merits of the decision to demolish the houses and subsequent compensation claims are heard.

The Turkish coastguard has stopped a boat of human traffickers off the southwestern Datça peninsula carrying Syrian refugees to the Greek island of Symi in the early hours of July 11.

Two human traffickers, who jumped off of the boat during the raid, were both caught and detained after they reached land by swimming.

Central bank's key policy rate remains at 8.5 percent

BELGRADE -- The key policy rate will remain at the level of 8.5 percent, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Executive Board decided on Thursday.

The bank said that the decision was made "mindful of potential risks to the Serbian economy in the period ahead."

Police in the Cretan prefecture of Iraklio said on Wednesday that they had broken two criminal rings operating in the area – one trading in drugs and the other an established usury and extortion racket.

One in four Bulgarian women is a victim of domestic violence, Bulgarian Telegraph Agency informs.

“The share of domestic violence increases to 29% for women between the ages of 15 and mature age,”Genoveva Tisheva, chair of the Bulgarian Alliance for Protection against Domestic Violence says.

Turkey has drawn praise from the Council of Europe for its recent judicial moves to allow citizens to apply directly to the country’s highest court ahead of a European-wide convention of constitutional court judges.

Serbian nationalist leader Seselj, on trial for war crimes, asked for 12 million euro from the Hague Tribunal for unlawful deprivation of liberty, defamation of character and damage to his health.

The Center for Prevention and Countering Corruption and Organized Crime is to be dissolved as an independent agency and to become a section at the Council of Ministers.

During EU membership talks, Brussels must put pressure on Belgrade to end impunity for war crimes and human rights violations committed during the 1990s, Serbian campaigners urged.