Editors will also be responsible for hate speech under online articles, Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek said about the new electronic media bill in Friday's issue of Vecernji List daily.

The government yesterday reached a conclusion on the prevention of radicalisation in society, and the new electronic media bill, which is supposed to increase the editor’s responsibility for readers’ comments under articles, should be sent to parliament in the next two weeks, so Vecernji List asked Minister what that meant exactly.

“This means responsibility for the entire content of an electronic publication, regardless of whether it is created by a journalist or someone else. Responsibility for both articles and comments under them because there can be hate speech, intolerance and other inappropriate content in those comments,” she said.

“It will be a clearer and more precise definition of editorial responsibility than it used to be before,” the minister said, stressing that it could not be linked to censorship in any way.

Lawyer Vesna Alaburic, who deals with media, said that she did not know what increased editorial responsibility was supposed to mean.

“The Electronic Media Act cannot intervene in the Criminal Code, which regulates criminal liability for published content, and the Media Act regulates damage caused by published content. It is indisputable that publishers must be responsible for the content of their readers’ comments because they invite readers to comment because of certain commercial effects or influence in public communication,” she said.

“In that sense editors are responsible, but the question is how we are going to regulate that responsibility,” Alaburic said, adding that there is an increasing number of media outlets that do not publish their readers’ comments, which is a matter of choice for every media outlet.