ЈАВНА РЕЧ ВИЂЕНА КРОЗ УСТАВНЕ ОДРЕДБЕ
EXPRESSION OF VIEWS IN PUBLIC AND RELEVANT CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

Summary/Abstract: Expression of views in public has been used both properly and without justification - while frequently proclaimed as free, but secretly usurped. Depending on the general climate in society and environment, as well as on the subjects involved, various attitudes have been characteristic regarding that phenomenon. Since the word pronounced in public is the basic postulate of creating and changing public opinion, there was a need to find a position for it in legislation, namely in the highest act - constitution. Thus, legislation on the press has been developing as a part of the struggle for freedom of individual, for free expression qf opinion, including the possibility of free expressing of views in the press and other mass media. Beginnings of such legislation are found in the Bill of Rights of the State of Virginia ( 1776), considered the first legal document guaranteeing freedom of the press, which was the characteristic of the legal regime in this matter in XVI, XVII and major part of the XVIII century. In France the freedom of the press has been proclaimed by the 1781 Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen (article 11). The idea of such freedom is found in that document for the first time, but also a definite formulation of liability in case of its misuse. In such a way legal regime of the press has been built on two foundations - freedom of public information activity and sanctions for misusing that freedom. Contemporary legislation is not a unified legal category. In terms of kind of relevant statute, or act, it consists of constitutions, statutes, subordinate legislation, and judicial practice. Because of the complexities of the matter, press legislation is an aggregate of precepts wider than the ones directly relating to the laws of press. It includes, namely, civil law provisions, those on unfair advertising, extraordinary measures in time of war or immediate danger of war, etc. The present article is a historical review of Yugoslav legislation in its endeavours to regulate the freedom of expressing the views in public, sometimes extending its scope and sometimes restricting it, depending on circumstances and general development of society and state.

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