On Saturday, November 22nd, for the third time Belgrade Regional Conference by \u201eEuropean Students for Liberty\u201c was organized, partnered with Libek. As in previous years, Belgrade Conference was the largest Regional Conference of \u201eEuropean Students for Liberty\u201c in Europe \u2013 this year alone around 300 participants were present.<\/p>\n
Conference was held at the Faculty of Law University of Belgrade, and first speaker was\u00a0Frank Karsten<\/strong>\u00a0from Dutch Mises Institute. Karsten presented the biggest problems that democracy entails, offering an alternative in smaller communities that compete with each other: \u201eSwitzerland is not a success due to direct democracy. It is successful for its competition between cantons\u201c. Karsten authored the book \u201eBeyond Democracy\u201c.<\/p>\n At the media panel of the conference speakers were\u00a0Slobodan Georgiev<\/strong>\u00a0from BIRN,\u00a0Branko \u010ce\u010den<\/strong>\u00a0from CINS and\u00a0Sre\u0107ko \u0160ekelji\u0107<\/strong>, blogger, activist and co-founder of Balkanist Magazine. Speaking about media liberties, Georgiev gave his opinion on the cause of problems: \u201eState is omnipresent in the media sphere. State is the biggest media tycoon\u201c. Branko \u010ce\u010den stressed the need to fight constantly, both for media and other liberties. \u201eThere is something within these people that makes people fight. Freedom wasn\u2019t given to us. We took it from Milo\u0161evi\u0107\u201c, said \u010ce\u010den. Sre\u0107ko \u0160ekelji\u0107 explained the role of internet in times of pressures on media: \u201eInternet is an unregulated area and probably will never be regulated. It is a fertile soil for free speech, although even on it, especially on web portals of classic media, there is (auto)censorship. This panel was moderated by PR Manager at Libek,\u00a0Nikola Parun<\/strong>.<\/p>\n After this panel there were four paralel \u201ebreak-out\u201c sessions.\u00a0Mihailo Gaji\u0107<\/strong>, Program Director of Research Department at Libek spoke about efficiency of public sector, professor\u00a0Branko Radulovi\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0from Faculty of Law about privatization,\u00a0Milan \u0106irkovi\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0held a lecture on scientific method and most common misconceptions, and on the fourth session about founding of student organizations and rise of extremism in Serbia spoke\u00a0Ana Jak\u0161i\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0from \u201eStudents for Liberty \u2013 Faculty of Philosophy\u201c,\u00a0Petar Doni\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0from \u201eStudents for Liberty \u2013 School of Electrical Engineering\u201c and\u00a0Ivana Vrane\u0161<\/strong>\u00a0from \u201eStudents of Liberty \u2013 Faculty of Dramatic Arts\u201c.<\/p>\n Fourth part of the conference was reserved for the subject of open borders, about which spoke\u00a0Yael Ossowski<\/strong>\u00a0from \u201eEuropean Students for Liberty\u201c, stressing the existence of obstacles to freedom that exist still today. \u201eEuropean countries are not at war today, but our freedom of movement is still quite often under threat\u201c, said Ossowski.<\/p>\n Final panel dealt with legalization of marijuana in Serbia. Moderated by\u00a0Ratko Nikoli\u0107<\/strong>, Regional Coordinator for the Balkans of \u201eEuropean Students of Liberty\u201c, jurist\u00a0Rastko Petakovi\u0107<\/strong>, International Outreach Director at Libek\u00a0Aleksandar Kokotovi\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0and artist\u00a0Sr\u0111an \u0106e\u0161i\u0107<\/strong>\u00a0agreed that Serbia should legalize marijuana, and should do it now. Petakovi\u0107 explained that marijuana was banned as late as 20. century, due to belief that it led to increase in crime rates and decrease in productivity. \u201eMy view is that those beliefs are wrong, that marijuana should be legal and that this is a matter of individual choice and freedom to choose\u201c, said Petakovi\u0107. Aleksandar Kokotovi\u0107 gave example of the state of Colorado where production, distribution and sale of marijuana was recently legalized, as an experiment that led to decrease in crime. On this, creatively, leaned on Sr\u0111an \u0106e\u0161i\u0107: \u201eOrganized and controlled growth and distribution surely lead to withering of an entire branch of crime that causes thousands of lives lost. Also, controlling quality and distribution of these products would demistify the use of cannabis, and consuming of marijuana would cease to be a specific expression of teen insurgency in a system in which cannabis can be recieved with a health card or ID\u201c. Panelists concluded that a wave of legalization of marijuana was released in Europe and that it would be a good thing if Serbia would join the ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Saturday, November 22nd, for the third time Belgrade Regional Conference by \u201eEuropean Students for Liberty\u201c was organized, partnered with Libek. As in previous years, Belgrade Conference was the largest Regional Conference of \u201eEuropean Students for Liberty\u201c in Europe \u2013 this year alone around 300 participants were present. Conference was held at the Faculty of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n