Parliament Speaker: Serbia Better Ranked in Liberties' Index Than Some EU Countries

Vladimir Orlic (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

The speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Vladimir Orlic, has stated in an interview to the Voice of America (VoA) that, according to relevant reports and results of monitoring and measurements by international organizations, the situation in Serbia on the issues of democracy, human, civil and media liberties and rights was similar to that in some European Union member countries.

He also cited this year's latest report of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontieres), in which Serbia improved its ranking by 14 places in just one year. To the VoA reporter's remark that its ranking was still appalling, Orlic responded that Serbia was ranked equally to some EU members and that one always had to have someone to compare against.

"If you compare against yourself in the previous period – you say: it's good that we've made progress. You compare against the others and you say that it was not bad that Serbia was better than the referential members of the European Union. According to The Economist in London, a tiny Serbia is in the same category as the United States. To reiterate – we are in the same category of countries," said Orlic.