Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday that freedom of the media is an important part of Serbia’s identity.

“Serbia views feedom of the media as one of the important parts of its state identity and democratic capacities and is committed in full institutional form to securing all the conditions for the unobstructed work and development of journalism,” a Foreign Ministry press release quoted Dacic as saying at a conference on the security of journalists in Vienna.

“Every country in the world, including Serbia, unfortunately have bad experience with the security of media staff and intimidation, attacks and even the killing of journalists are a problem we are faced with. Serbia approached that problem seriously by forming the Commission to investigate the murder of journalists because it is important for the judiciary to pay special attention to these cases and invest every possible effort to solve them,” Dacic said.

The Foreign Minister said that the Serbian authorities invested added effort to protect women journalists and set up a 24 hour line for reports on attacks on journalists.