Guest lecturers were prof. Dr. Nerzuk Ćurak from the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo and rev. mr. Josip Vajdner, editor in chief of Katolički tjednik. The forum was held within the annual programme Faith in Contemporary Society, and the moderator and program leader was rev. Dr. Mario Bernadić.

In his introduction, rev. Bernadić presented freedom of speech as one of the pillars of a democratic society, which, however, remained somewhat incomplete, at least until now. Prof. Ćurak presented his speech entitled Freedom of Speech and Growth of Hate Speech in a Networked Society. He believes that the world in which we live has changed much more than we think and see. Today's time, added prof. Ćurak, could be refered as “media time”, within which man exists as a “prisoner of media space”, meaning that man is no longer just a media user, but he himself has become the medium in the meantime.

Rev. Vajdner has addressed his presentation as Mass Media - a gift or a curse to mankind. In his presentation he tried to point to the depth of the freedom of speech, as well as to what freedom of speech is not, although publicly it is presented as if it was. In particular, he referred to the worrying phenomenon of the so-called “Free themes”.

The programme of theological forums at the Catholic Theological University in Sarajevo is held in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung from Germany.

KT