Activity Details (ID# 7421)

Activity Synopsis

The objectives of the seminar were

- to give an overview of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning Article 10 of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR),
- to compare the current Montenegrin legal framework in the media field with the European Convention on Human Rights
- to present standards in the self-regulation of journalists and to discuss the importance of these regulation systems and how necessary is to have them in a democratic society.

This seminar was the second seminar for students from the School of Journalism in the Montenegrin Media Institute.
 

The seminar was very well organised. The participants were students of the Third generation of the School of Journalism plus some journalists from the Second generation. They received the Council of Europe publications (“Compendium of legal instruments regarding media field” and “Media and elections”) as well as Recommendation REC (2002)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on access to official documents, Recommendation Rec (2003)13 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the provision of information through the media in relation to criminal proceedings, Declaration on freedom of political debate. All these documents were translated into their language.

The participants were very motivated and very interested by the national and Council of Europe experts’ presentations. The Council of Europe experts came from neighbouring countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia). Their extensive knowledge of the current situation in Montenegro and its legislation as well as the fact that the discussions and presentations were conducted without the need for interpretation contributed to the success of the seminars.

The discussions focussed on defamation, presumption of innocence, privacy, criticism of public figures, hate speech and protection of journalistic sources. The Council of Europe experts presented to the participants examples from the European Court of Human Rights on these topics. They also presented similar cases from their countries. The participants were very interested to learn about the legislation concerning the media in these two countries and especially how the access to information and defamation are regulated.

The participants were conscious of the importance of self-regulation and of respect of the Code of Ethics.

The seminar was followed by evaluation questionnaires. The feedback was excellent, participants were very happy to get the opportunity to have open discussion with experts and to learn more about the Council of Europe instruments. They all expressed the wish to continue with this training and to recommend it to their colleagues.


 

The general conclusion was that, on the one hand, the Montenegrin journalists should be more professional and respect their Code of Ethics, on the other hand, the participants stressed that the other relevant groups (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, politicians, parliamentarians, public figures and public information officers) should also be aware of their duties.

This seminar was a good opportunity for future journalists to become familiarised with the Council of Europe standards concerning the media and to motivate them to be professional.


 

Students of the Third generation of the School of Journalism in the Montenegrin Media Institute and several participants from the Second generation

 

Mr Toni VUKICEVIC, Lawyer, Croatia
Mr Senad KAMENICA, Journalist, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mr Abaz Beli DZAFIC, Director, Broadcasting Agency
Mr Esad KOCAN, Chairman, Managing Board, Montenegrin Media Institute

 

Ms Lejla DERVISAGIS, Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights