Activity Details (ID# 7561)

Activity Synopsis

The aim of this expert meeting was to gather together the relevant public officials and the expert who had already provided written comments on the draft Law in order to bring the draft fully into line with Council of Europe standards. 

This draft Law is a first step towards the decriminalisation of defamation in Kosovo.

Discussions revolved around:
- the importance of having a clear definition in the draft Law of an “act of defamation” i.e. the nature of the speech published that amounts to defamation and the reason it does; to differentiate between fact (the truth of which can be proved) and value judgments i.e. opinions (the truth of which cannot be proved);
- the pitfalls to be avoided when drafting a law on defamation, such as avoiding the introduction of intent in a defamation law, as the intention of the person committing an act of defamation could be merely to act as a journalist;
- the importance of clearly defining who carries the burden of proof and that the example of the UK might be followed, where the claimant carries the burden of proving that the publication of the defamatory statement has occurred i.e. that a third person has read this information and that the meaning is in fact defamatory;
- defamation and the internet, notably how repeating a libellous statement does not exempt a person from liability, because s/he is responsible for his or her own actions i.e. for repeating a statement.

The participants found the expert meeting very helpful and asked many questions.
 

The participants said that they will be taking the discussions on the expertise and the expertise itself into consideration when revising the draft Law and were grateful that the expert agreed to answer any further questions that they may have when redrafting certain provisions of this draft Law. 

Senior legal advisers and legal officers from the Office of the Prime Minister members of the Kosovo Assembly’s Committee on Public Service, Local Administration and Media; Temporary Media Commissioner for Kosovo and legal officers; senior media adviser from the OSCE Mission in Kosovo 

Mr Gavin MILLAR, lawyer, Doughty Street Chambers, United Kingdom 

Mr Ivan NIKOLTCHEV and Ms Tanja GERWIEN, Media Division, DG II