Activity Details (ID# 11681)

Activity Synopsis

The aim of the seminar was to present to journalists and police officers European standards in police and media relations, to discuss with them how to reconcile the rights to freedom of expression and information and the presumption of innocence, to share experience with other European countries, to discuss the right of the media to receive and impart information.
The seminar was suggested by police officers and journalists who were present in some of the previous seminars.
 

The participants received the different documents of the Council of Europe concerning freedom of expression and information in general (European Convention on Human Rights - ECHR, the series of Recommendations and other texts of the Committee of Ministers in the media field, the Montenegrin Media Law, Broadcasting Law and Public Broadcasting Services Law), as well as documents related to the topics (the European Court of Human Rights cases, information concerning the ECHR and the declaration on the Police and the Directorate General of Human Rights Programme on the Human Rights and Police). All documents were translated into their language.

At the beginning of the seminar and during the first session a certain tension was evident between the police officers and journalists. It was difficult to get them to express their opinion and to put questions. However, during the second and last session, this tension completely dissipated.

During the discussion, the police officers blamed the journalists for not being fair and for writing and broadcasting unverified information or facts as well as information about an investigation which could interfere with the presumption of innocence. They also said that most of the Montenegrin journalists do not have any legal background or knowledge and confuse the different legal terms in their reports. On the other hand, the journalists blamed the police officers for not giving information to them on time or not at all, in some cases, thus putting the journalists in the situation of having to look for and find information as they can. The final results are often wrong. The Montenegrin legislation states that in general only the Ministry of Interior is allowed to give information to the media. However, in some police stations it is standard practice to send press releases on a monthly basis or following events which may be to interest of the media. This practice was considered to be a good example.

During the seminar different points of view and criticisms were expressed, but in a very constructive way. The participants expressed a wish to find better means of communication with each other. The Council of Europe experts presented examples of good/bad cooperation between police officers and journalists from other European countries.

During the role-playing exercise (the case study was appropriate and very well chosen), the participants showed considerable interest not only in resolving the hypothetical situation but also in applying the discussed European standards and to take into account all criticism expressed to each other during the seminar.

 

This seminar was the first seminar where police officers and media representatives were together, and it was very successful. One of the concrete conclusions of the seminar was to create a code of conduct between the police and media representatives to obtain better cooperation. Copies of the German guidelines for police and media was distributed to the participants as a model. The police and media representatives will work together on the draft of the Code with the representatives of the Montenegrin Media Institute. The Council of Europe promised to provide the working group with copies from other countries if necessary.

The general conclusion was that the seminar was very useful for both of these groups and that at the end of the seminar the participants had more understanding of each other as well as a wish for cooperation and more concrete solutions for better comprehension.

The fact that the representative of the Media Division of the Council of Europe and one of the Council of Europe experts participated in a one hour live radio broadcast reveals the extent of interest for such topics in Montenegro at the present time. During the broadcast, apart from the seminar topics, different Council of Europe instruments concerning the media field were presented as well as previous activities. Future activities were also announced.


 

Police officers, journalists from different printed and broadcasted media

 

Mr Leif BERG, Lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights
Mr André KONZE, Head of the Police Department, Police North Rhine Wesfalia, Germany
Mr Zoran PAZIN, President, Court of Podgorica
Mr Dusko VUKOVIC, Montenegrin Media Institute

 

Ms Slobodanka KARISIK, Adviser, Council of Europe Office in Podgorica
Lejla DERVISAGIC, Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights