Activity Details (ID# 4389)

Activity Synopsis

The objective of the seminar was to present to the lawyers the general principles developed by the European Court of Human Rights concerning Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its application as regards defamation, insult, incitement to hatred, access to information, protection of sources and state secrecy. Two case studies, one on state secrets and another on insult of public figures were discussed with the participants. 

The seminar was very well organised. The different documents concerning freedom of expression, translated into Serbian, were distributed to the participants (Case law concerning Article 10 of the ECHR, Media and Elections, Declaration and Recommendations concerning freedom of expression adopted by the Committee of Ministers, Conclusions of the Regional Conference on Defamation and Freedom of Expression organised in Strasbourg, on 17-18 October 2002).

The participants were very motivated and very interested in the experts’ presentations. As their knowledge of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights were limited, the participants took the opportunity to ask general questions about the Convention. Questions were also put concerning the working methods of the Court (one expert was a lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights).

The participants were worried about the incompatibility of national laws with European standards and they stressed that important changes and training would need to be undertaken before these standards could be applied in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
 

In general, the seminar was successful. An evaluation questionnaire was distributed to the participants at the end of the seminar. The general conclusion was that most participants had attended some seminars on ECHR but their knowledge of the European system for the protection of human rights and on the practice of the European Court of Human Rights were very limited, especially concerning Article 10 of ECHR.

All participants expressed their wish to:

- continue this kind of activity
- participate in additional seminars on Article 6 and Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the ECHR
- invite experts from the region (e.g., from Slovenia, Croatia, Poland)

 

Lawyers from Belgrade Media Centre and from Serbian regions, representative of Swedish Helsinki Committee, representatives of the Mission of the OSCE in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 

Mr Andrea Tamietti, Lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights
Mr Frédéric Gras, Barrister, France
 

Ms Lejla Devisagic, Media Division, Directorate Generale of Human Rights
Ms Ljiljana Breberina, Programme Adviser, CoE Office in Belgrade