Activity Details (ID# 6905)

Activity Synopsis

The objectives of the seminar were to present to the judges:

- an overview of the Council of Europe standards concerning the coverage of judicial proceedings by the media and to compare these standards with the Ukrainian legislation
- to discuss with the judges the applicable standards and possible solutions concerning freedom of expression, the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
 

The seminar was very well organised. Various documents translated into Ukrainian concerning freedom of expression, as well as the Recommendation on the provision of information through the media in relation to criminal proceedings adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in July last year (Rec(2003)13), were distributed to the participants.

The Council of Europe and local experts gave very systematic presentations: the Council of Europe experts spoke about the Organisation’s standards and case law concerning these topics, while the Ukrainian expert spoke about Ukrainian legislation and Ukrainian cases.

The participants were highly motivated and very involved in the discussions from the beginning of the seminar, the reason being that most of the participants had already attended the seminars on Article 10 of the ECHR organised by the Media Division over the last two years and that the topics were relevant to the judges’ daily practice.

During the discussions, the judges criticised journalists: they said that journalists were not always very professional and that they film and record hearings even when this was not permitted; this was apparently due to the fact that the journalists do not have a legal background. It is regrettable that journalists and other media professionals were not present to give their opinion.

The experts explained to the participants how important court reporting is for ensuring the transparency and impartiality of the judiciary and that court reporting should be the rule and interdiction the exception.

The participants also stressed that they have many cases in which two political parties are involved and where judges are subject to pressure from one or the other party and they wanted to know if the same or similar situations exist in the other European countries.

During the role-playing exercises, it was a very good sign to see the participants applying the principles of Recommendation (2003)13 which was presented to them by the Council of Europe experts.

 

The seminar was very successful. The general conclusions were that the participants had a good knowledge of the principles of Article 10. The fact that they were interested in finding solutions for better understanding between themselves and journalists was a very positive sign and shows that the series of seminars is producing results.

 

Judges

 

Mr Nicholas HODGSON, Senior Lawyer, Lord Chancellor’s Department (United Kingdom)
Ms Anine KIERULF, Attorney-at-Law (Norway)
Ms Natalia PETROVA, Senior Media Law Expert, Top-Media Ukraine
 

Ms Lejla DERVISAGIC, Media Division, Directorate General of Human Rights
Mr Olexander PAVLICHENKO, Director of the Information Office of the Council of Europe, Co-ordinator of the Action Plan for the media in Ukraine