On 29-30 October 2018, the European Union and the Council of Europe with the involvement of international and national consultants and in cooperation with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, organised a two-day training on the right to freedom of expression. The seminar brought together prosecutors and investigators holding managerial positions responsible for implementing unified criminal law polices in their respective units.

The aim of the training was to familiarise participants with most recent case law of the European Court of Human Rights as well as national and international standards on the right to freedom of expression. Participants had the possibility to get acquainted with the structure of article 10 and the qualified rights under the European Convention of Human Rights, the principles of legality, legitimacy, necessity, and proportionality. In particular, an emphasis was made on topics such as the right of the protection of one’s image under the Convention, the protection of journalistic sources under the Convention, the case law on political speech, protected rights and possible interferences, the jurisprudence of the Court on Article 10 related to Georgia and its current challenges.

As a result of the training, 26 prosecutors are better aware of the practice on the application of Article 10 of the European Convention at the national level and the landmark case law of the Court on the right to the freedom of expression.

The event was organised under the joint programme of the European Union – Council of Europe Partnership of Good Governance within the project Strengthening the Application of the European Convention on Human Rights in Georgia, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.