Media and communication skills, with special focus on the digital media sphere in Serbia, were in focus of four one-day trainings for court and prosecution office spokespersons from the appellate jurisdictions of Niš and Kragujevac, held from 4 to 8 October in Rtanj, within the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe action “Strengthening independence and accountability of the judiciary”.

Participants of the trainings acquired knowledge on the significance of timely communication with the media, and also on dealing with threats posed by disinformation in the digital sphere. The spokespersons took part in a workshop on online communicating, designing posts and giving online interviews. The programme featured a lecture on relevant international standards dealing with the relations between the judiciary and the media, with focus on the European standards and the European Court of Human Rights case-law. A special session was dedicated to gender mainstreaming and gender-sensitive language in communicating with the media.

Trainings for court spokespersons were opened by judge Marija Aranđelović Jureša, Deputy President of the High Judicial Council (HJC), who presented the recent achievements of the HJC in developing internal mechanisms to counter undue pressure on the judiciary, which were also supported by the action. Judge Jureša complimented that the trainings are designed to equip users with skills to build relationships with journalists so that the media outlets become allies of the judiciary, and not the source of influence.

This action is part of the “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II”, the joint European Union and the Council of Europe programme, which aims at assisting beneficiaries in the Western Balkans region and Turkey to comply with the Council of Europe standards and European Union acquis in the framework of the enlargement process, where relevant.