Media and communication skills, with special focus on the digital media sphere in Serbia, were in focus of a one-day training for court spokespersons from the appellate jurisdictions of Belgrade, held on 29 November 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 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. In that sense, participants identified the need to organise joint meetings between court spokespersons and representatives of the media.

This action “Strengthening independence and accountability of the judiciary” 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.