Judges and legal advisors from Republika Srpska (RS), participated in a two-day cascade training on the application of the The Law on Protection against Defamation in the judiciary system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including understanding and application of European standards as set up by European Convention on Human Rights and case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

The participants were trained on defamation through analysis of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the domestic courts. Other topics were the limitations of freedom of expression through the administrative, criminal and civil proceedings, value judgements and facts in defamation proceedings and protection of the dignity of the court and freedom of expression.

The goal of the seminar was to raise the capacities of local judiciary on the standards of freedom of expression and defamation, as set by the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court. Trainers at this event were Sevima Sali-Terzić, senior advisor at the Constitutional Court of BiH, and judges Amir Kapetanović and Zlatna Martinović. This event was organised in partnership with the Center for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of Republika Srpska.

This training was organised within the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, and its action on “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina (JUFREX)”.