The Regional Conference for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers on Freedom of expression brought together legal professionals, including judges from the supreme courts of Montenegro, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, whose capacity as trainers has been built with the support of the EU/CoE joint JUFREX Regional action.
The Conference aimed to raise awareness and discuss the current trends and developments in the protection of freedom of expression at the European level and in the Western Balkans while providing a platform for the exchange of experiences and views from the perspective of each Beneficiary.
Mr Patrick Penninks, Head of the Information Society Department of the Council of Europe, and Mr Victor Dragutan, DG NEAR, European Commission addressed the participants, underlying the importance of legal professionals in promoting and protecting freedom of expression and the safety of journalists within the framework of the Rule of Law.
The keynote speech delivered by H.E. Françoise Tulkens, former vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights, addressed the challenges for Freedom of Expression in time of emergencies.
In the first session, the recent developments in European case law and standard-setting in the field of freedom of expression and freedom of the media were presented and discussed.
In the second session, significant case studies from the recent judicial practice in the region were presented and discussed, to foster, despite the differences in domestic legal systems, a common approach and understanding of the responses to threats to freedom of expression.
The Conference allowed judges JUFREX trainers from the region to share their experiences and opinions, enhance and strengthen peer-to-peer exchange and agree upon further steps and mutual support towards enhanced judicial protection of freedom of expression in the region, with a view to the continuation of the actions on Freedom of Expression under the Horizontal Facility phase III.
The regional action Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media in South-East Europe (JUFREX), implemented within the joint European Union and the Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022″.
