Lawyers from Banja Luka, Doboj, Prijedor, Bijeljina, Teslić, Gradiška, Laktaši and Mrkonjić Grad, participated at the two-days long cascade training on defamation, and strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs). The training was based on the presentation of the Council of Europe standards established in the case-law of the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR), as well as on the presentation and discussion of local legal framework and the practice in regards to defamation.

The basic criteria and principls established within the EctHR caselaw, for balancing the rights to freedom of and the protection of the reputation/and or privacy, that are the most common conflicting rights in the defamation cases, were presented and discussed at the training. Participants have had the chance to discuss and understand in smaller groups, the facts of chosen defamation cases, based on which they have expression learned about the standrads, but also about the issues when it comes to practical application in local practice. The limitation to freedom of expression were also discussed, as well as differentiation of value judgemnts and facts.

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. Educators at the training were Flutura Kusari, media lawyer and Council of Europe international expert, and local trainers: judge of the Supreme Court of federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Svjetlana Milišić Veličkovski; judge of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina Amir Kapetanović, and Irena Puzić Obradović, the lawyer from Doboj. The seminar was organised in colaboration with the bar Association of Republika Srpska.

This seminar 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)”.