A two-part inter- professional seminar on Mediation of self-regulatory and regulatory body before the court proceedings and on hate speech was held on 5 and 6 November in a webinar format, gathering media professionals and representatives of the judiciary.

The goal of the first part of the event was to strengthen the legal expertise and understanding of reporting on freedom of media and to develop the best mechanisms for the protection of citizens’ right to complain to inaccurate and unprofessional media reporting, but also to strengthen free and responsible journalists to report in the best public interest. The second part of the seminar aimed to start the discussion on the mechanisms to process hate and inflammatory speech in the media, alongside educating the public and the representatives of the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the topic.

European standards, through the case law of the European Court for Human Rights, were presented by the Council of Europe experts Isabella Kurkowski and Sandra Bencic, while several local experts took part as the panelists at the workshop and participated in the discussion. The event was organised in partnership with the Press Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The participants were members of different professional communities: journalists, editors, legal professionals, police representatives, PR persons and others.

This workshop 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)”.