AIS Plans For 2008
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The 15th meeting of the Association of Court Reporters (AIS) was held in Sarajevo on January 22.
The meeting, which was attended by representatives of BIRN, Konrad Adenauer Foundation and court reporters from BH Radio 1, Oslobodjenje, Nezavisne novine and the Justice Report agency, focused on AIS’ plans for 2008.
AIS members emphasised the need to expand the AIS network over the next year, to include representatives of local media from all parts of BiH to improve the transparency of war crime processes conducted before the Court and Prosecution of BiH, and also the cantonal and regional courts.
Reiterating that cooperation with the local courts in BiH and the local media that monitor war crime trials will be the priority of AIS over the upcoming period, it was agreed that AIS would organise four meetings with representatives of local courts and media in the course of 2008.
The planned meetings will represent an opportunity to strengthen the cooperation between AIS and the local judicial institutions with the aim of better and more efficient functioning of both parties, resulting in a more timely and accurate flow of information to the public concerning the work of these courts. In this way, AIS will also expand its cooperation with the journalists and media, who act in local communities and cooperate with local courts.
These meetings will aim to educate the media and local judiciary representatives on the importance of transparency in war crime court processes, as well as on possible ways of achieving objective reporting in line with the Press Code and the laws and regulations applied by the judicial institutions in BiH.
Another aim of these meetings will be to share lessons learned and good practices concerning cooperation between AIS and representatives of the Court and Prosecution of BiH over the past couple of years.
The first meeting is planned for February 6. Doboj regional court representatives and local media representatives, who follow the war crime trials conducted at those courts or who want to familiarise themselves with this subject, will be invited to the meeting.
A joint meeting of AIS members with representatives of the media and local judiciary in Doboj, aimed at developing models of joint cooperation, is planned for February 13.
After the joint meeting in Doboj, it was agreed to hold a press conference to which representatives of the local media, non-governmental organisations and international organisations in that area would be invited.
The Association of Court Reporters was established in 2005 in order to acquaint the public, through coordinated activities, with the work of the Court of BiH and its prosecution department. AIS is financially supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation as part of the BIRN BiH project on “Media, Civil Society and War Crime Trials”.
