Support for New Projects

Participants were apprised of the agreed agenda for the regional conference being organized by the BIRN Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina from September 1 to September 3 this year.

The meeting agreed on the necessity of holding a meeting with representatives of the Public Outreach Section of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to try to improve cooperation between reporters and these institutions.

Anisa Suceska-Vekic and Nidzara Ahmetasevic said they had met with Meddzida Kreso, President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who had expressed her full support for the production of a publication covering the five-year work of this institution.

The AIS members said that Kreso had indicated that she would make the highest quality audio files available for the needs of the TV programme to be launched by the BIRN Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina soon.

Besides these issues, the issue of holding press briefings and obtaining CDs containing records of open sessions will be raised at the meeting with the Public Outreach Sections of the State Court and its Prosecution.

According to the past practice of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if a protected witness’ name is mentioned at an open hearing, it is not possible to obtain a CD containing records of that particular hearing.

The AIS considers that it would be technically possible to do this, citing the Hague Tribunal’s practice as an example. The agenda of the regional conference to be organized by the BIRN Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina in September this year was considered at the AIS meeting.

Suggestions pertaining to inviting public broadcast services as guests have already been taken into consideration and included in the agenda.

Ahmetasevic and Erna Mackic informed participants about a lecture they delivered to second-year Journalism students at the Faculty of Political Sciences, FPS.

They noted that the students were particularly interested in hearing about court reporting and the entire course of a trial, from the investigation to the final verdict.

The FPS said it might be possible for AIS members to organize more lectures, but the details would be agreed at a later stage.

At this meeting the possibility of holding lectures on court reporting at other faculties was also mentioned.

The meeting was an opportunity to bid farewell to Lea Tajic, who is leaving the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and starting a new job, which is not directly related to court reporting.

The AIS members expressed their gratitude to Tajic for her work until now.