AIS Reaction to the Court decission

The Association of State Court Reporters, AIS, held a meeting on October 22 this. AIS representatives agreed to send a reaction to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pertaining to “The regulations on accessing information controlled by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

The Oslobodjenje daily representatives gave their consent to the sending of this reaction.

Journalists attending the meeting cited frequent problems they face in their daily reporting on the work of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They expressed concern over the failure to issue CDs from war-crimes trials, even if a hearing lasting several hours is closed for just a few minutes.

They consider that, in line with ICTY practice, CDs should be inspected and closed parts of the hearings deleted, which would enable journalists to access the CDs and write their reports.

The meeting participants agreed that the Public Outreach Section of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina should pay more attention to relations with the media and respond to their requests, in order to avoid situations in which journalists are told, for example, that “the Court does not keep a register of how many indictees who have been acquitted of all charges before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina have filed compensation requests for the time they spent in custody” or, “when asked about custody orders for war-crimes suspects, the Court says that it is the police, and not the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who arrest people” and so on.

In reference to the second agenda item, the AIS representatives stressed the importance of the Conference on “Transparency of Courts and Responsibility of the Media”, explaining that this was an opportunity for them to share experiences and obtain additional information in terms of court reporting practices in the region.

The journalists particularly emphasized the importance of the media workshop, which was conducted on the second conference day, noting that legal experts offered new and useful advice, although they also warned about the possibility of eventual criminal prosecution in relation to court reporting.

The AIS representatives agreed that the publication of the conference proceedings is very important, as it will allow the discussions at the Conference to be documented and shared.

Referring to the training of journalists, which BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina is planning to organize, the AIS representatives agreed to draw up a list of journalists who could attend the training course, by the end of November.

Journalists who complete the course will act as AIS representatives in local communities.

The goal of the project (on training of journalists), which BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina is implementing as a partner in the USAID Justice Sector Development Project, will be to train journalists in the first year (until July 2010) enabling them to start reporting from courts in their local communities, thus providing inputs for Justice Report.

In the beginning they will submit weekly reports, but, later, the reporting will be more frequent.