AJM held a workshop on judicial practice and safety of journalists and media workers
The Association of Journalists of Macedonia in cooperation with the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors – Pavel Shatev organized a workshop on “Judicial Practice and Safety of Journalists and Media Workers”. The workshop was attended by journalists, judges, lawyers and public prosecutors who discussed the safety of journalists, case law in the country and aspects of Articles 2, 3 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Also the international human rights expert George Tugushi was present at the workshop and spoke about the role of the Ombudsman in protecting journalists.
The President of AJM, Mladen Chadikovski said that this activity with the Academy is organized with the aim of increasing cooperation between journalists and judges in the interest of democracy, good governance and citizens’ well-being. “Our two professions are not the same, or let me say, they are completely different, yet in our daily work we must cooperate. That is why it is important to be allies in dealing with the various challenges we face in carrying out our professional tasks,” he said.
According to Chadikovski, journalists can help for better communication and greater transparency of judges with the public, and judges can be allies of journalists when certain centers of power use court proceedings to silence the criticism in the public. He said that both professions face a loss of credibility and independence. “Therefore, we want active co-operation in order to overcome these problems and gain back the public’s confidence in institutions and in journalism,” Chadikovski said.
This activity is implemented by the Association of Journalists of Macedonia (AJM) in cooperation with the Academy for Training of Judges and Public Prosecutors in the framework of the project “Safe Journalists for Credible Information”, and is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Skopje and the OSCE Mission to Skopje.
