Workshop on Cooperation between Judicial Bodies and Mass Media
April 27, 2009 a workshop on Cooperation between Judicial Bodies and Mass Media was held in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The workshop was organised by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine jointly with the Canada-Ukraine Judicial Cooperation Project.
Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Andriy Stryzhak opening the workshop emphasised the importance of the subject to be discussed since information presented by the media “forms the public opinion about the Constitutional Court, Ukrainian judicial system and Ukraine as a law-based state as a whole”.
He mentioned several problems in relationships between the Constitutional Court and mass media. Among other things, he spoke about often ungrounded accusations of political partisanship of the Constitutional Court voiced by the press. Journalists use citizens’ lack of knowledge of the specifics of the constitutional justice. Furthermore, as practice shows, journalists are more interested in political cases that have a sensational or scandalous element in them. Socially important decisions are often left unnoticed by the press.
Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Petro Stetsiuk and Viktor Shyshkin made presentations. Judge Stetsiuk talked about formation of social legal awareness by the mass media and Viktor Shyshkin spoke about the problem of professionalism of Ukrainian journalists covering legal issues, including the Constitutional Court’s decisions.
Participants of the workshop also discussed the presentations of Canadian representatives: Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench (the Province of Alberta) Allan H. Wachowich and Judge of the Federal Court of Canada Judith Snider. They spoke about access to justice compared to access to information, areas of cooperation between the Chief Justice and journalists, rising journalists’ awareness about courts’ activities, deepening understanding of the public nature of courts’ work, etc.
Participants of the workshop stressed the graveness of the problem related to citizens’ trust in Ukrainian courts that require that court chairs should urgently pay attention to this problem and take all possible measure to involve the public into a constructive dialog and a discussion of various forms of work of the judicial system and different way of implementation of judicial reform.
Next day, April 28, a practical training session on cooperation with the media was held. Participants discussed the following topics:
- Strategies of bringing the desired messages to the target audience;
- Strategies of creation of an open and accessible court;
- Ways to enhance journalists’ awareness about court’s activities;
- Development of a positive image of the court in the public eyes through successful cooperation with mass media;
- Rules of organisation and conduct of a press conference;
- Practical tools necessary for judges and official representatives of judicial institutions to ensure proper reaction to criticism in press and aggressive attitude of journalists.
The workshop was facilitated by President of McLoughlin Media Barry McLoughlin and Vice President of McLoughlin Media Laura Peck.
