Balkan Transitional Justice

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BIRN Hub opened a five-day long training course on journalistic reporting about transitional justice issues in the scope of the newly launched programme Balkan Transitional Justice.

The programme is financed by the European Commission and the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

The aim of the training course is to introduce journalists and translators to the topic of transitional justice as a practical field from a journalistic perspective.

 

Gordana Igrić, the regional BIRN director welcomed the newly established Balkan Transitional Justice Journalistic Team by saying that one of the aims of the programme is to contribute to the process of coming to terms with the past.

 

Nerma Jelačić, the Head of the ICTY Outreach Programme, presented the concept of transitional justice based on four pillars: the right to know, the right to justice, the right to reparation, and non-repetition of the past human rights violations.

 

Throughout the week, Jelačić will provide insights into the challenges that journalists face when they cover transitional justice issues.

 

The training also includes presentations by representatives of key BiH judiciaries and experts on transitional justice issues such Jasmina Pjanic, the Head of the Criminal Defence Section of BIH, Liljana Zurovac from the BiH Press Council, and Saša Madacki from the Human Rights Center.

 

The participants will have the opportunity to visit the Court of BiH, follow a war crime trial, and practice how to report about the case they attended.

 

Balkan Transitional Justice is a regional programme that aims to increase a general public understanding of transitional justice in post-Yugoslav countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia) and improve the state of media.

 

The online production in four regional languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin, Albanian and Macedonian) and English starts in February 2012, whereby radio and TV output will follow later.