23 Oct Interprofessional seminar on freedom of expression and protection of right to privacy online was held in Sarajevo

Interprofessional seminar for the representatives of judiciary and the media in BiH was held on 25 and 26 October in Sarajevo. Main topics were freedom of expression online and the protection of right to privacy online. Dirk Voorhoof, professor of media rights and the expert of the Council of Europe for freedom of expression, presented a few cases which were sent to the European Court for Human Rights in the past few years, and are concerned with the Article 10 of European Convention on Human Rights and the internet. Besides these cases, concerning hate speech and incitement to violence on the internet, recent court practice of the European Court for Human Rights shows increasing importance of the issues like protection of journalists’ sources online, internet access and the responsibility of web portals for the content published on their platforms, as well as the issues connected with responsibility regarding user generated content (UGC).

Attendees of the seminar, representatives of media and judiciary, among which there were prosecutors and judges of different levels from different parts of BiH, have actively participated and discussed the presented examples of the court practice of the European Court.

The seminar was organized within the framework of a joint EU/CoE project “Reinforcing Judicial Expertise on Freedom of Expression and the Media in South-East Europe (JUFREX)”, together with Press Council BiH. The topic of the second day of the seminar is the protection of privacy online, and the Council of Europe expert is Inger Hoedt-Rasmussen from Denmark. Local experts from the Regulatory Agency BiH, Press Council BiH and the BiH media are also participants of the seminar.

References from the official website of the Council of Europe