Strasbourg, 12 December 2014

The last EYF visit of the year was in Zagreb, Croatia to the international conference “MiD IFP Conference: Freedom of Expression” organised by ELSA that took place on 25-29 November.

Eva Lehmann, EYF staff member, joined the organisers and the 68 participants (law students from all over Europe) in this activity that aimed at opening a platform for discussion on the challenges that concern freedom of speech, as the importance of the media grows.

The conference is part of the three year International Focus Programme that ELSA is running on the theme of Media Law. Their focus was initiated with a conference on No Hate Speech Online in Oslo, Norway, in 2013 also supported by the EYF. The results of this were shared with the participants at the beginning of the Zagreb conference.

Throughout the meeting, lectures were held from Croatian and UK representatives giving input on the topic of freedom of expression from their different angles of expertise, namely journalistic, psychological, academic and legal; all of which led to stimulating, heated and interesting discussions. Case studies and simulations on actual case laws in this field were held, and the national TV station of Croatia was visited.

During the programme, participants also shared experiences from their own countries. Actual incidents of freedom violation but also of freedom misuse were discussed openly and possible solutions were suggested. All these contributions will be combined in the form of a Memorandum on Freedom of Expression to be disseminated throughout the network of ELSA after the event.