On 29-30 October 2018 the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) with the involvement of international and national consultants and in co-operation with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (CPO) organized two day training on right to Freedom of Expression. The seminar brought together prosecutors and investigators holding managerial positions being responsible for implementing unified criminal law polices in their respective units.

The aim of the training was to familiarize participants with most recent case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and national and international standards on right to Freedom of Expression. Participants had possibility to get acquainted with the structure of article 10 and qualified rights under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR); the principles of legality, legitimacy, necessity, and proportionality. In particular, emphasis was made on topics such as Right to protection of one’s image under the ECHR; Protection of journalistic sources under the ECHR; Case-law on political speech; Protected rights and possible interference; Jurisprudence of the ECtHR on Article 10 related to Georgia and current challenges.

As a result of the training 26 prosecutors are better aware of the practice of applying Article 10 of the ECHR at the national level and the landmark case-law of the ECtHR on Right to Freedom of Expression

The event was organised in the framework of the European Union – Council of Europe joint project “Strengthening the Application of the European Convention on Human Rights in Georgia”, within the EU-CoE Partnership for Good Governance.