What is the goal?

• To promote freedom of expression and freedom of the media and to improve the application of European standards in this domain;
• To strengthen skills and knowledge of the actors who are responsible to apply such standards as part of their daily work (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, police officers, representatives of media regulatory authorities, journalists, students and other media actors). 

Who benefits from the Action?

• Local training institutions for legal professionals (Academy of Judges and Prosecutors and Bar Association);
• Media Regulatory Authority and Ministry of Culture;
• Universities/Faculties of Law and Political Science;
• Association of Professional Journalists and Media Trade Union;
• Judges, prosecutors, police officers, lawyers;
• Students;
• Civil society organisations;
• Citizens of Montenegro, who will be able to receive quality information through media content

How will the Action work?

• The Action builds upon a previous EU/CoE Regional Joint Programme (JUFREX);
• The capacity building activities for the various professional categories adopt a dynamic methodology for adult learning and peer-to-peer model;
• The action uses an inclusive approach in order to generate dialog between the different actors and relevant stakeholders;
• The strong interconnection between regional and Beneficiary-specific Actions ensure strengthened co-operation, exchange of good practices and lessons learnt.

What do we expect to achieve?

• Members of the judiciary (Training centre in judiciary and state prosecutor’s office), legal professionals (Bar Association of Montenegro) and police officers (Police Academy of Montenegro) improve application of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Court case-law on Freedom of Expression;
• Media Regulatory authority's professional capacities are further strengthened (Agency for electronic media, Association of professional journalists and Media Trade Union);
• Media actors and relevant stakeholders, including Universities contribute to an enabling environment for freedom of expression and freedom of the media. 

How much will it cost?

• The total budget of the Action is 500,000.00 EUR
• The budget allocated to the overall Horizontal Facility programme amounts to ca. 41 Million EUR (85% funded by the European Union, 15% by the Council of Europe).

How to get more information?

• Directorate General I: Human Rights and Rule of Law: https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/jufrex-2
• Martina Silvestri, Programme Manager, [email protected], +333 90 216 339
• Marija Simic, Horizontal Facility Communication Officer, [email protected], +381 63 601 337
• Boris Ristovic, Senior Project Officer, [email protected] ,  +382 69 317 791