More than 20 lawyers attended the cascade training on freedom of expression and freedom of the media, organised by the joint EU and Council of Europe JUFREX action in partnership with the Bar Association of North Macedonia.

The training particularly focused on the hate speech and defamation and how are they treated by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg in comparison to the Beneficiary-specific legislation. The international expert from the Council of Europe presented the European standards in these fields and the case-law of the ECtHR, putting an emphasis on the importance of ensuring protection under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights that regulates the right to freedom of expression.

Valuable input was provided by the local experts regarding the case-law and practice of the domestic courts in North Macedonia and encouraged the participants to refer in the future to the Court’s case-law when taking cases on hate speech and defamation to the domestic courts.

This cascade training is contributing in strengthening the capacities of lawyers from North Macedonia as set by the European Convention on Human Rights and the ECtHR, aiming to ensure sustainability during the implementation and application of European standards in their everyday professional work.

This event is organised under the Grant Agreement with the Bar Association of North Macedonia within the action on “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in North Macedonia (JUFREX 2)” . This action is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II”, that enables the Beneficiaries to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with the European standards, including where relevant within the framework of the EU enlargement process.