The EU Project Pravo-Justice, judicial authorities, judges, and press secretaries discussed the issue of communication during the war and the ethics of war crimes coverage

On September 30, the EU Project Pravo-Justice held a conference "Сourt communication during the war: anti-crisis practices and ethical aspects of war crimes coverage", organized within the framework of the Model Courts Initiative. The participants of the event discussed the aspects of court communication during the war, crisis communications strategy, work with the media and social networks, and ethics of covering war crimes.

The Chairman of the Council of Judges of Ukraine (CJU), Bohdan Monich, emphasized that the CJU is working on recommendations for judges-speakers and court employees on covering cases related to the war. Also, the Chairman of the CJU told about the recent research on the coverage of cases related to the war.

"First of all, I would like to note that the results surprised us, because 84% of the interviewed representatives of the courts believe that it is important to publicly cover court processes related to the war in Ukraine. 69% of the media representatives reported that they are ready to monitor and cover the entire court process. Another 62% are ready to start regular columns about legal proceedings regarding the war in the media they represent," said Bohdan Monich.

The Head of the State Judicial Administration (SJA) of Ukraine, Oleksiy Salnikov, emphasized that the issues of covering cases related to war crimes and conveying such information to the international community are as important as issues of ensuring the functioning of justice.

"The State Judicial Administration of Ukraine takes all the necessary measures to ensure the process of covering cases related to war crimes committed by the aggressor's army against our state and our citizens," - Oleksiy Salnikov said.

The rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine (NSJU), Mykola Onishchuk, noted that coverage of court work, especially high-profile cases, is an important prerequisite for building trust.

"The School has prepared training courses regarding court communication and continues to teach them for judges and court staff even in wartime conditions," - Mykola Onishchuk said.

The Key National Expert on Judicial Reform of the EU Project Pravo-Justice, Polina Li, added that the Project will continue developing activities related to the court communication within the framework of the Model Courts Initiative.

"We have already conducted two series of the training course "Model solutions for communication of Ukrainian courts" and today among the speakers we have two graduates who will share their best practices. For the participants of the next set, we will reveal the topic of ethical coverage of war crimes and communication of war-related cases. Since it is very important to ensure public trust in the judiciary and demonstrate the inevitability of punishment," Polina Li emphasized.

The conference participants discussed the following issues:

• the role of media and information in the war;
• ethics of covering war and issues of war crimes communication;
• communication tools in wartime;
• the court's communication strategy during the war;
• how to overcome communication crises in the conditions of war.

• The recording of the conference is available at the link.