Finishing Touches to New Justice Curriculum

IWPR was this summer among a small group of experts who put the finishing touches to a global curriculum for students of journalism on coverage of international criminal justice.

This project, launched in February by the Salzburg Global Seminar and the International Centre for Media and the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland, aims to give journalism students a deeper understanding of international criminal law and justice and to teach the skills to identify key stories and appropriate sources.

“IWPR was invited to take part in this final phase of the project because of our immense experience in the field of international justice journalism.”
Merdijana Sadovic, IWPR’s International Justice/ICTY programme manager

During a three-day workshop held in Salzburg in February, international jurists, academics, NGO workers and journalists from across the globe identified core topics, cases, issues, and documents – national, regional, international – that students need to be taught.

As a result of their joint effort, the outline of a curricular platform, International Criminal Law and Justice for Journalists, was created.

IWPR and a number of other experts further developed the curriculum over the summer and were brought back to Salzburg in early August to put the finishing touches to it, devising case studies, required reading and exercises for each of the three modules in the 15-week course – law, justice and journalism.

The team working on the final draft of the curriculum included a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and teacher at the Univeristy of Maryland, Deborah Nelson; the faculty director of the Human Rights Centre and professor of law and public health at the UC Berkeley, Eric Stover; professor at the College of Journalism and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, and IWPR’s International Justice/ICTY programme manager, Merdijana Sadovic.

The final draft of the curriculum for this course will soon become available online.

Two handbooks published by IWPR – Reporting Justice: A Handbook on Covering War Crimes Courts and Reporting for Change: A Handbook for Local Journalists in Crisis Areas - were listed as required reading for this course.

“IWPR was invited to take part in this final phase of the project because of our immense experience in the field of international justice journalism and the reputation we enjoy. The two IWPR handbooks that have been included in the recommended reading actually served as a starting point for the whole curriculum. I am glad that journalists and students around the world will now be able to use some of our experience to provide balanced and good quality reports on international criminal justice issues," said Sadovic.

Once the final draft of the curriculum is ready to be released, IWPR will continue talks with the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, whose staff proposed developing a post-graduate programme on international criminal justice for journalists.

In another related development, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, translated IWPR’s handbook Reporting Justice into the Bosnian language so that it could be used in the course on investigation of war crimes taught at the Sarajevo Faculty of Criminal Justice Sciences.

As of this summer, the handbook has been listed as required reading for this course and IWPR staff will be invited to occasionally give lectures on the subject.

Meanwhile, dozens of Bosnian television stations have screened IWPR features on transitional justice, with one senior official in Belgrade saying his government may be interested in helping to arrange public screenings of the films in Serbia’s schools.

The series, made in cooperation with Sarajevo-based production company Mebius Film and Radio Free Europe, RFE, consisted of four reports for RFE’s television programme TV Liberty. They focused on people who had returned to their homes after fleeing or being expelled from them during the Bosnian war.

All stories had a positive, optimistic tone, conveying a strong message that returning was possible with support from communities and local governments.

These half-hour TV features, which the RFE management said were superbly directed, shot and edited, were produced in June and broadcast the following month. In addition, they were shown on Bosnian state TV and on 30 local TV stations throughout Bosnia.

Following the screenings, IWPR received much positive feedback from journalists, NGOs and government officials.

“Stories on transitional justice presented in this manner are absolutely necessary,” said Vladimir Minic, a journalist with Belgrade TV Studio B. “This format is the most effective way of reaching a wider audience and getting them interested in these issues. The quality of IWPR TV reports and their content is superb. There should be more of them in the future and they should deal with various issues related to transitional justice.”

Marko Karadzic, state secretary at the ministry of human and minority rights in Serbia, was also impressed.

“I’ve seen all four features and I think they are really good,” he said. “In my view, speaking about transitional justice through personal stories of individuals is very important because viewers can easily identify themselves with these people.

"IWPR should continue to make such TV features. Reporting that connects people in the region is highly desirable, especially if it reaches audiences across the former Yugoslavia."
Anamari Repic, Radio TV Kosovo editor

The four IWPR reports I’ve seen promote tolerance and increase the awareness of problems returnees are faced with.

“It would be great if IWPR could continue with this project and even arranged public screenings in schools in Serbia. Maybe our ministry could help with that. It is very important to inform the public about the issues related to transitional justice because that could help prevent... horrible crimes from being repeated in the future.”

Saliha Djuderija, from the Bosnian ministry for human rights and refugees, agreed that broadcast media could be a powerful tool in making people aware of issues and challenges related to transitional justice.

“It is very important that people who were not direct participants in terrible events that occurred during the recent wars in the region get an accurate picture of what happened,” she said. “This also helps people who did take part in such events, because it makes them realise they were not the only ones who suffered - there were others who suffered, too. Ultimately, that can help victims deal with their trauma and encourage the healing of the whole society.”

Amir Suzanj, a radio and TV journalist from Sarajevo, said he was particularly moved by a report which featured a Bosniak former soldier helping local Serbs repair a church which had been damaged during the war.

“The fact that Bosniaks and Serbs have turned to each other again and rely on each other is the most interesting facet of the story,” said Suzanj. “It was brilliantly made, without a trace of a pathos – which is often present in local media reports on these issues.”

Anamari Repic, an editor at Radio TV Kosovo, said it was essential that such stories reached a wide audience.

“These are high quality stories, focused on returnees’ everyday lives,” she said. “They are full of colourful details, close-ups that show people’s faces and their emotions while they tell their stories. That enables the audience to easily identify with them and to understand them better.

“IWPR should continue to make such TV features. Reporting that connects people in the region is highly desirable, especially if it reaches audiences across the former Yugoslavia.”