Georgian Constitutional Court Trains Journalists

The Georgian Constitutional Court (CCG) carried out three-days of training seminars for journalists from Tbilisi and other regions which aimed to educate them about the CCG and its method of working. On the very first day of the seminar, the journalists were hosted by the Chairman of the CCG, George Papuashvili, in the CCG Building while the seminars were held at the Hilton hotel in Batumi. Georgian Democracy Initiative representative Giorgi Mshvenieradze and Open Society Georgia Foundation representative Giorgi Chitidze introduced: The Constitutional Court and the General Courts Practical Aspects; The Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights; Implementation of the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the accompanying processes; The Constitutional Court as the protector of rights, and The Constitutional Tribunal: rules of composition, powers, and the rules of consideration.

According to Papuashvili, the communicator between CCG and society is the media and so it is vital to equip that media with all the necessary information about this body in order to make it easier for journalists to better inform citizens.

“The Constitutional Court is a particular type of institution. Correspondingly, it has limited communication with the public. Generally, the body’s decision is overloaded with complex legal jargo and most journalist don’t have a specific education in legal issues; therefore, we decided to conduct seminars about our activities. It is important that media be a communicator between the institution and society and to report in a comprehension language what kind of decisions are made, what the functions of the body are, who can turn to it and what types of rights are protected by the Constitutional Court. Of course if there is public interest and when there is public interest, in such cases the media is active,” Papuashvili told Georgia Today.

Nino Khozrevanidze, the Interpressnews correspondent of the Adjara region noted the importance of the training and how it helped the journalists to understand how this genuinely complex institution performs.

“This training was important and necessary. Here, we come across Georgian language in different terms and standards. Therefore, for journalists it is important to understand it first themselves what it is about and then report it in a common language. We learned how an appeal is made, how the court decision is made and implemented and other related processes. During these three days, we, journalist working in this field, got acquainted with these procedures. The trainings helped us move one step ahead,” Khozrevanidze said while speaking with Georgia Today.

The training was conducted in the framework of the project Support to the Constitutional Court of Georgia that is carried out by HUMAN DYNAMICS with the financial assistance of the European Union. The project aims to establish and strengthen the rule of law and protect human rights in Georgia, specifically to strengthen the Constitutional Court of Georgia. In the framework of the project it is planned to refine legislative basis, strengthen the institutional capacity of the CCG and raise the awareness of the CCG.

Meri Taliashvili