OSCE organizes training on journalists’ rights and responsibilities in Turkmenistan

Journalists from Turkmenistan’s media, judges from the supreme, city and district courts, lawyers from the bar association and participated in an OSCE-supported training course on the journalists’ rights and duties on 19-20 July 2017 in Ashgabat.

The two-day event highlighted international standards related to the freedom of expression and journalists’ rights and responsibilities while collecting and disseminating information. Experts from Croatia and the Russian Federation, who conducted the training course, also addressed the concept of defamation, responsibility for defamation, protection of personal data and dissemination of information received from official sources.

In her message to the participants, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, Natalya Drozd, noted: “In January 2016, Turkmenistan adopted the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2016-2020, which envisaged a number of activities related to the area of media freedom and freedom of expression, including trainings on the rights and duties of journalists.”

Drozd also said: “The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat organized this training course to assist the host government in implementing the National Action Plan and contribute to promoting international standards and OSCE commitments in the area of the freedom of expression.”

Information transparency of the judiciary and openness of a judicial process were also among the topics of the course. The training participants examined case studies from across the OSCE region related to the realization of the right to freedom of expression, defamation and dissemination of information about citizens’ private life. The international experts facilitated discussions on professional and ethical standards in court reporting, provision of information by lawyers and interaction between the media and courts.