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Police and media project

Starts from December 1999 to December 2000

Countries: Bulgaria and Albania (observers from other CE European countries)

Project Leaders: COLPI (Budapest), AIP (Sofia), European Centre (Tirana)
Police and Interior Ministries will also play lead roles in the project

GOALS:

  • To address lack of information flows and poor relationships between police and media.
  • To promote greater understanding of legitimate interests in, and restrictions on, information by both media and police.
  • To begin to address the problem of police physically blocking journalists' access to information, for instance by preventing access to crime scenes or demonstrations.
  • To promote greater professionalism in the way in which journalists report on police activities.
  • To involve the police and Ministries of the Interior in projects to promote transparency, so that they have ownership of the project and thereby to encourage genuine commitment to reform.
  • To promote professional practices in the relationship between police officers and journalists. The project will be implemented on a regional basis, commencing in Bulgaria and Albania.
  • To encourage the development of professional working solutions so that there is greater police transparency and media receive from the police the information which is required to write about the activities of the police and related subjects such as reporting on crimes.
  • To promote guidelines on how and when police may physically blocking journalists' access to information, for instance by preventing access to crime scenes or demonstrations.
  • To promote the development and/or implementation of Codes of Conduct within the police forces on the provision of information to the media and public. Such codes are important because they can be passed on to police officers at the regional level, therefore expanding the outcome of this project.

In Bulgaria there is a need to improve police transparency and to encourage police officers to grant journalists physical access to crime scenes. Work has already been done by the Access to Information Programme (AIP) with police officers and spokespersons on encouraging provision of information and with journalists in assisting them with access to information from the police. There have also been workshops which have addressed the problems which journalists have had in being refused information from the police. This initial work gives the basis for developing this project and gives the rationale for choice of country and partners.

It is important to note that this project combines two strategies with regard to the countries involved. First, it will be implemented in both Albania and Bulgaria which are at different stages of development vis-a-vis both the police and government transparency in general. This should result in a more flexible and open model for addressing these issues which can therefore be used more easily in other countries in the region. At the same time, the fact that Bulgaria is ahead of Albania in its steps to provide information from the police to the media and public in general means that Bulgaria can be used as an example of the next step for Albania, rather than holding up an unrealistic (and probably expensive) western model.

Albanian Seminar - circa March 2000.

The next stage will be to hold a seminar in Albania for the Ministry of Interior and police officers - but, importantly, with no journalists participating. This will be classic seminar which will be aimed to put on the table some of the main issues in the area of legal reform and the practical aspects of transparency. There will be about 35-40 participants and the working sessions will be held in the building of the Ministry of Interior with receptions and meals held elsewhere.

Workshop in Bulgaria - circa May 2000.

Organization of a 4-day workshop held in Bulgaria. Participants will be 10 police officers from each of Bulgaria and Albania and 10 journalists from each country. NB: these participants will not only come from the capitals but will be drawn from different police stations in different towns / regions.

As a result of the preliminary workshop and seminar, the Project leaders will develop materials which detail the types of problems encountered on a day-to-day basis. These will be circulated amongst the participants to be invited to the Workshop.

Codes of Conduct and/or guidelines for police treatment of the media will then be produced. These Codes of Conduct will be promoted during the rest of the project period and will be used as the basis for future activities.
Initial evaluation of the impact of the project will be carried out by the project leaders - the NGOs in each country. This will involve working with the participants to assess whether the solutions proposed at the Workshop can / are being implemented in the working life of the participants.


FUTURE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Depending on the outcome, it is proposed that the model workshop developed under this project be replicated at the local level. The police and journalists from each region / town would work with the Project Leaders to organize small local workshops. The aim would be to have a multiplying effect and to expand the influence of the project.

In Albania this ongoing activity should also coincide with the planned introduction of new internal procedures in the police for provision of information to the public. The Codes of Conduct developed during this project will play an important role here. It may be that there will be a future need to support the establishment of police spokespersons who will implement these procedures.



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English Version • Last Update: 05.01.2002• © 1999 Copyright by Interia & AIP