International Justice/ICTY: Jun/Jul ‘10

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 worldwide a deeper understanding of international criminal law and justice and to teach those students the skills to identify key stories and appropriate sources.

During a three-day workshop held in Salzburg in February this year, two dozens international jurists, academics, NGO workers and journalists from across the globe identified core topics, cases, issues, and documents – national, regional, international – that journalism 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, so that it could be adapted to a wide range of university journalism departments and law schools.

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, Susan Moeller; senior lecturer and head of the Department of Mass Communications at Makerere University in Uganda, George Lugalambi; human rights and communications officer for the International Federation of Journalists and former spokesperson for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Ernest Sagaga; and IWPR’s International Justice/ICTY programme manager, Merdijana Sadovic.

The final draft of the curriculum for this course will soon become available online and all interested universities will be able to use it as it is, or to adjust it to their needs.

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, along with dozens of other books, articles and online publications.

At the August meeting, IWPR was praised for its contribution, which drew on 15 years of experience and expertise in reporting on international criminal justice. 

“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.

IWPR will be actively involved in the implementation of this programme.

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.