Workshop on Media Monitoring of the Taylor Trial

18-20 August 2008

GGEMS Services, 57 John Street, Freetown.

Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme (SLCMP) and the group called www.charlestaylortrial.org (OSI,OSJI, International Senior Lawyers Project and Clifford Chance) will jointly convene a workshop for media practitioners on media monitoring of the Charles Taylor trial from 18-20 August at the GGEMS Services, 57 John Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Background: The trial of Charles Taylor represents a landmark development in international criminal justice. For the first time, a former president is being prosecuted for crimes he is alleged to have committed in the territory of another country while he served as president of his own country. The significance of Taylor’s trial has attracted worldwide attention from the international community, NGOs, academics, students, civil society, and the media in various countries. Upon his arrest in Nigeria and subsequent transfer to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Taylor was transferred to The Hague Sierra Leone, where the crimes with which Taylor is charged allegedly occurred and where the victims and survivors of those crimes still live. Mr. Taylor is accused of 11 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law in an indictment which places him at the centre of a systematic campaign of terror waged against civilians in Sierra Leone, which included murder; rape; sexual slavery; amputation of limbs; looting; setting fire to property and conscripting child soldiers . where his trial is being conducted, thousands of miles from the Court’s seat in

Challenges Facing the Media in Sierra Leone

The transfer of the Charles Taylor trial to The Hague has caused enormous difficulty on the ability of the people of Sierra Leone to have access to the proceedings. This has put a huge burden on the ability of the court to relay information on the proceedings on a regular basis to the people of Sierra Leone, whose involvement in the process through access to information, is very crucial to its success. To salvage this situation, the media has a huge role to play. While members of the media are enthusiastic to relay information on the trial to the people of Sierra Leone, their lack of access to regular information makes this task difficult and challenging. The physical distance of the trial, the complex issue of the trial belonging to a hybrid court, but being housed by the ICC in The Hague, and the lack of capacity to explain and report complex legal proceedings in an international tribunal   are part of the numerous challenges facing the media in reporting the proceedings to the people of Sierra Leone.   These obstacles have had a huge impact on the interest of the Sierra Leonean public in getting involved in the trial. Majority of the information that goes to Sierra Leone has been through international press, the BBC World Service Trust, and the charlestaylortrial.org website.   There is, however, the need for an intensive training for the media in Sierra Leone on how to access the information provided on the charlestaylortrial.org website, and using said information to provide an objective, balanced and fair reporting within an accurate legal framework. This training therefore aims improve the ability of journalists in Sierra Leone to access the information available to them on the trial and to use that information to engage the Sierra Leone populace in this landmark process in the history of international justice.

Description of seminar: The workshop will not only be a sensitization on the the Taylor trial, but will address substantive issues of the trial and will provide journalist with a better understanding of proceedings, including the purpose of the trial, the role of the Prosecution and Defence, the rights of the accused to a fair trial and ways of navigating the www.charlestaylortrial.org website and how to make the maximum use of the information obtain therein. The goal of the workshop is to better equip journalists on how to monitor and report on the Taylor trial.