Accountability and transparency of public institutions in focus of OSCE-led seminar in Montenegro

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro, in co-operation with the Judicial Training Centre and the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica organized a four-day seminar from 17-20 November 2014 in Budva on the importance of public information and outreach in the Judicial, Prosecutorial, and Police institutions.

Effective, systematic, and open communication by Judicial, Prosecutorial and Police institutions are critical to any democratic society. Public trust is of great importance to any country, and the only way to achieve that is to improve the accountability and transparency of the public institutions.

The goal of the workshop is, apart from improvement of communication strategy and vision, building technical public communication skills and outreach by the judiciary and police, in order to increase accountability, transparency and openness of the institutions, therefore to assist in building up of a public trust in the institutions. 

The seminar is the first activity within the long-term project by the Mission on communications and outreach, which will continue into next year. The Mission will also engage in activities with the Montenegrin public service broadcaster RTCG, highlighting its importance as an independent and reliable platform for public discussion on issues such as Rule of Law and Law Enforcement.

Experts from the United States, the region and Montenegro engaged the participants in a variety of capacity-building exercises. The participants had an opportunity to exchange opinions and best practices in the area of communication strategy and public information skills.

 ”All the institutions have an obligation to fulfill the basic human rights of every single citizen – the right to be informed in a correct and straightforward manner and to ensure full freedom of expression”, said OSCE Mission to Montenegro Head, Ambassador Janina Hrebickova.

Deputy Prime Minister Dusko Markovic acknowledged the importance of the event and said that the successful communication with the public authorities and institutions of the judiciary and law enforcement was inseparable from the overall aspirations towards full democratization of Montenegrin society.

U.S. Ambassador in Montenegro Sue K. Brown, President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro Vesna Medenica, Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stankovic, and Interior Minister Rasko Konjevic also addressed the participants.