CEDEM (ex-Media Law Institute) awarded the certificates of participation in the International Media Law Summer School to 28 lawyers from 7 post-Soviet countries.

They were learning media law in Kyiv for three weeks, from 11 to 29 July 2016. The school was closed by traditional Moot Court which was won by the applicant team.

21 lecturers shared their experience with the Summer School participants. Among them were Richard Winfield, a co-founder and board member of the International Senior Lawyers Project (USA), Taras Shevchenko, CEDEM Director, Natasha Pirč-Musar, ex-Information Commissioner of Slovenia and Council of Europe Expert, and Barbora Bukovská, ARTICLE 19 Senior Director for Law and Policy.

In addition to the main sessions, participants also visited the Parliament of Ukraine, “UA: Pershyi” TV channel and Archive-Museum of Press.

Summer School program also included the presentations of native states of the participants, where they learned about the architecture, culture and traditions of Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine.

Taras Shevchenko, CEDEM Ddirector congratulated the graduates of International Media Law Summer School and wished them to reach for the sky and achieve their goals.

“Summer School is not only the place where you can get concentrated media law knowledge from the best lecturers from different states, but rather is a platform for international communication and friendship between lawyers and journalists. International Media Law Summer School creates a network of people who want more freedom of speech to be more protected worldwide, who understand the importance of freedom of speech and want their states to develop and to become more democratic” – told Taras Shevchenko.

“Back in 2005, when we founded Media Law Institute, our primary task was the training in media law for lawyers. In 5 months, we organized our first Media Law Summer School. And in 2006 it became international.” – told the participants of the Summer School Taras Shevchenko, CEDEM Director.

He also mentioned that in 2005 there were a few media lawyers. Media Law Institute team as the organizers of the Summer School understood that every lawyer can provide aid to more journalists either by consulting, legal defense or by legislative work.

Since 2005 CEDEM (ex-Media Law Institute) had already held 12 International Media Law Summer School. During this time, 282 alumni from 11 countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland) graduated from the School.