Legal Leaks - One month of training in South East Europe

During the month of June 2014, UNESCO organized in cooperation with Access Info Europe and SEENPM, five legal Leaks training in Pristina, Tirana, Sarajevo, Podgorica and Belgrade. Around 150 journalists and students in journalism from South East Europe were trained to make full use of access to information laws in their daily work. With a great deal of enthusiasm the participants shared their challenges when searching public information and worked on case studies to understand the reality of access to information. In addition, the participants were trained on data journalism, on the protection of sources and on the ethical dilemmas of access to information in the digital age.

All participants received a local version of the Legal Leaks toolkit, which is a detailed guide on how to file freedom of information requests. The Legal Leaks Toolkit was adapted to the local legal framework and translated into local languages. The Legal Leaks training included components of data journalism skills, with training on how to process, analyse and present data obtained under access to information requests, including use of data visualisation techniques.

In addition to the trainings and the toolkits a competition was also launched to encourage the journalists to use their newly acquired skills. Participants are invited to write a story of maximum 2000 words based on one or more access to information requests. The winners will be invited to present their stories at the Skopje Regional Conference on 16 and 17 October 2014.

"Legal Leak" is a branding term developed by the UNESCO project partner Access Info Europe for information released by journalists when using access to information laws.

For more information, please go to this website or contact Ms Tarja Turtia, Programme Specialist, Communication and Information Sector (CI), t.turtia@unesco.org, Tel: + 33-1 45 68 42 17, Fax: + 33-1 45 68 55 84.