DUSHANBE, October 24, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Organized by the Independent School of Journalism “Tajikistan – 21st Century,” a five-day seminar for journalists, entitled Strategy and Techniques for Preparation of Legal Chronicle Reports” was held in Dushanbe on October 17-21.

The seminar participants included 20 journalists of print and electronic media from Dushanbe and other parts of the country.  They, in particular, discussed subjects such as the right to a fair trial, use of international standards of journalism in coverage of the criminal justice issues, journalists’ procedural rights and duties, etc.

To consolidate knowledge obtained during the training the training participants have attended a number of trials in courts in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour and Ismoili Somoni districts.

The seminar was held in the framework of the project, Coverage of the Criminal Justice Issues and Raising Legal Awareness of Population through Media, which is implemented under support of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) in Tajikistan, U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe.

The main objective of the project is in drawing attention of the public to the issues of human rights and criminal justice in Tajikistan, creating a platform for public discussion of these issues and raising legal awareness of the population through media.