Court Reporting Trainer - Ukraine

Deadline for applications: ASAP

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine

Contract type: Consultant

Start date: ASAP

Hours:  Part-time

About IWPR

Founded in 1991 and operating currently in three dozen countries around the world, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is an award-winning international media and human rights development network, with charitable status in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

Project & Role Overview

Protecting the Frontline (PF) is a new IWPR initiative supported by UNESCO’s Global Media Defence Fund (GMDF).

As part of the PF project, IWPR will provide training and support for 16 Ukrainian journalists to conduct investigative reporting that documents the violations of the rights of media workers face in Ukraine, such as access restrictions, attacks, and other abuses. Through targeted capacity building on rights and legal protections for journalists under Ukrainian and international law, the project will build the resilience of local reporters, equipping them with the necessary tools to more safely and effectively perform their work. The training will include a review of the applicable laws to raise journalists’ awareness of their rights and protections, and provide guidance on how to respond to attempts to limit journalists’ lawful access to information, locations, etc., and how to report attacks and other violations).

IWPR will provide financial support to the participating 16 journalists to complete up to eight collaborative reports (typically two journalists per report) to highlight violations of journalists’ rights to the general public, the wider media community, and international stakeholders, with the aim of improving the enabling environment within which journalists can exercise their professions.

PF builds on IWPR’s ongoing programming in Ukraine focused on strengthening the capacity of Ukrainian journalists to safely, effectively and professionally report from the frontlines to increase audience access to balanced, independent information.

To serve its ongoing and expanding capacity building programming, IWPR is seeking a short-term consultancy by an experienced court reporting trainer to provide training activities in person in Kyiv to journalists.

The Court Reporting Trainer will provide a 2-3 hour, in-person training session in mid-December in Kyiv (subject to security conditions) for journalists on the fundamentals of covering the legal system to enable journalists to improve their reporting of the complex issues surrounding cases involving violations of journalists’ rights, as well as any other court case. The subjects to be covered should include legal terminology, civil, criminal, and administrative justice system structures, processes and players (investigations, prosecutions, trials, appeals); media access (document access, court room access, cameras in the courtroom); restrictions on journalists (and penalties for violations) in Ukraine; working with lawyers and judges (attorney and judicial professional and ethical rules and how they affect interactions with journalists); and explanatory journalism concepts (how to cover complex legal issues and cases to better inform the general public).

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Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conduct a needs assessment to identify training needs and capacities of participating journalists to inform the design of a training programme on covering the courts in Ukraine;
• Design and develop a tailored 2-3 hour training programme for participants;
• Deliver the training in-person in Kyiv in mid-December (date TBD) (subject to security conditions);
• Coordinate with IWPR’s Senior Project Manager and M&E advisor to evaluate the outcomes of the training and mentoring sessions.

The successful candidate will possess:

• Extensive experience with the Ukrainian legal system, for example as a journalist covering the courts and/or legal issues.
• Extensive networks of contacts within the Ukrainian media sector;
• Fluent in Ukrainian and a working knowledge of English;
• Experience conducting training programmes in Ukraine.

Principals only. No calls please. Only those who have been considered for an interview will be contacted.

IWPR is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, veteran status or pregnancy and maternity. IWPR will never ask for payment for recruitment.