11 April, 2017
Generally, the media views judicial communication as successful, giving it 6.1 points in ten-point scale, and recognizing that in the past two years there has been improvement in judicial communication.
68% of respondents admitted that positive changes can be noticed; of which the most successful media evaluates the existence of judicial communicators in all courts and wide availability of information in the electronic environment. At the same time judges' reluctance to explain their decisions to the public is assessed as problematic aspect by media, as well as lack of proactive communication of courts and the excess anonymization of court decisions that makes court rulings less comprehensible.
When asked to mention successful judicial communication examples, the media most often indicated proactive communication activities of the Supreme Court - press releases, website, legal educational activities, as well as successful communication about the individual court cases. Similarly, the media welcomed the implementation of purposeful communication strategy of Riga Regional Court, use of social networks and successful communication in television of Judge Juris Stukans and courage to answer awkward questions. Also, a number of district (city) courts’ judges were described as being understanding regarding the cooperation with the media: Gunta Gulbinska, Gunta Siraka, Peteris Novicenoks, Juris Andersons, Gunars Strucinskis, Dace Bluma and others.
The survey shows different attitude of courts and judges to communication and cooperation with the media, at the same time presenting the most common issues. For example, video-recording opportunities in the court building, the audio recording of court hearings, unclear and unequal terms regarding the limited access information, the compliacted use of search tool for court rulings published online and inconvenient format of ruings, etc.
The Supreme Court's media survey aimed to find out how editorials and journalists perceive and assess the implementation of court communication strategy approved by the Council for the Judiciary two years ago. More than 20 editorials and journalists responded to the survey; most of them write on topics related to justice.
Information prepared by
Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court
E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 28652211