“To teach the advocates to speak, and the journalists – to understand law”

“Sovietskaya Adygeya, January 22 of 2013

Yury PILIPENKO is the First Vice President of the Federal Chamber of Advocates of the Russian Federation, Managing Partner of the Law Firm "YUST". We talked, and he shared his opinion on the relations between advocates and journalists as well as other topical problems faced by the legal community and the civil society of Russia.

Our interlocutor says: “The weak spot of the journalists working for the (not only) Russian mass media is the coverage of law application practice – the work of courts, law enforcement agencies, which is, inter alia, directly linked with the advocates’ activity. On the other hand, the work with the mass media is the weak spot of the advocates. Not every defense attorney in a criminal case is able to make his position regarding the events during the investigation or in the court room clear for the journalist, and through him – to the general public. More often than not the attorney simply goes: “My client is innocent, I will appeal!” Such phrases – “he is innocent”, “legal outrage”, “provocation” – without further comments are what causes the lack of trust of the people towards the advocate as the representative of the legal profession. When the advocates do not provide professional comments on the cases, they harm their own position and do no credit to the entire profession.

On the other hand, I fully understand the journalists. All mass media need circulation and rating. Thus, material must be sold – in a good sense of the word – and for that, it needs to be interesting to the reader. And the time for writing an article is short. That is how the distortion, excessive simplification of the facts occurs. But it is really bad, when a human being’s fate is obscured by those simplifications.

When we held the “Right to Know” competition, we strived to establish a certain interaction between the Federal Chamber of Advocates, which, pursuant to the law and its own mission, represents the interests of all Russian advocates, and those media persons, who do not shun the legal subjects. I am glad that excellent materials were submitted for the participation – by the way, mostly from the regions.

This is our first experience of this. If we are able to found and develop the tradition, it would be nice, after some time has passed, to attain a fuller and more correct understanding between advocates and journalists. Publications that are balanced and legally correct will benefit everyone.

- An agreement has recently been executed in Adygeya between the Chamber of Advocates and the local section of the Journalists’ Union of Russia. Common work on covering the advocacy activities as well as legal support for the mass media are the agreement’s subjects…

- I believe that such agreement, if it actually functions, will be quite useful. Lamentably, it is difficult to repeat the experience at the national level; I can very well imagine how such an instrument would function. The life in a region and the life in Moscow have different rhythms, different environment, and different relationships between persons. In Moscow, it is more difficult to survive – be it journalists among journalists or advocates among advocates. Too many opposing interests and collisions. Of course, it would be good if we were able to establish similar relations with the mass media at the national level.

- Journalists and advocates would do a great feat if they joined their efforts in order to promote the people’s legal awareness level.

- Should the Federal Chamber of Advocates attempt some move towards promoting the citizens’ legal awareness, I would likely object to it. This is the task for schools, for the educational system. I am certain that it would suffice if a person receives the basic understanding of the law, the simple notion that the court and the police are not one and the same, in school. Going into further detail without special education does nothing but harm. Such is my conviction.

Many people believe they know law, when they actually follow the principle “I will do like my neighbor did”. Such persons write their own statements of claim, they go to courts on their own, for the state duties are low for the so-called domestic cases. In practice, it increases the courts’ workload and distracts them from truly serious matters…

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