RULES OF PROCEDURE
ON THE ELECTION AND OPERATION OF THE COUNCIL
OF HONOUR OF THE AJM
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1
1.1. These Rules of Procedure shall regulate the manner of operation of the Council
of Honour of the AJM (in the further text: Council of Honour), as well as the
procedure and the manner of performing of the following responsibilities:
- identification of unethical conduct of a member of AJM, or unethical conduct of a
potential member of AJM with status of an applicant for membership;
- monitoring of the accomplishment of the principles and provisions of the Code of
Journalists of Macedonia;
- reviewing of cases and initiation of processes related to members of AJM;
- independent public reacting and putting forth value opinions/judgments in the case
of violation of the principles and provisions of the Code of journalists of Macedonia;
- independent initiation or suggestion of discussion within the other bodies of AJM
regarding the occurrences in the public informing with which the principles and the
provisions of the Code of journalists of Macedonia are violated;
- instigating initiatives to the Management Board of the AJM for changing of the
legislative provisions or bylaws which obstruct or violate the principles and provisions
of the Code of Journalists of Macedonia;
- engaging of external experts and consultants for the needs of the Council’s
operation.
Article 2
2.1. The Council of Honour shall consist of 7 members who shall be elected by the
members of the AJM during an electoral session of the Assembly. The procedure for
conducting of the election by voting has been stipulated in the Rules of Procedure on
the operation of the Assembly of AJM.
2.1.1. A person who fulfils the criteria from article 2.6. can be nominated to
become a Councillor in the Council of Honour. Nomination shall be possible
by method of:
- self-nomination with support from 5 regular members;
- nomination at the proposition of at least 3 regular members.
2.1.2. Nomination at the proposition of 3 members must be accepted in a
written form by the nominated person through a separate statement or record of a
verbal statement.
2.1.3. In the course of 7 days after the election, the Council of Honour shall be
responsible to have a constitutional session and to elect a President in it.
2.2. The Council of Honour shall be managed by the President of the Council of
Honour, who shall be elected by the members of the Council of Honour from within
its constituents.
2.3. The sessions of the Council of Honour shall be convened by the President of the
Council of Honour, and the invitation shall be sent by the Professional Service
Department of AJM. The convening shall be performed via e-mail, by sending an
invitation in an e-mail message to an electronic address designated to serve that
purpose by each Councillor.
2.4. The Council of Honour shall hold its sessions at the seat of the AJM, and should
there be justified reasons, a session can be held outside of the seat of AJM, as well.
2.5. The members of the Council of Honour shall be called the title Councillor.
2.6. A Councillor in the Council of Honour can be a regular member of the AJM with
at least 3 years of professional experience, who has settled the liabilities towards the
AJM and who with their education and profile of the issues they follow professionally
and with their wider engagement and knowledge of the societal occurrences and
situations in journalism and contemporary journalistic working standards can give an
appropriately high-quality contribution to the performing of the responsibilities of the
Council.
2.7. A Councillor in the Council of Honour cannot be held personally responsible, nor
can they be held accountable for their opinion stated in the frames of the performing
of their duty, except for the case of committing a criminal act in accordance with the
Criminal Code of the R.M.
Article 3
3.1. Proceedings before the Council of Honour can be initiated by the Assembly of
the AJM, the Management Board or a member of the Management Board, the
President of the Assembly of the AJM, as well as at least 10 members of the AJM
and any Councillor from the Council of Honour.
3.2. The proceedings shall be initiated at the latest 10 days from the day of the
reporting.
3.3. The Council of Honour shall decide legitimately with a simple majority, provided
that the session is attended by at least 4 members – Councillors.
3.4. The session of the Council of Honour shall not be public, but it can be attended
by the members, i.e. members whose behaviour is subject of the proceedings.
3.5. Minutes shall be taken at the session, for which one employee from the
Professional Service Department of the AJM shall be responsible.
3.6. The voting at a session of the Council of Honour shall be public, and at a
proposition from a simple majority of the Councillors present, it can be confidential as
well. The expression for the proposition for confidential voting shall be done through
public voting. The procedure for conducting of confidential voting shall be identical
with the confidential voting of the Assembly of the AJM.
3.7. Provided that the Council of Honour cannot secure the necessary quorum for
the holding of a session, and because of unobstructed and efficient conducting of the
activities of the AJM, electronic voting (voting using e-mail) can be performed by the
members of the Council of Honour. The voting using e-mail shall be applied
selectively and as an exception. The President of the Council of Honour, depending
on the nature and urgency of the Agenda issues, shall decide, on a case to case
basis, whether voting using e-mail will be conducted, or the same session of the
Council shall be reconvened. The President of the Council of Honour may decide the
voting using e-mail to be conducted for all or only for separate items of the Agenda.
Those items of the Agenda for which there will not be voting conducted via e-mail
shall be placed on the Agenda for the subsequent session. The President of the
Council of Honour, through the Executive Office of AJM, shall conduct the electronic
voting in a way stipulated with Rules of Procedure on Conducting a Vote via E-Mail.
3.8. Voting via e-mail shall have the same legal power and a binding consequence,
just like the voting conducted in a session of the Council of Honour.
Article 4
4.1. The function of the Council of Honour shall be:
- decision-making;
- consultative.
Article 5
5.1. The Council of Honour shall submit its decisions to the Management Board in
the form of Recommendations.
5.2. The Recommendations of the Council of Honour shall not be compulsory for the
Management Board, but the Recommendation accepted by the Management Board
shall be compulsory for the participants in the proceedings before the Council of
Honour.
Article 6
6.1. Against the decision of the Management Board reached on the basis of an
accepted recommendation from the Council of Honour, an appeal to the President of
the AJM shall be permitted.
Article 7
7.1. The proceedings before the Council of Honour shall be initiated because of:
- identification of existence of unethical behaviour of a member of the AJM;
- giving of opinion about the respecting of ethical working standards of a candidate
for a member of the AJM.
Article 8
8.1. The Council of Honour shall decide in a preliminary session whether to initiate
proceedings for determining of unethical conduct.
8.2. Should the Council of Honour determine that the formal and factual assumptions
for initiation of proceedings for appraisal of unethical conduct of a member of the
AJM have been fulfilled, the Council of Honour shall immediately proceed towards
opening of proceedings for appraisal.
8.3. The proceedings for determining of unethical conduct in the AJM shall be urgent
and of confidential character.
8.4. The proceedings shall be conducted without presence of the public and with
respect for the reputation and dignity of the member.
II. REQUEST FOR INITIATION OF PROCEEDINGS
Article 9
9.1. The procedure for determination of unethical conduct of a member of the AJM
shall be initiated at a Request of the entities from article 3 paragraph 1 of these
Rules of Procedure.
9.2. The request from paragraph 1 of this article shall state the reasons for the
justifiability of the initiation of proceedings for determining of unethical conduct of a
member of the AJM.
9.3. The evidence upon which the request is grounded shall be attached to the
request.
Article 10
10.1. The request shall be submitted to the Council of Honour and shall be
registered into the Minutes and a case shall be opened on the grounds of it.
III. PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS
Article 11
11.1. The Council of Honour shall submit the request personally to the member
against whom it has been filed.
11.2. The member can respond in written to the allegations in the request or give a
recorded verbal statement in the course of 8 days after the reception of the request.
11.3. The member against whom a request has been filed shall have the right to a
lawyer whom they shall inform and provide for the hearing themselves.
11.4. Together with the response to the request, the member shall submit all the
evidence with which they negate the allegations in the request.
Article 12
12.1. The Council of Honour shall gather data and evidence of interest for the
determination of the situation regarding the determination of unethical conduct of a
member of the AJM.
Article 13
13.1. On the basis of the gathered data and evidence from article 9 of these Rules of
Procedure, the Council of Honour shall pass a decision for initiation or non-initiation
of proceedings for determination of unethical conduct of a member of the AJM.
IV. INITIATION OF PROCEEDINGS
Article 14
14.1. Should the Council of Honour establish that there are conditions for initiation of
proceedings for determination of unethical conduct, it shall convene a session at
which the request shall be deliberated upon.
14.2. The decision from paragraph 1 of this article shall be reached by the Council
with a majority vote of at least 4 attending members of the Council of Honour.
Article 15
15.1. The decision shall be submitted to the petitioner of the request and the
member, and the Council of Honour shall transfer the case with all the acts to the
Management Board.
Article 16
16.1. The Council of Honour can temporarily suspend a member from the
membership in the AJM when there are proceedings initiated to determine
responsibility of a member, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure on
Membership and Membership Fee for the AJM.
Article 17
17.1. The petitioner of the request and the member shall be invited to the hearing.
17.2. Should the participants from paragraph 1 of this article, who have been orderly
invited, not appear, and not justify their failing to do so, the hearing shall take place.
Article 18
18.1. The evidence suggested by the petitioner of the request, the member, as well
as the evidence gathered by the Committee, shall be presented.
18.2. The member shall have the right to give statements about all the pieces of
evidence presented during the discussion.
Article 19
19.1. Minutes shall be compiled about the actions taken during the hearing.
19.2. The minutes shall be taken by a person designated by the Council of Honour,
from the order of the executive office of the AJM.
19.3. The minutes shall contain: the day, hour and place of holding of the hearing,
the members of the Council of Honour and the person taking the minutes, the names
of the persons present, the statement of the petitioner of the request, the statement
of the member, i.e. their agent and the presented evidence.
19.4. The minutes shall be signed by the petitioner of the request, the member or
their agent, the members of the Council of Honour and the person taking the
minutes.
19.5. The petitioner and a Councillor of the Council of Honour can decide the whole
duration or a part of the hearing to be stenographically recorded, or to be audio
recorded, which shall be clearly and unambiguously announced prior to the
commencement.
19.6. The stenographical notes or the audio recording shall be transcribed, reviewed
within 24 hours and shall be attached to the minutes together with the transcription of
the audio recording.
Article 20
20.1. Within 3 days after the finishing of the hearing, the Council of Honour shall
submit a report on the determined state and shall give a proposition to the
Management Board to reach a decision:
- to close the proceedings;
- to reprimand the member about the unethical conduct;
- to exclude the member from AJM.
Article 21
21.1. The report ought to contain all the documents and acts which the Committee
had available during the proceedings, the statement of the member, the description
of the undertaken activities, as well as an elaborated proposition for decision of the
Council of Honour.
V. PASSING OF DECISIONS UPON PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF
HONOUR
Article 22
22.1 The Management Board, on the basis of the report and the hearing at a session
of the Council of Honour, can:
- close the proceedings due to non-existence of formal assumptions or due to
withdrawal of the request;
- reprimand the member;
- exclude the member from the AJM.
Article 23
23.1. The Management Board, with a Decision passed in accordance with the
Statute of AJM and in accordance with the Rules of Procedure on the Election and
Operation of the Management Board, shall propose to the Assembly of AJM to verify
the exclusion of the member, for whom unethical conduct has been determined, from
the membership in the AJM.
Article 24
24.1. The decision shall be delivered in a written form within 3 days upon the day of
its passing.
24.2. A copy of the Decision shall be distributed to the member, their lawyer, the
petitioner of the request and the President of the Assembly.
Article 25
25.1. Against the decision of the Management Board to exclude a member, the
member has the right to appeal to the President of the AJM within 8 days upon the
receipt of the Decision.
VI. PROCEDURE FOR PUBLIC REACTION OF THE COUNCIL OF HONOUR
Article 26
26.1. The Council of Honour shall independently publicly react and put forth value
opinions/judgments in the case of violation of the principles and provisions of the
Code of Journalists of Macedonia, ensuing a previously passed Decision.
26.2. The council shall reach a decision about the type, manner and content of the
reaction in a session in a regular procedure, with simple majority.
26.3. The public reaction can be done in every legally accepted way with which the
reputation and dignity of the AJM and its members are not disrupted.
26.4. The public reaction ought to be appropriate to its cause regarding its content,
type and tone.
VII. AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS TO THE RULES OF PROCEDURE
Article 27
27.1. The amendments and additions to these Rules of Procedure shall be done in
the same manner and following the same procedure as for the adoption of the Rules
of Procedure.
Article 28
28.1. These Rules of Procedure shall come into force at the day of their adoption.
Skopje, ___.___.2010