Skopje 27 June 2022 (MIA) – The courts must not hide their work from those in whose interest they act, Justice Minister Nikola Tupancheski told the 7th Ohrid School of Natural Law on Monday. In his address on “Maintaining a Democratic Society Through the Strengthening of its Institutions”, Tupancheski said the Ministry of Justice strives as much as possible to create conditions for strengthening of institutions that enable the development of a democratic society. In that regard, there is support for the creation of the Judicial Media Council, consisting of representatives from the judiciary and the media, with the aim of increasing trust between the two groups and enabling accurate and objective reporting of judicial processes in the public interest, without violating the basic human rights of participants in the procedures. The Ministry of Justice, as he remarked, is active in increasing the transparency of the courts as one of the instruments for building trust of the citizens in the judiciary and the legal security of companies. According to Tupancheski, the courts, in the capacity of state authorities, must not hide their work from those in whose interest they act. With this, he added, the citizen’s trust in the government will be strengthened and deviant behaviours will be sanctioned. “An important segment for the development of the institutions is their digitization. The plan for the digitization of the judiciary is successfully being realized by the Ministry of Justice. This will provide swifter justice, less corruption, a decrease in the costs during judicial procedures, parties involved will save time, there will be less postponed trials. We expect 186 courtrooms in 34 courthouses to be complete digitized, thus contributing to higher public’s trust and protection of the system,” said Tupancheski.