Dear colleagues, journalists, partners!
In light of the tragic events that occurred on the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the IWPR office in Central Asia expresses its deepest condolences to the families of all those who died in this conflict. We mourn with you.
At the same time, we actively urge all of our colleagues to adhere to international standards of journalism stipulated when covering conflicts and military operations.
We remind you that the core responsibility of honest journalism is to promote peaceful resolution of conflicts and to find ways to resolve them, not to incite hatred and interethnic enmity.
While we understand how difficult it is to comply with these norms in the current circumstances, we nevertheless draw attention to the fact that the most important duty of a journalist is to report objectively and honestly the facts and events occurring at any given moment in history.
Right now, each of IWPR employees in Central Asia, who are citizens of our countries, are just as stressed and emotional as you are by the fact that people on both sides of the border are suffering. But we never cease to believe that the path of confrontation and hostility is a path to nowhere.
We especially call on all civil society activists on both sides of the border – bloggers, experts, human rights activists, intellectuals – not to use hate speech, not to disseminate unverified information, and to refrain from inappropriate generalizations. Your role is utterly important in these critical days!
For our part, we will continue to promote the development of peace-making journalism. We also continue to believe that people and neighbors should live in peace and tranquility to which we aspire to contribute. We, as before, position ourselves as citizens of one region – Central Asia, and we will strive to make sure that those who read us, listen to us, watch us, think the same way as we do!
Every conflict ends sooner or later. Once again, we call on all our colleagues, partners and experts to help the residents of the two neighboring states return to a peaceful life as soon as possible.