The Representative Office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Kyrgyzstan organized a two-day training on “International standards of journalism: coverage of human rights issues” for journalists in Issyk-Kul and Naryn oblasts.
The training was held in the framework of the project “Creating a culture of investigative journalism to promote democratic reform: linking human rights organizations, public institutions and the media”, funded by the European Union and the Government of Norway.During the training, reporters have learned how to develop materials on human rights topics, respecting international standards of journalism; what a violation of citizens’ rights is and how to cover conflict situations where human rights are violated, respecting the principles of objectivity, impartiality and balanced approach while working on the materials.
In addition, the trainers explained the structure of the mechanism of human rights protection at the national and international levels, how to detect and understand the violations of these processes and how to select the topic and focus of the material when covering such cases.
During the practical part of the training, journalists were taught to apply the theoretical knowledge in practice. Journalists were divided into groups and worked on the topics proposed: the possible closure of the Issyk-Kul State University named after K.Tynystanov, passive position of Karakol city administration regarding the problem of open hatches on roads, a lawsuit initiated by a relative of the director of a local school against a local journalist because of an article criticizing him, and other issues.
Regional reporters noted the relevance and necessity of such professional training.
«Journalists should not be afraid to cover human rights issues», said a local journalist, head of NGO “House of Journalists” Nurgul Sharshembieva. “When people talk about human rights violations, we think that it must be something serious or large-scale, but it turns out, if we look thoroughly, the violations are everywhere, and the authorities should be informed of them, in order to improve their work in the community”.
Besides journalists, several representatives of human rights organizations also attended this training.
“In addition to improving the skills of journalists in covering the human rights issues, such trainings help establish stronger cooperation between local media and human rights defenders”, said the coordinator of the IWPR office in Kyrgyzstan Aygerim Usonova, adding that in February-March, a series of training sessions were held in six oblasts of the country, aimed at improving the interaction between NGOs and journalists (more information on the IWPR training organized for journalists and human rights defenders can be found at the following link: https://cabar.asia/main-ru/23-ru-ru/events/events-kg-ru/213-iwpr-vo-vsekh-regionakh-kyrgyzstana-provel-treningi-po-kommunikatsiyam-dlya-zhurnalistov-i-pravozashchitnikov)
17 journalists from the Issyk-Kul and Naryn oblasts attended the training. They were representatives of such media, as radio “Azattyk”, Naryn TV, radio “Volna Issyk-Kulya” [“Wave of Issik-kul”], Issyk-Kul Oblast State TV, NGO”House of Journalists”and others.
The trainers were: an IWPR partner Abdumomun Mamaraimov, the editor in chief of the human rights portal Vof.kg, and a freelance journalist and coach Anna Kapushenko.
The next training “International standards of journalism: coverage of human rights issues” is scheduled for April 17-18 in Osh.
In Bishkek, the training will be held at the office of the IWPR in Kyrgyzstan on April 24-25. To take part in this training, you must submit a CV and a brief statement of purposes to the following address: meerim@iwpr.net (more information about the selection of candidates for the training can be found at the following link: https://cabar.asia/main-ru/23-ru-ru/events/events-kg-ru/218-iwpr-kyrgyzstan-trening-dlya-zhurnalistov-po-mezhdunarodnym-standartam ). For more information, please contact the coordinator of the IWPR office in Kyrgyzstan Aygerim Usonova: 0 (312) 313097 (+106), aigerim@iwpr.net.
About the organization: The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a British non-profit media organization dedicated to coverage of the situation and support for the local media in crisis regions around the world. The IWPR has been working in Kyrgyzstan since 1999.