Epress.am News from Armenia
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is conducting a joint Armenian-Azerbaijani journalistic mission to Georgia as part of their Neighbours project. This project focuses on issues effecting the ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in two regions of Georgia — Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti.
Neighbours is a unique collaborative platform for Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists which creates relationships across the conflict divide, providing resources, information and networking opportunities for both communities. It aims to break down communication barriers and create a “single informational space” in the region, in order to combat misunderstanding and prejudice which affects the production of objective news in the region.
The Neighbours project places particular importance on reaching out to young reporters. Thirty young journalists from Armenia and Azerbaijan have already been trained by IWPR in topics as varied as blogging, international journalism standards, conflict sensitive reporting, human rights and justice. As a result, twelve newspaper supplements, written jointly by young Armenian and Azeri journalists to high standards of objectivity and relevance have been published in leading Armenian and Azeri newspapers reaching an audience of at least 10,000 people, according to a press statement issued by IWPR on Tuesday.
During the Jul. 13–15 trip to Georgia, journalists will take part in workshops and meet with local government officials, analysts, experts and NGO representatives working on issues pertinent to national and religious minorities. They will then work in mixed groups to develop stories which will be published by the media outlets that journalists work for, and in joint supplements published by IWPR.
The Neighbours project is part of IWPR’s Building Bridges/Building Capacity in the South Caucasus Programme. The Programme is focused on integrated training, reporting and outreach activities to support democracy-building and conflict-resolution throughout the South Caucasus.