Since the beginning of January I’ve been contributing to MediaChecker, a Georgian language media and digital literacy platform in Tbilisi run by a very capable team of local journalists under editor-in-chief George Gogua, a media professional that I’ve known for over 10 years now. Its mission statement is below.
“In War,” as the saying goes, “truth is the first casualty.”
While the source of that quote is often contested, what isn’t is that it applies to every single war fought in living memory and probably before. As almost everyone knows, it was definitely the case during last year’s fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.
As if the situation following attempts to hold a Pride Week in Tbilisi couldn’t get any worse, yesterday they did when news surfaced that a TV cameraman who was attacked by a far-right mob had died.
Stratfor has published my piece on the mysterious disappearance from Tbilisi of Afgan Mukhtarli. Many believe that the dissident Azerbaijani journalist was abducted because of his writing and other activities.
From the 21st to 25th November, the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) and the South Caucasus office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) convened a workshop and study visit for journalists from Georgia and its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and Georgia. The workshop was a follow up to one previously held a year ago in Istanbul, Turkey, and held with the intention of also introducing a new group of participants to European Union (EU) structures in Brussels.
A little late in posting because of other work, but now details of last month’s conference and workshop in Bishkek organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kyrgyzstan, OSCE Academy, American University of Central Asia, Internews, Soros, and the PromoTank Research Institute. The event, Cooperation between Media and Civil Society for Countering Information Threats and Promoting Transparency and Accountability, was held on 28-30 and I was a panelist and also held a workshop for the OSCE on the media and counter-narratives.
Late last month through to the beginning of this one I was in Egypt to present for and facilitate a cross-border workshop for journalists and analysts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as the disputed territories of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno Karabakh.
Following February’s Expert Workshop on Regional Co-operation and Effective Responses to the Phenomenon of Foreign Terrorist Fighters organised by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan I’ve been at a few other related meetings. In June I participated in the OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Expert Conference on Countering the Incitement and Recruitment of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Vienna, and from 7-8 October spoke on a panel at an expert workshop in Bucharest on Media Freedom and Responsibilities in the Context of Counter-Terrorism Policies organised by the OSCE Transnational Threat Department and OSCE Representative of the Freedom of the Media.
Last week, the 4M Journalism and Social Media Forum came to the South Caucasus. Organised by Canal France International (CFI), previous 4M’s have been held in Nairobi, Cairo, Abidjan, Belgrade, and Tunis. Earlier this year, I had also been invited to speak at their 3rd annual meeting in Montpellier, France, although an air traffic controller strike meant I arrived a day late and couldn’t.