EUMM/IWPR Cross Boundary Workshop for Journalists, European External Action Service (EEAS), Brussels, Belgium © Onnik James Krikorian 2016
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.
The European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia organised a workshop in Brussels for a group of journalists from Tbilisi, Sokhumi, and Tskhinvali. The workshop was funded by EUMM’s Confidence Building Facility (CBF) and held in the European External Action Service (EEAS) Headquarters in Brussels. Previously, similar workshops have been held in Istanbul, Turkey (2015) and London, UK (2014).
This year the project brought together 12 journalists from Tbilisi, Sokhumi, and Tskhinvali in order to strengthen their networks and enhance their professionalism, especially in the effective use of Social Media. It was carried out jointly by EUMM and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in the South Caucasus region.
Bringing the journalist to the capital of the European Union allowed them to see how the main EU institutions – the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission – work. Professional training was conducted by the lead lecturer Onnik James Krikorian, a journalist, photographer and new media consultant from the UK, Harriet Ware-Austin, from Adroit Consultants in the UK, a Human Rights expert and Giorgi Kupatadze from IWPR Tbilisi.
EUMM is grateful to various interlocutors from EU institutions for their time and efforts spent helping to organise this event and talking to participants, as well for Belgian authorities for making this event possible. It might take some time for tangible cross-Administrative Boundary Line journalistic products to emerge from this workshop, but everyone agreed that the information delivered and received and the friendships made will endure.
In summary, my workshops touched upon the following:
- Using social media for cross-border cooperation and communication in conflict zones.
- The use of social media in this context using the case of Nagorno Karabakh as a model.
- Alternative and counter narratives to combat negative stereotypes and nationalist messaging. iv) The dangers of information bubbles and spread of false messaging, including how to counter.
- Best practices for personal security and privacy on social media.
The workshop was interactive and input and discussion among the participants was encouraging. In particular, to close my final session, several journalists recounted positive examples of how the flow of information is improving between Georgian, Abkhazian, and South Ossetian media. Although there is still much more to be done, this was very positive and the workshop provided participants with the possibility to improve this exchange in the future.
