On March 12 at the Journalists Union of Armenia the brochure "Media in South Caucasus in Post-Soviet Times" was presented. The brochure was published by the International Association of Journalists "South Caucasus" and Yerevan Press Club with the support of OSCE Office in Yerevan and the financial assistance of German Government. The publication of the brochure was assisted to by "Yeni Nesil" Journalists Union of Azerbaijan and Georgian "Black Sea Press" Association.
The brochure is composed of reports by experts and journalists of South Caucasus countries, presented at the two working meetings held last year in Yerevan by the International Association in partnership with YPC (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, December 14-20, 2002 and September 28 – October 4, 2002).
The four sections of the brochure – "Azerbaijan", "Armenia", "Georgia" and "Media of Unrecognized Republics" (Abkhazia, Mountainous Karabagh, South Ossetia) – tell about the processes, the trends, the main events in the media-space of the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They, in particular, present the main components of the "fourth estate": the legislative regulation of the information sphere, the role of media during elections, the market of traditional and new media, self-regulation in the journalistic profession, professional education.
As the preface to the publication notes, "even a cursory glance is sufficient to understand the extent to which we, the journalists, living and working in a region torn apart by conflicts, are united by the same professional problems", and, possibly, these common pain spots will help to advance on the thorny way to peace and accord in the region.
The materials presented in the brochure will become the basis for the future homonymous book to be published in late 2003 – early 2004.
The Head of OSCE Office in Yerevan Roy Reeve and the First Secretary of the German Embassy in Armenia Peter Speirer expressed their support to this project – one of the first of the International Association of Journalists "South Caucasus".
