On March 14-15 at the Congress Hotel in Yerevan an international seminar “Ethical
Journalism as a Ground for Quality Media” was held by Yerevan Press Club with
the support of OSCE Office in Yerevan, the Office of the OSCE Representative
on Freedom of the Media and the OSI East-East Program. The seminar brought together
media experts from Bulgaria and Romania, representatives of media and journalistic
associations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Welcoming address at the opening of the seminar was made by the Head of OSCE
Office in Yerevan Vladimir Pryakhin, the Chairwoman of the RA National Assembly
Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Youth Issues Hranush Hakobian,
the Executive Director of the OSI Assistance Foundation-Armenia Larisa Minasian,
Senior Advisor to the OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Alexander
Boldyrev, President of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian.
In a panel discussion, dealing with the development of media accountability
systems (moderated by the Chairwoman of the Journalists Union of Armenia Astghik
Gevorgian), the Dean of the Journalism Department of the Yerevan State University
Garnik Ananian and the Chief Editor of “Azg” daily Hagop Avedikian took part.
The Editor of Yerevan Press Club Weekly Newsletter and the head of the monitoring
group Elina Poghosbekian presented the findings of monitoring seven TV channels
of Armenia, implemented by YPC ahead of official promotional campaign for elections
to the RA National Assembly.
The participants of the panel discussion “Media Ethics During Election Campaigns”,
moderated by the YPC President Boris Navasardian, were the Head of Monitoring
Group of Public Television of Georgia Ketevan Mskhiladze and the Observer of
the “Radiolur” newscast of the Public Radio of Armenia Tatul Hakobian.
The moderator of the panel session on media self-regulation in new democracies
was the Chief Editor of “Aravot” daily Aram Abrahamian, and its participants
were the Director of the Center for Independent Journalism Ioana Avadani (Romania)
and Executive Director of Media Development Center Ognyan Zlatev (Bulgaria),
who presented self-regulation systems in their countries.
Expert of Yerevan Press Club Armen Nikoghosian presented the findings of the
cross study on the coverage of regional problems by Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Georgian media.
The subject for the concluding panel session was the ethics of reporting on
conflicts and tensions, moderated by the Executive Director of “Internews” Media
Support NGO Nouneh Sargsian. The panelists, the Chief Editor of “Gun Sahar”
weekly Arif Aliev (Azerbaijan) and the Ombudsman of “Sabah” daily Yavuz Baydar
(Turkey) discussed the nature of covering complicated problems in the “triangle”
of Armenia-Azerbaijan-Turkey.
