On November 6-7, the international conference, “Ethical Reporting on Issues of Public Interest”, was held in the Yerevan Congress hotel. The event was organized by Yerevan Press Club with the support of the Deutsche Welle Academy. Representatives of international organizations, state structures, expert community, media and journalistic associations in Armenia, as well as experts from Georgia and Moldova took part in the event. Reiner Morell, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federative Republic of Germany, Bettina Ruigies, Project Manager for the South Caucasus Deutsche Welle Academy, and Boris Navasardian, President of Yerevan Press Club, made opening speeches.
The panel discussions were devoted to the following topics: ethical aspects of reporting on EU-Armenia relations (moderator – YPC President Boris Navasardian, speakers – Editor of Eastern Partnership Weekly Newsletter Heriknaz Harutyunian, author and anchor of “Urvagits” program on “Kentron” TV Petros Ghazarian); the ethics of civic activism coverage (moderator – Head of Media Diversity Institute-Armenia Artur Papyan, speakers – member of civic initiative “Army in Reality” Tsovinar Nazarian and YPC project coordinator Mikayel Zolian); copyright and new media (moderator – lawyer Ara Ghazarian, speakers – media expert Mesrop Harutyunian and Head of “Journalists for the Future” NGO Suren Degherian). The Executive Director of the Moldovan Association of Independent Press Petru Makovei and Chairman of the Board of Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics Zviad Koridze also took part in all the three panels, presenting the experience of their own countries and the international best practice.
In conclusion, the prospects for media self-regulation in the current conditions of technical progress were discussed, for now citizens not only consume news, but also generate it.
