IREX Europe is pleased to announce a newspaper feature article competition focusing on social affairs journalism with an emphasis on women’s and children’s rights.

The competition is part of the EC funded project «Mobilising the Media in Support of Women’s and Children’s Rights in Central Asia» implemented by IREX Europe in Partnership with the BBC World Service Trust, and local partners Eurasia Media Centre (Yekaterinburg, Russia), National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Dushanbe, Tajikistan), Bereke (Shymkent, Kazakhstan) and Osh Media Resource Centre (Kyrgyzstan). All journalists working in newspapers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are eligible.

The production of materials will take place under the editorial guidance of BBC and IREX Europe experts. The participants of production workshops will enjoy full financial and logistical support from the Project. The winners in each country will go on a study tour abroad, while runners-up will receive valuable prizes. But in order to compete you have to first complete a distance learning “i-learn” programme on journalism.

If you want to join in you need to submit a short resume of information about yourself, stating name, place of work and contact details. This should be submitted to the Project e-mail: casianpro@elcat.kg. From these email applications the program will select those who can move on to the next stage and follow the “i-learn” training using the i-Learn system developed and run by the BBC. Only candidates who have completed the i-learn training will be able to take part in the production workshops. On i-learn course completion, successful candidates will be sent application forms for final selection.

Deadline for registration: 20th December 2008. The deadline for completion of on-line training: 10th January 2009.

For more information, you can call on + 996 312 324952 to talk to the Project Regional Media Co-ordinator, Gulnura Toralieva.

Flora GRAIONI

Program Manager — IREX Europe

53 rue de Saint-Cyr

69009 LYON

FRANCE

Tel and Fax: +33 (0)4 78 91 44 67

Mob: +33 (0)6 72 57 46 50

Website: www.europe.irex.org

SOCIAL AFFAIRS JOURNALISM COMPETITION BY IREX

A competition will award the best journalist materials on hypertension and obesity, published in Russian. Deadline: December 20.

International reporters from print and broadcast media outlets are invited to participate, though all materials must be submitted in Russian. Works must have been published between March 1 and December 20, 2008.

Prize winners will be announced at the annual Russian Press Ball in January, 2009. Award winners will receive a laptop, a digital camera and a digital recorder.

The contest is organized by the Russian Union of Journalists and the Russian Society on Hypertension with the goal to propagate a healthy way of living. The official sponsor is a Japanese-based A&D medical equipment company.

Information is available (in Russian) at http://www.ruj.ru/news_2008/080826-1.htm, http://www.and-rus.ru/ and http://www.gipertonik.ru/.

https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/competition_to_award_journalists_covering_hyperte

Persecution for telling truth, self-censorship, limited access to publicly important information, “forbidden grounds” – are in the list of troubles of the Tajik journalism. In 2008, these problems have become even more visible and palpable.

Such was the conclusion made by participants of the discussion on Media Sustainability Index (MSI) last Saturday, 6 December. The discussion was organized by International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). The MSI meetings have become traditional; they are convened annually, by the end of the year.

Among the “newly emerged troubles”, the Tajik media have received amendments to Tajikistan’s Criminal Code establishing responsibility for “defamation of public officials”. Besides that, law-makers decided to “equalize” the media with the Internet, i.e. from now on, everything published in online outlets will be considered as published in printing media.

The Tajik media have to resolve a great number of problems – lack of human resources and trained professionals, poor technical and logistical bases, especially in provinces, etc. – to get closer to the internationally acknowledged standards of journalism.

ABOUT IREX
IREX is an international nonprofit organization specializing in education, independent media, Internet development, and civil society programs in the United States, Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia. Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of $50 million and a staff of over 500 professionals worldwide. IREX and its partner IREX Europe deliver cross-cutting programs and consulting expertise in more than 50 countries.

NANSMIT

Open to journalists worldwide, a course on «Making Television News,» to take place in May, 2009 in London, will teach creative approaches to producing TV news stories. Deadline to apply: March 16, 2009.

The course will be taught by senior Thomson Reuters television journalists. Course subjects include research, writing for TV, camera work and editing. Lectures will be supported by practical exercises and video examples.

Full and part-funded bursaries are available for journalists from the developing world/countries in political transition.

All applicants must currently be working as journalists or regular contributors to broadcast media organizations. They must be able to demonstrate a commitment to a career in journalism in their country, have at least two years’ professional experience and have a good level of spoken and written English.

For more information or to apply, go to http://www.reuterslink.org/courses/TV_London_May09.htm.

https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/_making_tv_news_course_to_take_place_in_london

On 2 December, the public organization Khoma organized a round table discussion on the issues of creating public television in Tajikistan. The event was supported by Internews Network.

Lola Merganova, chair of Khoma said that participants discussed the concept of public television, international experience of creating television units in different countries, issues of legal regulations, sources of funding, etc.

Media managers, political and legal experts and journalists took part in the discussion.

http://www.asiaplus.tj/

The meeting was organized by a local branch of the Union of Journalists (UJT) and the Kalam civil society center. The main topic of the discussion was the problems of the media and access of public at large to information.

Buribek Buribekov, chairman of the local UJT branch noted that the weak development of the media is explained by financial problems and the underdeveloped information market. Several local newspapers have disappeared over the last few years in view of these problems.

Alim Sherzamonov, chairman of the local branch of Social-Democratic Party complained about a poor professionalism of many journalists. He also mentioned the existence of self-censorship in the media.

At present, in GBAO, there is one weekly outlet – newspaper Badakhshon, one city newspaper published in Khorog, and seven district newspapers published once a month with small circulation. There are also “line” (thematic) newspapers also published on a monthly basis. Besides that, there is one news agency – Pamir Media.

Pamir Media

The Tajik media reported that on 27 November, the Tajik Unitary Enterprise “Tajik Aluminum Company” (TALCO) halted its case against the ANSOL company. The case was initiated in December 2004 against former managers of Tajikistan’s biggest enterprise and the main source of the national income. The hearings were held in the London High Court. ANSOL has also renounced its claims against TALCO.
According to Radio Ozodi (Radio Liberty Tajik service), the TALCO officials stated that the ANSOL company in the period from 1996 to 2004 embezzled $500 million, which belonged to TALCO. ANSOL in response claimed that TALCO owes ANSOL an amount of $130 million.
TALCO is the only aluminum smelter in Central Asia and one of the biggest enterprises in its kind in the world. According to Russian information agencies, in 2007, TALCO produced 421 thousand tons of aluminum, and in 2008, the plant’s financial turnover will amount to $830 million.
Over the last several months, a number of international and Tajik media have reprinted articles by John Helmer, a well-known international economist who lives and works in Moscow. Helmer describe in details corruption and economic machinations in TALCO. Referring to the IMF reports and the court hearings in London, Helmer analyzes how the company’s revenues are being stolen. The author states that in 2006-2007, only 17 percent of the revenues went to the national treasury, and during the period from 2005 till now, Tajikistan has lost $1,145 billion – the money went away through tolling schemes and off-shores.
These figures are pretty high, given that in 2007, Tajikistan’s national budget (excluding international aid) was $610 million, and the current external debt has reached $1,5 billion. According to the Western media, the Tajik authorities have spent – according to different sources – from L.s.d.90 million to $200 million on the investigation (this amount mainly includes expenditures on lawyers, court hearings, etc.). It goes without saying that the money has been taken from Tajikistan’s national treasury.
Details of the recent settlement in London have not been made public. The Tajik media do not dare to “tread of forbidden ground”; the TALCO officials refuse to talk with foreign correspondents; and Nazarov, who lives in London and possesses decent property there, also declined to comment.
John Helmer in his latest article posted on Asia Times Online (http://www.atimes.com/) says that “…the ramifications of their [TALCO] victory have only started to be counted – in Dushanbe, at Rakhmon’s presidential palace, and in the board rooms of several international organizations, whose executives have been implicated in the frauds alleged in the court testimony, and documented in the evidence presented so far”.
Helmer continues: “The overnight agreement by the lawyers puts a stop to further disclosures in London, but the evidence remains for possible prosecution in Oslo, and internal investigations at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who have been backing Rakhmon in the litigation that has now failed”.

In June 2008, the IMF issued a report ordering an independent international audit of TALCO’s accounts and ordered the establishment of “a special monitoring unit at the ministry of finance”, whose mandate will include identification in TALCO’s books of “untapped tax revenues and hitherto hidden contingent liabilities.”
The TALCO case is not an “unpleasant exception”. In spring 2008, the IMF in its report called the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) insolvent. During several years, the NBT management provided the international financial institutions with false data about Tajikistan’s national reserve funds in order to receive new soft loans.
Experts indicate that the Tajik public at large is very apathetic; everybody minds his own business, even when the issues concern huge economic or political scandals. Editors and correspondents are guided by the principles of self-censorship being afraid that their outlets would be closed by the authorities, or someone would be accused of libel, offence or defamation of a public official. There are several articles in Tajikistan’s Criminal Code establishing criminal responsibility for such kind of “crimes”.

Konstantin Parshin

Источник: NANSMIT

What are we looking for?

We want journalists and journalism innovators who have already accomplished a lot and are ambitious to do more. Ideally, candidates will have at least five years professional experience.

What do they get?

This ambitious program is a force for journalism innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. Fellows will spend a big chunk of their year developing knowledge, learning skills and making plans that will enable them to be effective innovators for years to come. And they’ll do it the way Knight Fellows always have: leveraging the resources of a great university and Silicon Valley, California, setting their own course and modifying it as they see fit, and learning from rich interactions with journalists from around the world.

Fellows receive a stipend of US$60,000 plus tuition, and supplements for health insurance, books, housing and child care. All benefits and activities of the program are open to spouses and partners of Fellows.

For more information, please visit our web site at http://knight.stanford.edu.

https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/advertisements/knight_fellowships_program_at_stanford_university_accepti

A competition in Russia will award outstanding reporting on climate change with the hope of bringing attention to the issue. The dealine to submit entries is December 8.

The contest, «Climate change as hot news,» is being organized by Russia’s regional ecology center with the support of the British Embassy in Moscow and the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

It aims to bring attention to the problem of global warming as well as increase the professionalism of climate change reporters.

For details (in Russian) visit http://eho-dv.com/news.details.php?id=13082.

https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/competition_to_award_reporting_on_climate_change

Journalists from developing countries in the Commonwealth are invited to apply for a scholarship to study in London during the 2009-2010 academic year. Deadline: January 31.

The bursaries are offered by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Organization (CBA) for courses in international journalism at the City University or broadcasting at the University of Westminster.

Applicants must be full-time staff of CBA’s member organizations. The application material must include six passport-sized photos, a 200-word statement of interest, two references, and one example of a recent work.

For more information and to download the application forms, visit http://www.cba.org.uk/training_and_bursaries/2008-9MABursaries.php

https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/scholarships_available_for_commonwealth_journalis