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