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Grigory Shvedov: It is Harmful for the Media to Develop Tolerance

Interview with Grigory Shvedov, the editor-in-chief of the Internet news agency “Caucasian Knot”

The “Caucasian Knot” – a publication which has been covering events in the Caucasus for the past 11 years, is characterized also by the fact that it actively develops the opportunities of citizen journalism. According to the chief editor of the “Caucasian Knot” Grigory Shvedov, today it is important for the media to form civilian readers reacting to the materials. From May 17 to 19, at the invitation of the “Journalists for the Future” NGO, Grigory Shvedov was in Yerevan, where he held a master class for journalists, and also participated in the Regional Media Conference “New media: new opportunities of communication in the region”.

– There is an argued opinion that a civil society, which is formed today with the help of new media, has a somewhat passive character, as it is often limited to “Likes”. What do you think in this regard?

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Washington Post travel photos contest open

Amateur photographers are invited to submit travel photos to The Washington Post.

The photo contest, sponsored by The Washington Post, publishes outstanding photos under the broad theme of travel. Photographers are encouraged to experiment with lighting, angles, subjects and composition.

Photos must have been taken after July 31, 2010 and applicants can only submit one photo per person. To view photos that have already been submitted, click here.

The competition is for non-professionals and applicants may not earn more than 50 percent of their income from photography. Winners will have their photos published by The Post.

For more information, click here.

 

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OSCE says Press Law changes limit media freedom in Turkey

Dunja Mijatović, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, has said recent change in the Press Law and Internet restrictions risk to further limit free expression and access to information in Turkey. 

 In a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Mijatović expressed concern over the May 2 decision of the Constitutional Court to amend the Press Law allowing prosecutors to file criminal cases against journalists years after their articles are published. The annulled Article 26 of the law limited prosecution to two months from the date of publication in a daily newspaper or four months in other print media.

“If unchanged, this ruling will mean journalists expressing critical views will work under the permanent threat of criminal lawsuits being initiated against them,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

In addition, Mijatović is concerned that the government plans to introduce mandatory content filtering for all Internet users in Turkey. Based on a regulation of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK), as of Aug. 22, Internet users will have to choose among one of four Internet filtering packages. All the packages will block certain websites, and the filtering criteria will not be made public.

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Hraparak Daily: “Sashik Sargsyan Attacked Our Journalist”

Journalists’ work in the RA Parliament is becoming more and more dangerous because of some MPs’ behavior. MP Sashik Sargsyan who considers himself untouchable as president Serzh Sargsyan’s brother, attacked journalist Marine Kharatyan for the “Hraparak” daily. Meeting the MP in the corridor of the National Assembly the journalist approached him and asked whether he would run for the upcoming parliamentary elections or not. Sargsyan violently took the recorder and turned it off by pressing all the buttons.

The journalist tried to explain that it is supposed that an MP should be asked questions in parliament, however Sargsyan started to insult and swear her. When the journalist told him to behave properly, Sargsyan attempted to attack her in the corridor of parliament near the library.  

An NA employee who witnessed the event managed to prevent the attack. Galust Sahakyan, the incumbent ARP faction leader, didn’t even try to chide his faction member attacking the journalist, perhaps fearing to tell a sour word about Serzh Sargsyan’s brother.

Instead, when the journalist resented, Sahakyan turned to her and told indifferently that if the man does not want to be asked questions, don’t do it. The reporter recorded the last part of the swearing, which is going to send the presidential office.

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OSCE: Azerbaijan records positive changes in media

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic believes that Azerbaijan has witnessed positive changes in the media over the past year and a half.

“Changes for the better have been seen in the Azerbaijani media in the past one and a half years. However, the real work will begin only after the country adopts the defamation law”, Mijatovic said at a press conference after a four-day visit to Azerbaijan.

“I welcome President Ilham Aliyev’s views on freedom of access to the Internet. Such a position is not witnessed in all OSCE countries,” Mijatovic said.

During the visit, Mijatovic held meetings with the authorities and representatives of the Azerbaijani media.

After the departure, Mijatovic intends to continue to monitor the processes occurring in this sphere in Azerbaijan.

“The main purpose of defamation law is to avoid the imprisonment of journalists, as well as make the fines that are imposed on the media more proportionate,” said Mijatovic.

“I expect that the Parliament of Azerbaijan will conduct intensive discussions over the bill and wait for support of this bill from the society,” she said.

The draft law on defamation was developed with the support of the OSCE Office in Baku in 2005. The group of developers of the bill included MPs, representatives of media institutions and lawyers.

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European Parliament to adopt tough resolution on Azerbaijan

The European Parliament is expected to adopt a tough resolution on state of human rights in Azerbaijan, source in Strasburg told Azerbaijani Turan news agency.

The draft resolution contains different aspects regarding human rights and state of democracy in Azerbaijan, including case of Eynulla Fatullayev and activists Jabar Savalan, Bakhtiyar Gajiyev and others.

Source: News.am

 

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The “Literary Armenia” Magazine Endured Communism but is Powerless Against Capitalism

One of the oldest Russian-language magazines in Armenia – “Literary Armenia” – is in a very poor condition today. The magazine which used to have 10,000 copies a month, is now published quarterly in 500 copies.

The “Literary Armenia” was founded in 1958 and it is published till now. Editors-in-chief in different times were poet and playwright Gurgen Boryan, the author of the two-volume edition “The Silver Age” about Kilikia history Michael Shatiryan, Gevork Emin and others. Since 1973, in the head of the magazine stands poet and translator Albert Nalbandyan (the deputy editor is Sergey Muradyan – actually this is the whole editorial staff of the magazine: there’s no resources for additional staff).

Not the most important literary magazine of the USSR managed to publish such works for publishing of which one could appear in jail. The magazine was almost the first in the Union to publish Yuriy Karabchievskiy; the issue with poems and essays of Mandelstam was secretly exported to other republics; later – Marina Tsvetaeva, Andrey Beliy, Vassiliy Grossman – which were powder kegs for publishers. Anyhow, the “LA” not only survived but became a landmark event among Armenian issues.

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Open-source Software – Freedom to Editorial Offices

Armenia ranks second after Georgia among the post-Soviet countries in terms of software piracy Microsoft. These are the data of the non-profit company Business Software Alliance. As stated by the representatives of the company in Armenia, the licensed programs in the government are used only by the Ministry of Jurisprudence and Ministry of Education and Science.

Provision of editorial computers with licensed software will cost a considerable amount. 

“Installation of licensed MS Office on 10 computers will cost about 670,000 drams (about $1,800), and the design set of Adobe Creative Suite (Adobe Photoshope, Adobe Indesign, Dreamweaver, Adobe Illustrator, etc.) even an extra $2,000,” says Constantine Geodakyan, technical director of the “Internews” media support NGO in Armenia.

Open-source programs are a challenge to giant software vendors – Windows, Apple Macintosh, Adobe, etc.

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Turkish Journalist Arrested In Kyrgyzstan

Police in the Central Asian nation Kyrgyzstan have detained a Turkish journalist suspected of ties with Islamist terrorist groups, according to Wednesday news reports.

Agents acting on orders from Kyrgyzstan’s national security council arrested Turkish national Ali Osman Zor on May 2 in response to a request from Turkey’s government, the Interfax news agency reported.

Zor, 43, arrived in Kyrgyzstan in April 2010 and applied to receive political asylum there citing alleged long-term persecution by Turkish authorities, according to the report.

Zor’s criticism of Ankara and his calls for an overthrow of the Turkish government in personal blogs and news articles are the cause of the alleged political persecution, the independent Bishkek news website www.24.kg reported.

By Kyrgyz law he may not be extradited from Kyrgyzstan as long as his request for political asylum is under review, said Cholpon Dzhakupova, Director of the Bishkek-based human rights protection group Adilet, according to the report.

Zor reportedly was a member of and frequent spokesman for the Great East Islamic Raiders Front (IBDA-C), a Turkish group calling for the replacement of most secular Middle Eastern governments with a Muslim Caliphate.

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OSCE Official Meets With Jailed Azerbaijani Journalist

The media freedom representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has visited Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev in the prison where he is serving a sentence for illegal drug possession, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.

Dunja Mijatovic paid the visit on May 10, a day ahead of a talk she was scheduled to give at a conference devoted to the decriminalization of defamation. 

Azerbaijan is the only South Caucasus state that regards defamation as a criminal offense. Media and human rights activists have called for the punishment of defamation to be excluded from the criminal code.

Source: RFE/RL


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