On June 13, the office of the Open Society Georgia will host the presentation of the manual drawn up by the Georgian Association of Regional Broadcasters (GARB), as well as the Association’s website and ongoing projects.

The manual titled New Media for Old Media is made up of theoretical part and hands-on (video) lessons.

The manual worked out by the team employed at the GARB Tbilisi office is targeted at Georgian regional TV companies but the manual can be of help to other media workers as well as beginner reporters and students.

The manual was designed within the framework of the joint Media Support Program implemented by WAN-IFRA, IREX Europe, Georgian Regional Media Association (GRMA) and Civic Development Institute.

Source: Media.ge

Read More »New Media for Old Media: New Manual For Journalists

Along with the “Top Secret” archival documents Institute for Developing of Freedom of Information has published excerpts from the official periodic media of the Soviet Georgia issued in March 1956. The newspapers were selected at the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia.

On February 25^th, 1956 at the closed XX Congress of the CP SU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev – the First Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of the USSR made the most unexpected and sensational speech “On the Personality Cult and its Consequences”. In this speech all the essential values that were imposed by the totalitarian state upon its population for the period of three decades were revealed and condemned. Khrushchev’s speech remained secret, until the Gorbachev’s era. Despite this fact, the document can be viewed as the pivoting point in the Soviet system’s historic changes. Information on “the Personality Cult of Stalin” was perceived by the population in the Soviet Union, especially by the younger generation in Georgia . This statement, led to mass protests in Georgia.

Read More »IDFI Publishes Collection of Newspapers Issued in March 1956

Nino Burjanadze, leader of the opposition People’s Assembly has sues Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV companies as well as The Tabula magazine at the court and the Journalists Charter of Ethics of Georgia.

Following the publication on the People’s Assembly website the copies of the complaint have been sent out to international journalism organizations too. The policy maker’s annoyance was due to the Rustavi 2 and Imedi TV report related to the policeman killed following the dispersal of the rally on the night of May 26.Reportedly the policeman was killed by Nino Burjanadze’s escort car.

“TV companies aired false stories which included criminal indictments against me. That was the simulated Kronika 2. The Tabula magazine violated the presumption of innocence through publishing my photo on the cover page bearing an inscription To Be Judged.” I wonder according to which article I am going to be tried by the spouse of Giga Bokeria, Secretary, National Security Council of Georgia while I have been posed no single question by the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” said Burjanadze.

Giga Bokeria’s spouse is Tamar Chergoleishvili, Editor-in-chief, The Tabula.

Read More »Nino Burjanadze Sues Media

Recently, BBC World News anchor-journalist Pooneh Ghoddoosi was in Yerevan to participate in Barcamp Yerevan 2011. She has worked for BBC Persian Television as presenter of the interactive programme “Nobat-e Shoma” (Your Turn) and is currently managing a project examining and promoting effective utilisation of social media across the BBC World Service.

Pooneh Ghoddoosi told JNews how she pictures the future of journalism and shared the secrets of how to be a competitive journalist.

-You are mentioning that there will always be someone who will know more about what is written or prepared by a journalist. How should the journalist overcome this challenge?

Read More »BBC World News Anchor: “Journalists Should Master a Number of Additional Technologies”

Today, in many editorial offices of the world there is a process of combining media of different specificity (online media, print media, radio, television); databases are united enabling to actively compete in the market. Such leading media holdings as Daily Telegraph, Bild, Financial Times, BBC and many others have become a common newsroom. The new way to organize the work at an editorial office allows to optimize costs and simplify the structure of the editorial board. However, mixed editorial offices are not only an outlet for a shark business, but also a good outlet for small media organizations, trying to stay afloat in a crisis and in stiff competition. After all, the Internet holds the increasing share of income worldwide. In Armenia, unfortunately, only a small part of the print media fully develops an online course.

Read More »Pavel Chernikov: “Convergent Newsroom – Strategy of Survival”

On June 2 a Turkish court handed down jail terms of between four and six months to a group of paramilitary policemen for negligence over the 2007 murder of a prominent ethnic Armenian journalist.

Hrant Dink, 52, was shot dead in January 2007 outside the office of his newspaper in central Istanbul.

A colonel and five subordinates who held key posts in the coastal city of Trabzon when a group of local youths hatched the plot were sentenced by a court in the Black Sea port.

Prosecutors said police received prior intelligence of a plot to kill Dink which had been organized in Trabzon, home to the self-confessed gunman, aged 17 at the time of the murder.

Dink had campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over their bloody past.

In September, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Turkish authorities had failed to take adequate measures to protect Dink.

Source: RFE/RL

Read More »Turkish Policemen Sentenced Over Hrant Dink Murder

Haleh Sahabi had been let out of prison to attend the funeral of her father, Ezatollah Sahabi, himself a prominent political activist.

A journalist present at the funeral procession told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that a large group of plainclothes and security forces had beaten mourners at the funeral ceremony.

Haleh Sahabi was holding a photograph of her father in her hands when she was attacked by a group of plainclothes forces who tried to take the photograph away from her, the journalist said. She then headed towards her father’s coffin, but was beaten and pulled away from the coffin, which was taken away by government forces.

At this point, Haleh Sahabi suffered a heart attack, the journalist said.  She was taken to Lavasan clinic in Tehran but her life could not be saved.

Source: http://www.news.az/

Read More »Iranian activist dies at father’s funeral

Haleh Sahabi had been let out of prison to attend the funeral of her father, Ezatollah Sahabi, himself a prominent political activist.

A journalist present at the funeral procession told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that a large group of plainclothes and security forces had beaten mourners at the funeral ceremony.

Haleh Sahabi was holding a photograph of her father in her hands when she was attacked by a group of plainclothes forces who tried to take the photograph away from her, the journalist said. She then headed towards her father’s coffin, but was beaten and pulled away from the coffin, which was taken away by government forces.

At this point, Haleh Sahabi suffered a heart attack, the journalist said.  She was taken to Lavasan clinic in Tehran but her life could not be saved.

Source: http://www.news.az/

Read More »Iranian activist dies at father’s funeral