Journalists Participated in “Information Security and Rights” Workshop

On September 27-28, 2014, the “Journalists for the Future” NGO (JFF),with the financial support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan organized a workshop entitled “Information Security and Rights” in Aghveran for journalists covering IT and communication spheres.

“The event was aimed at providing journalists with fundamental knowledge on the Internet security and rights with the help of renowned Armenian experts in the field and increasing the level of the participants’ Internet literacy,” said JFF president Suren Deheryan and added, “The workshop involved journalists covering IT sphere, as we aim at cooperating with them in the future.”

“We are of the opinion that the Armenian society is not sufficiently aware of the issues and tendencies existing in IT and communication fields, there are no analytical and informative articles. The more informed is the public, the more competently, easily and securely it can use digital innovations, which today can be applied also in Armenia. And journalists, of course, should have a great role in it,” Deheryan said.

In his remarks addressed to workshop participants, Oliver McCoy, Democratization Programme Officer in the OSCE Office in Yerevan, noted: “As the Armenian media landscape continues to diversify, I am pleased to see the media community in Armenia coming together to meet these changes. In parallel with digitalization and increased usage of electronic social media platforms, these kinds of efforts will help ensure integrity of the Internet environment”.

During a two-day training, the participants discussed the legal regulation of cyber space in Armenia, policies of media outlets on the Internet, media convergence, ethical standards, as well as issues concerning the Internet security together with trainers Ara Ghazaryan, lawyer, Samvel Martirosyan and Mickael Ghazaryan, information security experts, Arthur Papyan, media expert. The participants were also provided with practical advice on the usage of the new tools to act more securely on the Internet.

In addition to local experts, Sarkis Darbinyan, an Armenian lawyer living in Moscow who is a member of “Russian Pirate Party” delivered a lecture to the participants through an online conference and represented the recent issues concerning the users’ rights in Russia and those existing on Runet.

Haykuhi Asatryan, journalist of the “Interactive” TV report of the TV Company “Armnews” noted that she expected to hear new opinions and topics about the changes in the field, and her expectations were satisfied. “This is a complicated field to cover, as it’s a bit difficult to transfer the happenings of virtual platform to the paper and to present them to people. Thus, only after a better understanding of the topic with the help of experts, it is possible to write well about it. As a result of the workshop new topics of coverage emerged,” the journalist emphasized.

Haykuhi stated the legal regulation of cyber space in Armenia as the most interesting topic to her, since there are many controversial issues in the field, and she also is very often addressed to with the topic related issues.

The journalist is going to put the obtained advice into practice, as well as to share them with those who often apply her regarding different issues on the Internet security.

Gohar Avetisyan, correspondent at “Armenpress” news agency, considers that organization of such kind of workshops for the media outlets’ representatives is of great importance, as they deal with the Internet and information technologies all the time. “All of the workshop topics were important, but I was more interested in the field of personal data protection. Not to protect your own “property”, means to allow you to be controlled,” Gohar Avetisyan said.

Anahit Harutyunyan, Gyumri correspondent at “Shant” TV company, noted that the workshop was very important for obtaining new knowledge, as recently she has missed the developments because of her busy working schedule. “I acquired quite useful tips concerning the Internet security and copyright. Journalist’s profession needs walking in harmony with the times, thus all of the topics represented at the workshop were up-to-date and important,” Anahit Harutyunyan emphasized.

“This is our last workshop within the framework of the “Free, Reliable and Secure Internet Information for All” project, which involved more than 60 participants. Yet in general it is not our last workshop. We will continue to follow the developments in the digital and multimedia fields as well as the tendencies existing on Armnet as we used to during the last 7 years, and by adding new knowledge and experience to share them with our colleagues and various groups of the society,” Deheryan summed up.

The workshop photos can be accessed here.

“Journalists for the Future” NGO