Activity Details (ID# 20468)

Activity Synopsis

The training aimed at improving the professionalism of senior, managerial-level journalists in the run-up to the 2008 Armenian Presidential elections and to raise their awareness on the relevant Council of Europe standards (cf. e.g. Recommendation No. R (99) 15 on measures concerning media coverage of election campaigns). 

The training was held in the form of lectures, discussions and practical work assignments and centred around two main issues.

The first issue was finding ways of how journalists can determine the agenda in their coverage of an election campaign independently.
The following points were discussed:
- all information obtained by the media (from political forces or from the public) should be verified (checking of sources, confronting to the facts) before delivering it to the audience.
- reporting must be carried out with a challenging edge and contest the information when it is incorrect (independent to political or commercial interests).
- media is not a unilateral “voice” for the political actors.
- journalists should avoid repeating populist speeches.

The second issue concerned the planning of the media coverage of elections in a fair and balanced manner for which the managers have a particular responsibility. In order to ensure the fairness and impartiality, several points where brought up that the managers must lead their media companies to fulfil:
- all the voters from all around the country should be taken into account.
- the voters must get a solid and general view of all the parties and candidates.
- the coverage must be about political ideas and visions and not too “person-oriented”.
- the experts should be used to test the most important initiatives of the different candidates.
 

During the seminar, the participants showed good will, ambition, enthusiasm, openness and they all seem to have an optimistic view about the future in spite of the problems that the Armenian journalists have to face.

Four more trainings for Armenian journalists on the professional coverage of elections in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan to assist Armenia in the run-up to the February 2008 Presidential Elections, including a seminar scheduled to take place after the elections to assess the performance of the media in the coverage of the election campaign.
 

The participants were media professionals (managers, editors, journalists, anchors etc.) 

Mr Henrik Keith Hansen, Head of Foreign, Political & Business Desk, Danish Broadcasting Corporation 

Mr Stephen Fozard, Media and Information Society Division