Activity Details (ID# 10471)

Activity Synopsis

The seminar in Kharkiv was the fourth in a series of regional seminars on the coverage of elections by the media, carried out by the Council of Europe in partnership with the Institute of Journalism (Lille, France) in the regions of Ukraine (Soumy - June, 2004, Dniepropetrovsk – September, 2004, Poltava – October, 2004).

The main targets of the seminar were:

In view of the specific political situation in Ukraine on the eve of the re-run of the second round of the Presidential elections:

- to consider the situation concerning the coverage by the Ukrainian media of the election campaign in the context of the Council of Europe standards;

- to provide examples on the media coverage of elections in France;

- to examine the independence, impartiality and truthfulness of the local mass media during election campaigns;

- to clarify the ability of the regional Ukrainian media to work in accordance with the European norms and standards during election campaigns.


 

- the seminar was structured as a dialogue between the participants aimed at practical acquaintances and discussions. The seminar was of practical character. All participants received the Ukrainian versions of the following publications “Mass Media and Elections Handbook” and “Recommendation № R (99) 15 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on measures concerning media coverage of election campaigns”;

- special attention was given to the peculiarities of the regional media, in particular their independence from interference by administration, the relationship between journalists and media management and owners ;

- the seminar took place during the ”hot” time on the eve of re-run of the second round of the Presidential elections, which is why the seminar lasted only one day, naturally leaving less time for discussions and sharing of views. However, this did not affect the amount of material presented to the participants –many examples, published by “Voix du Nord”;

- Mr Dudzinski’s rich journalistic experience gave him the chance to demonstrate the numerous concrete examples of the work of written press in the conditions of a country with well developed democratic standards;

- several interviews with the participants and organisers were made: a TV crew made a report for the news, a radio (main city station) prepared some questions/answers material, Radio France recorded a small interview (From Paris via mobile phone), “Rozmai company” (Kyiv) interviewed by phone Mr Henry Dudzinski and this material will appear in the TV and radio programmes in the cycle of programmes before the election day. The participants - journalists from the newspapers - will prepare information from the seminar for their media too.

 

Journalists, NGOs and municipal representatives received information on the European standards in the field of media coverage of election campaigns.

The seminar covered the problems which exist today in professional regional journalism, particularly the problem of the independence of journalists and the need to improve the level of professionalism. Mr Dudzinski’s decision to launch an educational programme for journalists from Kharkiv and the Kharkiv regions in the framework of city-twins Lille-Kharkiv (a similar programme was implemented in Poland in the past) was a practical outcome of the seminar.

The seminar was interesting thanks to the practical examples of Ukrainian realities, which frequently raised discussions.

The seminar revealed the future need for training and improvement of the professional level of regional and local mass media representatives concerning Council of Europe standards.

The participants of the Seminar underlined the increase in the level of fairness of the information, a kind of “journalistic revolution” in Ukraine, as one of the most important factors during the recent “orange revolution”. But this process has mostly not reached the Eastern and Southern regions, which is why special attention must be paid to the representatives of these regions in the future.


 

Journalists from newspapers and from TV and Radio from Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region, representatives from NGOs and municipal administration (press and information department), OSCE programme representatives, students. 6 participants were from small towns in the Kharkiv region – Shevchenkove, Nova Vodolaga (2 representatives), Chugujiv, Zmijiv, Kup’jansk. 

Mr Henry Dudzinski, District Director of “La Voix du Nord” (France) 

Mr Olexander PAVLICHENKO, Director of the Information Office of the Council of Europe, Co-ordinator of the Action Plan for the media in Ukraine