Activity Details (ID# 2883)

Activity Synopsis

The training tour was addressed at journalists, journalists’ organisations and media professionals in the region.

The aim was to provide a preliminary training programme on developing and strengthening the capacity of the unions and their role in promoting independent journalism. Furthermore, Mr Brady was requested to make recommendations on how to implement self-regulatory systems in the three countries.
 

The IFJ has organized two regional meetings in the last three years in the Southern Caucasus with the support of the Council of Europe. The first focused on ‘Editorial Independence in Conflict Reporting’ in Georgia, August 1999, and the second on ‘Conflict Reporting and Strengthening Cooperation between Journalists Unions’ in Armenia, July 2000.

Ronan Brady also returned to Azerbaijan as an expert for a Council of Europe meeting in Baku on ethics and self-regulation on 29-30 May 2002. The experience of the earlier tour provided for a far more effective contribution and understanding of the constraints in which journalists in the region currently operate.

The press in the region has become excessively factionalised at the expense of professional standards. Newspaper sales have fallen to unsustainable levels. In order to survive, editors and publishers have been forced to seek “sponsors” among the political or business elites. As a result, the papers have become propaganda sheets for these sponsors. One consequence has been that readers have begun to desert the papers as they lose trust of the printed word and as the newspapers move ever further from the concerns of the general public. This “press devaluation” syndrome has affected each of the three countries in slightly different manners and different ways out are being discussed. One group sees no salvation until the economy revives. Others claim that the solution lies in the hands of the press itself. This would mean a fundamental redirection of the press towards quality, professionalism and accountability. This crisis has devastating consequences for the rights of journalists in the three countries. When newspapers become dependent on powerful “benefactors” rather than readers, journalists lose any independent bargaining power. They also lose hope in ever improving their situation through collective action. Any solidarity among journalists, vis-vis their employers, evaporates and the formation of journalistic trade unions is seriously retarded.

The IFJ mission also revealed that in different ways, the governments in all three countries have to improve as regards respect for fundamental freedom of expression rights: The concept of public service broadcasting has yet to be implemented in the Caucasus, defamation legislation operates as a silent threat to journalists and measures against physical violence against journalists are not sufficient.

The following IFJ materials were made available

- IFJ Collective Bargaining handbook
- “Supporting Independent and Professional Journalism” a TU resource handbook in Russian
- Organising for Journalists Rights A Trade Union Development Handbook for Journalists in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
- IFJ Declaration of Principles on the Conduct of Journalists
- THE EFJ/IFJ MILAN DECLARATION ON EDITORIAL DEMOCRACY IN EUROPEAN MEDIA
- IFJ Zagreb Declaration Reforming Broadcasting: - Towards Editorial Independence in Public Service Radio and Television, 1999
- IFJ Tirana Declaration – Media Ethics and Self-regulation 1999

The following Council of Europe materials were made available

- Recommendation No. R (2000) 7 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the right of journalists not to disclose their sources of information

- Declaration on the Freedom of Expression and Information

- Recommendation no R (97) 20 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on ‘Hate Speech’
 

The IFJ would hope to be able to organise a regional meeting on trade unions, professional standards and ethics in 2003.

Mr Brady’s full report is available at the following web address:
http://www.ifj.org/publications/download/mso29E.PDF


 

Ronan Brady, IFJ expert and member of the National Union of Journalists of Great Britain and Ireland