Last week, the EU Monitoring Mission - Georgia and Center for Civil Integration and Inter-Ethnic Relations (CCIIR) conducted a workshop under the title “Journalism for confidence-building and conflict-sensitive reporting” in Ulcinj, Montenegro. The workshop gathered Abkhazian, South Ossetian and Georgian journalists for a four-day seminar to look into the specificities of confidence-building and conflict-sensitive reporting.
Ulrikse Butmaloiu, trainer-facilitator in
conflict-sensitive journalism, Nino Gogoladze, National Program Coordinator,
Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and Goga Aptsiauri,
trainer and journalist led the workshop.
Participants from different regions were split into
mixed groups and worked together to prepare common reportages and examine specific
topics.
The third day of the workshop was dedicated to field
trips to the resort towns of Montenegro – Kotor and Budva. The days tasks
included interviewing local residents and preparing joint projects for further
presentations and discussion on the following day.
At the end of the workshop, the participants exchanged their views and feelings on the outcome of the gathering. They stressed the importance of such training, which offer the opportunity to cultivate new contacts, expand social and professional networking and learn new technologies and methods while covering conflict-sensitive reporting. The journalists expressed their immense gratitude to the EUMM Georgia for funding this project and, in particular, for “a rather professional and impartial approach during the progress of the workshop.”