Human Rights Reporting, Confidence Building and Conflict Information Programme - Central Asia
In 1999, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting initiated an effort to contribute to regional dialogue, human rights awareness, and independent journalism. Key activities include practical training and local publication, workshops and public roundtables, joint research projects, and collaboration with local human rights groups. These activities are designed to improve the professional skills of, and increase reporting of human rights and conflict issues by, journalists in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The ultimate goal is to improve understanding of and encourage respect for human rights, the rule of law, and the ongoing processes of conflict resolution and democratisation in this region.
Communication Strategies
Programme goals are pursued through journalistic training; publishing of human rights, conflict, and democratisation-related articles; human rights seminars; and regular roundtable discussions of social and political issues for representatives of local stakeholder groups.
Specifically, IWPR's United Kingdom and local staff provide practical skills' training to journalists in an effort to help them produce objective and reliable real-time reporting on human rights, conflict, and related issues for the local press. This is provided through individual and group training in the region, and long-distance learning via the Internet. The trainees then contribute to Reporting Central Asia, a news analysis service published weekly on the IWPR website and via e-mail subscription in English and Russian. A large proportion of these articles are re-syndicated free of charge in the local language in Central Asian print and electronic media. IWPR is also training local journalists to produce in-depth investigative reports. Cross-border collaboration and information exchange between IWPR contributors throughout this process is actively encouraged.
IWPR facilitates information exchange and networking among journalists and NGOs, and, where possible, between these civil society actors and the authorities. Regular roundtable discussions are hosted. For instance, in September 2003, the NGO Mothers Against the Death Penalty and Torture held a round table in Tashkent in collaboration with the local IWPR office. Relatives of both people facing execution and those who have been executed spoke, appealing to President Islam Karimov to abolish capital punishment in Uzbekistan. IWPR has partnerships with a number of other human rights organisations in the region, which participate in IWPR events, offer assistance to participants in the programme, and produce regular bulletins on human rights issues.
Specifically, IWPR's United Kingdom and local staff provide practical skills' training to journalists in an effort to help them produce objective and reliable real-time reporting on human rights, conflict, and related issues for the local press. This is provided through individual and group training in the region, and long-distance learning via the Internet. The trainees then contribute to Reporting Central Asia, a news analysis service published weekly on the IWPR website and via e-mail subscription in English and Russian. A large proportion of these articles are re-syndicated free of charge in the local language in Central Asian print and electronic media. IWPR is also training local journalists to produce in-depth investigative reports. Cross-border collaboration and information exchange between IWPR contributors throughout this process is actively encouraged.
IWPR facilitates information exchange and networking among journalists and NGOs, and, where possible, between these civil society actors and the authorities. Regular roundtable discussions are hosted. For instance, in September 2003, the NGO Mothers Against the Death Penalty and Torture held a round table in Tashkent in collaboration with the local IWPR office. Relatives of both people facing execution and those who have been executed spoke, appealing to President Islam Karimov to abolish capital punishment in Uzbekistan. IWPR has partnerships with a number of other human rights organisations in the region, which participate in IWPR events, offer assistance to participants in the programme, and produce regular bulletins on human rights issues.
Development Issues
Rights, Media Development, Conflict.
Partners
Initially funded by the National Lottery Charity Board (NLCB), the programme is currently funded continues by the Community Fund (previously the NLCB) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
Sources
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