The
School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia announces an annual competition
among students from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, studying journalism and
mass communication, law, cultural studies and anthropology, to participate in
research and media monitoring projects.
Over the past six years, about 80 students have completed research internships.
This internship is scheduled for the period from December 15, 2023 to January 25,
2024.
In some cases, a student can start an internship earlier.
The internship will be carried out in a distance format or offline.
The selected interns will be trained in new analytical tools, will have access to databases
and, together with the team, will conduct a few studies.
Participation in the project is a good practice, upon completion of which an internship
confirmation letter will be issued. An important criterion for selecting interns is language proficiency, perseverance, attentiveness, a clear application of methodology and indicators in practice, a desire to work with large amounts of information.
Topics for research this year:
Freedom of expression in the conflict time
Media хenophobia and hate speech (focused on local countries context)
Media and conflict
Information wars and geopolitics
A motivation letter and a CV including the contacts of at least two referees should be sent to peacemakingandmediaca@gmail.com until 18:00 Bishkek time, December 6, 2023 marked "For internship".
Applications sent after this deadline will not be considered. The team does not comment on
the selection methods and does not respond to letters of inquiry after the end
of the call.
About the organization:The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia is a media
development, peace communications and freedom of expression organization focused on countering hate speech, discrimination in the media, on the Internet and public discourse.
Our vision statement aims at encouraging diversity, human rights, peace fair journalism access to information and citizens making informed opinions as a means of promoting a tolerant society.
Since 2011, the School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia has implemented nearly 20 programs focused on these activities.
The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia is
announcing the call for participation in the "Reporting on minority and
marginalised groups issues’ workshop” to be held in late October thru early
November 2022 in Bishkek.
The working languages of the event are Russian, Kyrgyz.
Journalists and editors from Kyrgyzstan are invited to participate in the training. All costs will be covered by organisers.
To take part in the call, you have to submit a filled application form, a CV of a potential participant, a scanned copy of a passport, as well as a motivation letter for participation to the e-mail peacemakingandmediaca@gmail.com marked as "For training”.
The main criteria of selection will be their current activities in the sphere, understanding of importance of human rights and promotion of minority and vulnerable group issues in the media.
The deadline for applications is 5.00 pm Bishkek time, October 5, 2022.
Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered. The team does not comment its selection methods and does not reply to requests after the competition is over.
The event will be held under the Peacemaking School’s programme on the promotion of media freedom and diversity, supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).
Activists
working in NGOs on the issues of diversity, minorities and social groups from
various regions of Kyrgyzstan trained effective communications with media at the workshop held in Bishkek on November 23, 2017.
The training program comprised interactive sessions and practical group exercises. Participants learned about the purposes of communications and newsbreaks, learned how to make standard events interesting for media, understood to find topics that may be of interest for the audience when covering the activities of NGOs in the context of minorities issues.
A special session was dedicated to the freedom of expression, hate speech and stereotypes, and also the skills of compiling glossaries on overcoming hate speech to work with sensitive content. During intensive group games, participants practiced the skills of communicating with journalists, and learned to hold press conferences given the model situation.
Natalya Lyubeznova, a trainer of the workshop, says that effective communications between media and communities will help activists promote significant ideas and projects important for the people.
"Acquiring the interaction skills is needed to establish contacts and relations, to understand the choice of ways of community target achievement, including through the formation of a favorable attitude, which will neutralize the public negative attitude, which was shaped due to various legal initiatives focused on the reduction of civil sector activities,” Lyubeznova emphasized.
Female journalists and activists have discussed the situation with gender stereotypes and stigma on the Internet and have learned to understand discrimination and tools to counter, assess risk factors to improve their psycho-emotional state during aggression in the online sphere.
The workshop was organized by the School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia with the support of the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).
Women participants from different regions of Kyrgyzstan have gathered at the training organized under the project designed to promote gender equality and women’s rights via monitoring, documenting, analysis of the level of stereotypes, stigma regarding women in the media, on the Internet and public discourse.
Female journalists and activists, many of whom encounter threats, aggression, and stereotypical behavior in their professional activities have learned about modern methods of detection of gender intolerance on the internet, preventive techniques and ways to mitigate negative consequences.
Women participants have trained to determine the kinds of discrimination and to discern between them during group practice sessions on detection and classification of discrimination.
The last session focused on the analysis of psycho-emotional state of journalists and activists during their work. Many participants have understood how to use their innate resources and to organize mental self-help by means of analytical exercise and interactive discussion designed to detect risk factors and develop personal defense mechanisms.
The research "Gender stereotypes in the media sphere of Kyrgyzstan” was also presented during the event. It demonstrated frequently used stereotypes, intolerance and threats regarding women in Kyrgyzstan.
The participants of the event discussed the recommendations prepared on the basis of the research. The recommendations will be directed to the authorities, the media, and civil society organizations.
25 journalists and media workers from various regions
of Kyrgyzstan have been trained to counter the propaganda of violent extremism
and hate in the media. The training programme was developed by a team of local
and international trainers based on the findings of the media-monitoring sphere
of Kyrgyzstan and with the use of new interactive tools.
The participants have learned about the media used by
banned groups to spread extremist propaganda, the mistakes made by journalists
and users that lead to the propaganda of extremism, how hate speech and
Islamophobia affect the radicalisation of the media. A few sessions have been
dedicated to the key aspects of religious safety of Kyrgyzstan, legal standards
of international laws on violent extremism, radicalism and terrorism, communication’s
methods between official bodies and media outlets when covering security
issues.
The participants have applied the skills they acquired
to situational group games and practical exercises, and have jointly developed
recommendations on "What journalists can and must do to cover the events
related to extremism and terrorism, and what they should not do.”
On the last day, a presentation of handbook "How to
counter extremist propaganda” in Kyrgyz and Russian developed by the project
experts exclusively for the media outlets was delivered. The handbooks have
been given to the media in Osh, Jalal-Abad, Batken regions and Bishkek, as well
as to the universities to the departments of journalism and communications.
The two-day training-workshop was organised by School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in CA under the "Combatting Violent Extremism Through Media and Awareness’ Project implemented with the financial support of the US Embassy in Bishkek.
The School of
Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia with the financial support of the Democracy Commission of US Embassy in the
Kyrgyz Republic is implementing the project intended for early warning of
extremist propaganda, by building rapid response for radical discourse via the
media and communications strategies.
The analysis of media sphere and internet carried out by the project experts shows that religious intolerance takes one of the top places among all media phobias and can contribute to the conveyance of extremist ideology. The media often form their content based on news events found on the internet. On the one hand, they provide the audience with more diverse information; on the other hand, they can retransmit the ideas of extremism once they get caught by the propaganda. Moreover, when covering extremism and related issues visual content from various online sources is being widely used. This content is often the propaganda of radical narratives leading to violent extremism.
Based on the researche findings, project staff has developed recommendations and tools of combating the propaganda of violent extremism in media and internet such as training programs for journalists and activistc, as well as models of media campaigns on how to treat these issues in the public domain.
"In our project activity, we apply the peacemaking approach to countering hate in the media as an early warning of extremist propaganda” Inga Sikorskaia, Director of the School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia, said. "Today journalists, internet activists and communicators have found themselves vulnerable to the propaganda of extremism; so our task is to teach them how to effectively respond to the radical discourse.”
In the framework of the project, journalists and activists will be trained the tools that will help them detect extremist propaganda, use advanced methods to report extremism, humanize Islam in stories to overcome the image of the enemy and reduce the risks of extremism propaganda, respond adequately to destructive online communications.
The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) announces the contest for participation in a one-day training "Effective Communications Between the Media and Communities” to be held on November 23, 2017 in Bishkek.
Working language – Russian.
We are inviting PR officers from NGOs involved in diversity and minorities issues, as well as journalists from media outlets that cover these issues. The training covers the techniques of overcoming discrimination in the media, communications tools, developing action plans to encourage diversity in media environment.
Organizers shall cover all costs.
To take part in the contest, the applicant should submit a completed application form (here , a CV of a potential participant, attach a scan of passport, and a letter (on the official letterhead) of the referring entity with the request for participation. The main selection criteria will be the current activity of the applicant in this area, understanding of the significance of diversity in the society, the promotion of vulnerable group issues in the media.
The deadline for applications is 17.00 Bishkek time, November 16, 2017.
All applications with a full package of documents should be submitted at: peacemakingschool@gmail.com
Journalism must become the key vehicle in countering hate speech, xenophobia and propaganda in media and on the Internet.
On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day celebrated on May 3, 2016, the School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia encourages the promotion of quality journalism and ethic communications in order to counter modern challenges.
In Central Asia, as well as in many other countries around the world, the crisis in the media sphere has been caused by the governmental control, lack of journalism standards, and increasing language of intolerance. Continuous monitoring and studies of media and Internet highlight such trends. Xenophobia and its various types are expressed in open or veiled forms of intolerance in the media environment, which results in the hostility in response, negative impact on the audience, and encouragement of inhumane stereotypes in the society. The negative discourse is promoted by the propaganda, network aggression, and a series of fibs circulated in media and Internet.
ASTANA, 19 April 2016 – An OSCE-supported two-day training seminar on
protecting freedom of expression and countering hate speech on the
Internet began today in Astana.
Some 40 journalists, lawyers, academics, representatives of the Justice, Interior, Investment and Development Ministries, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Anti-terrorism Centre under the National Security Committee and Supreme Court gathered to discuss the relationship between media and hate speech policies and ways to enhance co-operation between governments, civil society and media organizations.
The event was co-organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana and the Legal Media Centre, a non-governmental organization based in Kazakhstan.
Russian for
foreigners [students, tourists e t c] including learning for interpersonal
communication and social intercourse in the Russian language, self-presentationtools, an elementary speaking and writing skills, overcoming the language
barrier. Level: Waystage User; Threshol. Learning based on unique methods in
consideration of native language of students. Duration of classes 1 hour 10
minutes five times a week including the practice in socio-cultural
environment.
Please call: (0312) 69- 40 -15off; (0312) 69- 40- 16 off, 0771472892 mob. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Business writing and speaking in English, public, social and interpersonalcommunications, self-presentation tools, linguistic thinking, language thinking and reasoning, overcoming the language barrier. Level: Intermedia +.
Lessons are conducted 4 or 5 times a week. Please contacts: (0312) 69- 40 -15off; (0312) 69- 40- 16 off 0771472892 mob or peacemakingschool@gmail.com
Military men near the aftermarket during mass clashes, Osh, June 201
Training’s participants on mediation and conflict management are building the Tower of Peace, Bishkek, April 2011
Training in destroying stereotypes for journalists, Bishkek, April 2012
Workshop on production of team reporting in multinational journalist groups, Bishkek, August 2012
The School of Peacemaking and Media Technology in Central Asia announces an annual competition among students from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,…
25 journalists and media workers from various regions of Kyrgyzstan have been trained to counter the propaganda of violent extremism and hate in…
Within the current context, media and journalists in Central Asia face the following dilemmas: How to cover issues happening in Afghanistan now? How to communicate information to the audience while describing the Taliban, whose image has been presented mainly in reports on terrorist attacks for almost 20 years? Can journalists offer audiences updated and redesigned narratives about a seemingly ex-terrorist group, while complying with standards and ethics?
Conflict-sensitive approaches, peace and solutions journalism tools, and new media formats can help create strategies to offer audiences a sufficiently clear and objective story.
Not Terrorists Anymore?
Kazakhstan was the first Central Asian country to officially remove the Taliban from the list of banned terrorist organisations. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Astana took this step based on "the importance of developing trade and economic cooperation with present-day Afghanistan and understanding that this regime is a long-term factor”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan soon reported the same decision, emphasising that it was "aimed at strengthening regional stability and maintaining a dialogue”.
In mid-September 2024, the media reported on the "unofficial visit” of the head of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security Saimumin Yatimov to Kabul and his meeting with the Taliban security chiefs. It was noted that the visit was made to "strengthen bilateral relations between Tajikistan and the Taliban”.
Official Dushanbe has not yet made any statements on this, however, at the time of writing this article, the Taliban were not on the list of terrorist and extremist organisations. Economic interests play their role. Tajikistan exports electricity to Afghanistan and has reopened five markets in border towns where goods are traded on both sides. Foreign trade turnover between the two countries totalled about $46 million in the first six months of 2024.
In Uzbekistan, the Taliban were not included in the 2016 list of 22 terrorist organisations banned by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan. After the Taliban came to power, official Tashkent opened the Uzbek-Afghan border for the delivery of essential goods and humanitarian aid.
This August, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov visited Kabul. According to media reports, Aripov met with Taliban leaders and discussed bilateral relations and strengthening trade and business between the two countries. As a result, five trade and investment agreements were signed in the energy, agricultural, and industrial sectors.
Turkmenistan had been in contact with the Taliban representatives even before they came to power amid growing tensions over the paramilitary attacks across Afghanistan. On September 11, 2024, in the border town of Serhetabad, Turkmenistan and the Taliban representatives relaunched the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Natural Gas Pipeline Project. This large-scale project was first initiated almost 10 years ago.
The pipeline is expected to transport up to 33 billion cubic metres of natural Turkmen gas to South Asia annually.
On the one hand, the Central Asian region is becoming an important partner for Afghanistan offering infrastructure and trade projects and increasing cooperation with the regime in Kabul. This cooperation is taking place despite violations of the rights of women, girls, and minorities, restrictions on media freedom, arbitrary executions, and active calls by the UN and other international human rights bodies to put an end to such violations. The regime’s representatives in Kabul are still on the UN Security Council Consolidated Sanctions List.
On the other hand, Central Asian countries are concerned about security issues.
For example, in early September, a suicide bomber, a member of ISIS (an organisation banned in Central Asia), detonated an explosive device near the Kabul prosecutor’s office killing 6 people and injuring 13.
This fact and the length of the common Central Asian border with Afghanistan, which is more than two thousand kilometres long, pose a danger of infiltration into the region by members of ‘sleeper terrorist cells’.
Where Do We Start?
Define the unified terminology you will use in reporting on Afghanistan-related topics.
How should we describe the formerly banned and terrorist Taliban movement now?
Refer to international documents. Look up the UN-used terminology in the Case Law Database. In the latest speech of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the regime in Kabul is referred to as the ‘de facto authorities’. This is quite a correct phrasing as it does not legitimise the authorities but only shows the reality.
In statements and reports of the European Union, the authorities in Kabul are called ‘the Taliban’. Many foreign media – BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and others – also use this term. For the Central Asian media, it is less acceptable because for several years, the phrase ‘the Taliban’ was necessarily labelled in brackets as ‘the terrorist and banned movement’.
The following is a list of terms that may be acceptable to use.
To use definitions correctly, it is necessary to update editorial guidelines and compile a list of terms for reporting on Afghan issues.
More precise terminology is necessary to create a balanced and impartial narrative when describing events related to Afghanistan.
What Events Should I Select for Reporting?
The most suitable topics may include:
Human Rights and Other Sensitive Topics
Many media avoid reporting on this sensitive issue amid Central Asian countries’ selective cooperation with Afghanistan. However, reporting on human rights violations is a journalist’s ethical obligation.
The exclusion of women and girls from education and employment opportunities, as well as from public spaces, continues in Afghanistan. Extreme forms of violence occur. In addition to forced early marriages and sexual violence, the Taliban has adopted a decree on public flogging and stoning women to death.
The UN Women estimates that since the Taliban came to power, they have adopted 70 documents restricting women’s rights and freedoms. Such policy is carried out with no regard for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Afghanistan ratified in 2003.
At the end of August 2024, the law on ‘Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’ was announced by the de facto authorities, which prohibits women from saying anything out loud in public and demonstrating their faces outside the house. This law cements policies that completely erase women’s presence in public – depriving them of their autonomy, attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.
Pay attention to the following topics:
Use Teamwork to Prepare the Material
Teamwork and cross-border reporting are great methods to gather information from different sides. Create a team of journalists and experts from several countries, including Afghanistan. Identify the topic and the person responsible for finalising the gathered information.
Citations, Statistics, and Online Resources
To keep up to date, create a similar list of Afghan media and keep track of the information. Pay attention to Afghan media amu.tv, which is based abroad. It has a separate constantly updated section on cooperation with Central Asia.
When reporting on violations of women’s rights and violence against women, in addition to using international reports, monitor incidents of gender discrimination on Rukhshana.media. This is an Afghan women’s media organisation created in memory of Rukhshana, a young woman stoned to death in Ghor province for running away after a forced marriage.
Be careful with citations. If you are going to use official press releases, it will be necessary to give some explanation in brackets after phrases such as ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ (note: This is the title of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan used by the de facto authorities since 2021), etc. The same should be considered when republishing materials from Afghan official media. If you use Russian-language versions of Afghan websites, it is worth double-checking the information several times, as problems with translation accuracy are common.
If references to Afghan statistics are needed, you can use data from the National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA). However, there is no comprehensive information available. There is a lack of data on the ethnic composition of the population. This problem dates to 1979, the last time a population census was conducted. After a failed attempt in 2008, another census began in 2013 and was expected to be completed in six years. According to the Minority Rights Group, it was decided that the census would not include questions on language or ethnic background for fear that the results would be too politicised and lead to another failed census. However, the census was never completed.
What Background Information Should Be Used?
Reports on issues in Afghanistan should always contain background information to better explain to the audience what is happening. Since the Central Asian aspect is more focused on the events after August 2021, it is necessary to mention the process of peace negotiations in Afghanistan, why all the conditions of the Peace Deal were not fulfilled, and how the society lived before that.
For example: "De facto authorities came to power in Kabul after the previous Afghan government led by President Ashraf Ghani collapsed amid the US troops withdrawal from the country in August 2021. Earlier, in February 2020, a Peace Deal was signed between the US and the Taliban in Doha (Qatar) after more than eighteen years. The Deal addressed a reduction in violence, withdrawal of foreign troops, the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, and guarantees that Afghanistan won’t again become a refuge for terrorists. However, the Taliban failed to fulfil several conditions of the Peace Deal. The Taliban was formed in Pakistan in the 1990s after the Soviet Union’s troops withdrew from Afghanistan. Many of its early militants were trained in Pakistani madrassas. After NATO troops’ deployment, Pakistan gave the Taliban refuge”.
Such background can be shorter or longer according to the topic you are reporting on.
If the material is to cover the state structure of Afghanistan, the focus should be on comparing the Constitution of the country legally in force since 2004 with the draft Constitution that de facto authorities proposed and then abandoned.
It is also important to note that Afghanistan is a party to several international conventions, such as the Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (1984), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (1965), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). In addition, the country ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (2002), the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (2000), the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography (2000). Explore the report describing the impact of the situation on human rights.
It is necessary to use the links to these documents in the context of human rights reporting.
Visual Design of the Materials
When using visuals, such as illustrative photos or collages, it is important to consider the nuances of traditional dress that identify different groups. If you want to show a group of Afghan men wearing dastmols (Persian: دستمال) – traditional headscarves, you need to know that these are most often soft-textured, black, grey, white, brown, mixed tones of these colours, or brown and turquoise scarves in a checked pattern.
The group of people from the de facto government can be identified by the white or black turbans on their heads. If it is not possible to find original photos, search for such illustrations.
A man wearing a red and white chequered scarf of hard texture represents Arabic or Middle Eastern style and the use of such an illustration would be wrong.
When designing visuals for the material on women’s issues, it is correct to refer to a woman’s head and face garment in the Afghan dialect as chodari (Persian: چادری) rather than burqa. It is most often a blue-coloured garment, but other colours are also found.
