At the seminar in Kyiv, Alan Tskurbaev from Vladikavkaz gives his comment on covering the Beslan school hostage crisis. Photo: Henriette Borg Henriksen/IMS

Six months after the war over South Ossetia, journalists and editors from all across the Caucasus are ready to look beyond political disputes and re-establish professional contacts and cooperation

Between 27th - 29th January 2009, 20 journalists and editors from the Caucasus took part in a seminar dedicated to Media and Conflict in the Caucasus.They came from the whole region - including Georgia, the un-recognized State of South Ossetia, the un-recognized State of Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, un-recognized State of Nagorno-Karabakh, Republic of North Ossetia, Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Karachay-Cherkessk and Russia.

During the seminar that was organized by IMS in cooperation with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the participants agreed that cooperation between media professionals should be improved in order to create a freer and more professional media environment in the Caucasus region.

First time meeting

This was the first time since the August war over South Ossetia that media representatives from conflicting sides had sat down together and discussed matters of journalistic principles and responsibilities when covering serious and sensitive political issues.
In the very beginning of the seminar the participants were careful towards their colleagues representing other side of conflicting politics. With the August events still fresh in mind and unsettled, editor Andrei Tadtaev from breakaway South Ossetia took a professional approach and was very positive about meeting his neighboring colleagues:

- An important thing that we learnt from this seminar was that we now - again - have the opportunity to establish contact with Georgian journalists. After the war this connection was totally erased.

Old grievances die hard

Meeting colleagues from the other side of the conflict did though for several participants provoke some concern. As Anaid Gogogyan from the breakaway republic of Abkhazia expressed it:

- I was actually a bit worried before I went to Kyiv, because this was the first meeting with Georgian journalists after the August War. I thought that we could not find a common language but it turned out to be very productive, she said expressing optimism about future cooperation between journalists in the region:

- The most important thing about the seminar was that we now have an opportunity to continue the cooperation across the borders.
Though the seminar was held in a professional atmosphere and the discussions were profound, the deep and underlying conflicts of the Caucasus region surfaced for a short moment when, on the last day of the seminar, the group of journalists and editors made a strong effort to agree on a common statement for closer cooperation in the region. Discussing the designation of the different regions and break away territories sparked a dispute:

- At the very end of the seminar, when we discussed how to name the different regions and countries, it came out that some people are victims of their own governments' propaganda, explained editor Karen Artjunyan from Armenia. He went on to suggest that:

- Next time we meet, it would be useful to consider some training and discussion on how to have an objective view on certain sensitive issues. A topic for the next meeting could be the role of state propaganda and formation of journalists' approach to it, said Karen Artjunyan.