Armenian Minorities Helped to Get Message Across

A workshop on citizen journalism organised by IWPR’s Armenia branch provided an opportunity for representatives of national minorities to share information about their respective communities with a much wider audience.

The workshop, July 23-25, offered attendees an introduction and practical experience of new media tools as well as some of the principles and ethics that guide journalism.

"I learnt that the internet is not only for communicating with friends but is also a good and important means of acquiring and disseminating information."
Arthur Khachatryan, spokesman for the Greek minority in Armenia

In the first two days of the three-day workshop, the participants practiced writing and posting their own stories on the internet, set up their own blogs as well as disseminating information through social networks.

The skills gained during the seminar helped them prepare their own photo and video stories and post them on their own blogs.

“Such workshops are important for national minorities, since they are poorly represented on the internet. This is a good opportunity for them to become better communicators,” said one of the trainers Arthur Papyan, an expert at the Media Diversity Institute.

A collective blog – “Citizen Journalism from Armenia” was set up (http://cjarmenia.blogspot.com/) and will be updated by seminar participants, together with previous and future participants of IWPR events, as well as IWPR Armenia branch staff.

The attendees considered the social networking knowledge they gained during the seminar to be a very effective means of promoting their respective communities/organisations, their problems and news.

“During the workshop, I learnt things about web tools that will help me make important news and stories about our Yezidi community available to almost everybody,” said Khdyr Hajoyan of the Yezidi community.

Anush Safaryan, a representative of the Ukrainian community, said, “Now I can voice concerns related to issues in our community in the virtual world.”

Arthur Khachatryan, a spokesman for the Greek minority, said, “I learnt that the internet is not only for communicating with friends but is also a good and important means of acquiring and disseminating information.”

Meanwhile, a poverty-stricken family from western Georgia featured in an IWPR radio show produced and aired as part of IWPR’s refugees retraining and employment initiative has received official pledges of assistance and private donations.

The appalling conditions endured by the Shonia family – who were forced to flee their home in Abkhazia’s Gali district during Georgia’s failed attempt to subdue separatist forces in the early 1990s – were exposed in an episode of IWPR’s Refugees’ News, broadcast by the Odishi radio station in late in June.

The radio programme, broadcast twice a month, is produced by refugees who’ve been trained as journalists by IWPR staff to report on issues and problems affecting their communities.

“I am happy that our report has received such a broad response. This is a great stimulus for the show and the journalists taking part in it,” said Tamuna Shonia, coordinator of the refugees retraining and employment programme in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region.

The programme described how the family of seven – two parents and five children – lived in a one-room shack with half-rotten floor boards, a sieve of a roof, and survived on scraps of food.

“The head of the family, Velodi Shonia, told me the children mainly subsisted on boiled grass and whatever food they were given by their neighbours,” said the journalist who produced the report, Jilda Kardava.

“The plight of the Shonia family’s five children is made all the more difficult to endure by the fact that their mother has psychiatric problems, and, as their father said, she even threatens to kill them sometimes.”

The sad fate of the family prompted a local official and a rights protection organisation to try to improve their miserable conditions, while a businessman and an number of journalists have provided direct material assistance.

“Listening to this report, I felt my heart burn with pity for the Shonia family,” said Madona Jabua, who is head of the department for culture and youth affairs in western Zugdidi district. “It’s terrible that someone should live a life like that in the 21st century. I will do everything in my power to ensure that at least the basic needs of these children are met.

“Social security services should help the family, to see that the children become integrated into the society.”

“It’s absolutely unacceptable to let the Shonias continue living like this. We are grateful to IWPR for giving us the information.”

Rusudan Pachkoria of the Legal Protection Institute told IWPR he had written to the ministry for refugees and settlement urging them to assist the family. “I am now waiting for them to reply, and I promise I’ll bring the matter to a close,” he said.

In the meantime, the family has received some financial assistance from a local businessman who was moved by their story.

“The report made my heart ache for them. Mine is not a big business, nevertheless I gave a certain sum to the family – not much, but enough to keep them fed for a while. I hope I am not the only one to have felt the urge to help them,” said Emzar Kvaratskhelia.

Local journalists and some based in the capital also sent the family what they could, including food, clothes and school textbooks. Nika Chkhartishvili, one of the founders of the news agency Expressnews, said, “This is not much, but if other people decide to contribute, we will succeed in making life a little bit easier for the family.”