Young Journalists from Ferghana Valley Learn Hard-Hitting Journalism

Twenty-one teenage journalists from four countries in the Ferghana Valley honed their investigative reporting and Internet research skills thanks to a grant from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The grant allows IREX to deliver a series of specialized Internet and journalism trainings to journalists and journalism students in Central Asia, at its Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) centers in Osh, Kyrgyzstan and Khujand, Tajikistan.

Young journalists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan completed a five-day seminar on use of computers and the Internet to improve their reporting.  Michael Andersen, a Danish independent journalist and documentary filmmaker who has reported extensively on the Central Asian region for Danish radio and other outlets, led the training at the Independent Internet Center in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Andersen equipped the participants with the skills to research and write their own articles dedicated to topics such as education, HIV/AIDS and drugs, and Islam and women, which were of particular interest to the participants. The trainees combined Internet searches for information with more traditional reporting techniques such as interviews to gather complete information on the issues. The young journalists then had the opportunity to compare notes on the issues and analyze each other’s articles critically in a group discussion. Anderson also taught participants how to cite sources properly and cross-check information to determine its accuracy.

A second, five-day training was held at the Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) access site in Khujand, Tajikistan. IATP Trainer and Radio Deutsche Welle correspondent Khairullo Mirsaidov reinforced the concepts from the Osh training with the first training group along with eight new participants. The young journalists continued to research and write their articles, examine them critically, and compare notes both with each other and with online sources such as Akipress, Kyrgyzstan’s leading online agency, Fergana, a Central Asia-wide online news agency, and the BBC. They also learned to create multimedia presentations using photographs and speech, modeled on the audio slide shows at the New York Times website.

“I feel my life is connected to journalism in the long term, and naturally, everything I learned here is really necessary,” noted Asyela, an 18-year-old participant from Bishkek. “We discussed our articles and had the opportunity to participate in the process of editing, so we really could see what our mistakes are and how to correct them.”

Participants posted the finished articles to their own professional-quality news website at www.nashaversia.net, with technical assistance from IATP. The website is one of very few independent sources of news on Central Asia produced by residents of the region. Thanks to the workshops, participants learned critical thinking and analysis, use of online materials, respect of copyright and proper citing of sources, and traditional reporting techniques.

"The young people in Central Asia are just like young people everywhere else; full of energy and ideas,” commented Andersen. “Unfortunately, in Central Asia, many factors stand in the way of them realizing their ambitions. A project like this - not least using the Internet - gives them that opportunity. The level of their work and their enthusiasm for learning and communicating shows the enormous potential for such projects. Teaching young people to communicate across borders in Central Asia is a great way of building the civil society of the future".

Administered by IREX since 1995, the Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State. IATP provides free Internet access and training through a network of access sites in 11 countries throughout Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Western Eurasia. Through these sites, thousands of individuals per month receive free-of-charge access to the Internet as well as to a wide variety of computer-related training programs.