Caucasus: Mar ‘09

The IWPR Caucasus project held a series of training sessions on how to report on issues relating to ethnic and religious minorities.



The training programme involved over 50 journalists and resulted in tens of radio reports and articles. Designed jointly by IWPR and the Georgian Ombudsman’s office, it was aimed at countering the negative portrayal of minorities in the press.



“Hostile language, stereotypic views, xenophobic statements [towards minorities] are common throughout the Georgian press,” said Beka Mindiashvili from the Tolerance Centre, which is part of the Ombudsman’s office.



“This is a very negative phenomenon, as people’s xenophobic views are shaped by the media.”



Mindiashvili said that IWPR’s approach to training journalists was effective as it combined theory and practice.



“After having listened to a lecture on ethnic and religious minorities, [the journalists were] taken to meet with representatives of the minorities,” he said.



Lado Bichashvili, a journalist from Shida Kartli, who took part in one of the training sessions, said there was great pressure on Georgian journalists to report negatively on certain minority groups.



“Very often, when working on a report, a journalist faces temptation – the more negatively he portrays people belonging to ethnic or religious minorities, the louder the applause he is likely to receive from readers,” he said.



“And publishers justify [their decision to print such reports] by saying they have [to sell newspapers], when what they really do is exploit the right to free speech.”



During the March training events, journalists visited six residential areas where religious or ethnic minorities live closely together.



“In Samtskhe-Javakheti [a region of southern Georgia], there are several churches claimed by both Orthodox Christians and Catholics,” said participant Maia Ivelashvili.



“I have often reported on the subject of the disputed churches, and I confess that the first time I interviewed a representative of the Catholic Church was during the IWPR mission.”



Padre Gabriele Bragantini, the Catholic Church’s vicar in Western Georgia, said that the church was often overlooked by journalists.



“For the first time in many years, I’ve been given a chance to talk directly with journalists, to tell them about the problems people here may find themselves facing just because they are Catholics,” he said.



“It is always Orthodox priests, who answer questions about problems [faced by] the Catholic community.”



He explained that it was seen as “shameful” for an Orthodox journalist to attend an event at a Catholic church.



“IWPR is the only media organisation that has not shunned us, for which we thank you,” he added.



The journalists also met with the Assyrian community of Samtskhe-Javahketi, which they said had perhaps integrated into mainstream society more successfully than other ethnic minorities.



“Assyrians have changed their surnames and speak Georgian well, though they are very conservative when it comes to their traditions,” said Tamuna Uchidze, a journalist from Samtskhe-Javahketi.



The journalist said that local Assyrians met regularly at a cobbler’s to discuss issues affecting the members of the community.



“At the same time, these people are very educated and cultured, not at all what we…journalists, who’ve come here used to think they were,” said Uchidze.



The journalists also visited the Ossetian-populated village of Arashenda in the region of Kakheti.



“After the August war [between Russia and Georgia over the disputed territory of South Ossetia], visiting an Ossetian village was particularly interesting to us,” said journalist Maia Avaliani.



“Never before have I seen a village as neglected and poor as Arashenda. A lack of drinking water and battered roads are the villagers’ greatest concerns.



“They all speak Georgian well and are absolutely neutral when it comes to politics.”



“Neither the government, nor journalists have taken interest in our problems,” complained one local, Valiko Gagloyev.



“They remember Arashenda only during periods before elections. We have neither water, nor roads.”



“It would be good, if they included us in social assistance programmes. Not long ago, an ambulance charged us 30 laris for taking the body of a villager who had passed away from a hospital to the village.”



During their visit to the village, the journalists alerted the deputy governor of Kakheti, Giorgi Sibashvili to the problems facing the village.



He said the authorities were taking steps to tackle these.



“The water and roads problems in Arashenda will be solved in the near future, as the central authorities have already earmarked the funds to help the village,” said Sibashvili, several days after meeting the journalists.



“We’ll announce a tender in mid-April, and the winning company will get down to work by the end of the month.”



Sibashvili also said that he had also arranged support for those who can’t afford to pay for the local ambulance service.



“I’ve talked to the chief of the local administration, and a decision has been taken to launch a social assistance package that will allow us to [provide an ambulance for free in special cases], thus easing the burden on the population,” he said.



As part of IWPR’s training programme, participating journalists also studied the Tolerance Centre’s findings on how minorities are covered in Georgian media – a result of monitoring carried out by the organisation between 2007 and 2009.



“This is the first time I have heard such a detailed definition of what hostile language is,” said Zaur Dargali, a journalist from Kvemo Kartli.



“I was particularly impressed by the articles presented as examples by our trainers. The articles contained such humiliating phrases to refer to religious and ethnic minorities that I could not help feeling ashamed for my colleagues.



“But I am sure that we, the journalists, who’ve taken part in IWPR training workshops and missions, will never write anything like that.”