NEW PROJECT ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION STARTS IN KARABAKH

KarabakhOpen
09-01-2008 17:20:46

The Karabakh-based Open Society NGO and Unity NGO with the support of
Stepanakert Resource Center NGO and the British International Alert
organization launch a project "The Topic of European Integration in
the Mass Media"

Armenia and Azerbaijan are members of the Council of Europe and
implement Action Plans in the framework of this membership. As a
disputable area, Karabakh is not included in these plans. Karabakh
is mentioned in terms of obligations of the sides to reach a peace
settlement. Nevertheless, the European integration of Armenia and
Azerbaijan is impossible without Karabakh.

Opinion polls and interviews with experts showed that people in
Karabakh are unaware of European values, standards, prospects of
cooperation. Moreover, the idea of integration in the European space
is perceived negatively by part of the population who think that the
European values contradict to national imperatives.

The Internet newspaper Karabakh-Open.com has conducted a poll
offering its readers to answer the question whether the European
values contradict to the national imperatives.

Over half of respondents answered yes. In addition, most opponents
of European integration read the Russian page of the site. 38 percent
think it does not jeopardize national values, 9 percent think European
values contradict to national imperatives.

Judging by this information, the Open Society NGO decided that it is
necessary to raise awareness of European values, political, historical,
social, economic, ethnic and cultural structure of Europe among the
population of Karabakh.

The best means of raising awareness is the mass media. Therefore,
the organization has worked out a project for the staffs of the
media. The organization is likely to hold a series of trainings
the participants of which will be offered to focus on the topic of
European integration and cover this topic objectively and completely,
at a high professional level.

How is the topic of European integration presented in the
Karabakh-based media? In December 2007 Open Society and Unity conducted
a monitoring of the most popular media (the Public Television, the
Azat Artsakh Newspaper and the Demo Public Newspaper, as well as the
Internet newspaper Karabakh-Open.com). During the month we measured
the quality and amount of information on the European topic that
appeared in the abovementioned media.

(The public Television programs are broadcasts three hours a day, the
Azat Artsakh is issued twice a week, the Demo is a biweekly newspaper,
Karabakh-Open.com is updated daily).

The results of the monitoring are: over a month Europe was mentioned
41 times in Karabakh-Open.com, including 38 times with a neutral shade,
twice with a positive, and once with a negative shade, 13 times in the
Demo (10 neutral, 3 positive), 12 times in the Azat Artsakh (4 neutral,
7 positive, 1 negative), 58 times in the Public Television of Artsakh
(43 neutral, 14 positive and 1 negative).

The expediency or harm of European integration was mentioned 4 times
in Karabakh-Open.com (3 neutral, 1 positive), 3 times in the Demo (1
neutral, 2 positive), 4 times on the Public Television, all positive,
and no times in the Azat Artsakh.

As to the participation of the European organizations in the settlement
of the Karabakh issue, Karabakh-Open.com mentioned it neutrally for
ten times and positively once, the Demo mentioned neutrally twice,
positively 5 times and negatively once, the Azat Artsakh mentioned
neutrally once, positively three times and negatively once, the
Public Television mentioned neutrally 13 times, positively 5 times
and negatively 3 times.

The European organizations were mentioned 37 times in
Karabakh-Open.com, 3 times in the Demo, 5 times in the Azat Artsakh,
29 times on the Public Television. In addition, they were mentioned
positively every time.

On the whole, European culture was mentioned 5 times in
Karabakh-Open.com, 3 times in the Demo, twice in the Azat Artsakh
and 10 times on the Public Television of Artsakh.

The ratio of own information to information from other sources was
13 to 28 in Karabakh-Open.com, 5 to 8 in the Demo, 2 to 7 in the Azat
Artsakh and 8 to 50 on the Public Television.

The ratio of news to analyses in Karabakh-Open.com was 21 to 20, in
the Demo 6 to 7, in the Azat Artsakh 5 to 4, on the Public Television
43 to 15.

As part of this project, training will be held in January in
Stepanakert for the representatives of the media, during which
the journalists will be provided with information on European
organizations, the system of state building, etc. The participants of
the training will be invited to participate in a contest of reports
on the European topic and will get awards. The journalists will get
honoraria for the reports.

The journalists will be offered to set up contacts with separate
people who will get interested in the European topic. The most active
respondents will be invited to a round-table meeting.

All the materials and results of the monitoring will be posted on
the special page on the site Karabakh-Open.com. A film will be made
on the implementation of the project.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress