CONTEST OF BEST REPORT IS ANNOUNCED AS EUROPEAN OFFICIALS ARE ABOUT TO VISIT KARABAKH

KarabakhOpen
karabakhopen@yahoo.com
05-0 2-2008 12:09:10

High-ranking European officials are going to visit Armenia and
Azerbaijan February 4-6 to dedicate new diplomatic missions to the
South Caucasus. The delegation includes Benito Ferrero Valdner,
commissar for foreign relations, the minister of foreign affairs
of Slovenia Dmitrij Rupel, head of the EU, and the EU Special
Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby. The European
officials will discuss the implementation of the partnership plans
signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan a year ago.

On Saturday the two-day training of journalists held by the
Nagorno-Karabakh based NGO Open Society ended at the Resource Center
of Stepanakert. The training was part of the project "The topic of
European integration in the mass media of Karabakh" supported by the
International Alert.

The training for the journalists of the print media of Karabakh was
conducted by the chair of the Armenia-based European Integration NGO
Karen Bekaryan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are members of the Council of Europe and
have a partnership plan as part of their membership. Karabakh is a
disputable territory and therefore is not included in any of these
plans. Karabakh is mentioned in the context of the commitment of
the sides to a peace settlement. Nevertheless, the integration of
Armenia and Azerbaijan with the European community is impossible
without Karabakh, the participants of the training say.

Besides, after the recent statements of the Minsk Group co-chairs
that no breakthrough is expected in the settlement of Karabakh until
the Azerbaijani presidential election in the autumn of 2008 the
European direction remains one of the few spheres in which Armenia
and Azerbaijan cooperate.

"It becomes clear from surveys and interviews with experts that
people in Karabakh are unaware of the European values, benchmarks,
prospects of cooperation. Moreover, the idea of integration with the
European space is perceived negatively by part of the population who
think the European values contradict to the national imperatives,"
says Anahit Danielyan, member of the board of Open Society.

Therefore, she says Open Society thinks there is need for raising
awareness of European values, political, historical, social, economic,
ethnic and cultural structure of Europe among the population of
Karabakh.

In December 2007 Open and Unity monitored the most popular media of
Karabakh, the Public Television of Artsakh, the Azat Artsakh Newspaper,
the Demo, and Karabakh-Open.com. (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 the 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.

"We announce a contest of the best report on the European topic. We
want to encourage discussion on the European topic, without suggesting
evaluations and opinions," said Naira Hayrumyan, chair of Open Society.