Center for Social Media,
American University School of Communication
News from the Future of Public Media
Where Hostile Governments Meet Public Media
Micael Bogar, 14 November 2008
How can public media develop in regions where governments are hostile
to press freedoms? A look at emerging projects in the South Caucasus?a
region of independent former Soviet countries linked both
geographically and historically?offers some clues.
We have created a list of five notable public media projects:
Institute for Reporter?s Freedom and Safety, Caucasus Center of
Peacemaking Initiatives, Internews, the South Caucasus blogosphere and
lastly everyone?s favorite Facebook.
Not quite initiated into the EU like the Baltic states, but not as far
east as Borat?s Kazakhstan, the South Caucasus countries stand at the
crossroads of capitalist western ideals and the good old Soviet days.
Couched in between Russia, Turkey, Iran and two seas, this region has
a long history of being the underdog. It is quite a feat that the
three countries?Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia?have survived this
long at all. It says much about the strength of keeping culture alive.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, three violent conflicts
have emerged over the regions of Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia.
In a region where authoritarian governments run commercial media, the
presence of public media looks at first glance simply nonexistent. But
it?s in circumstances like these that independent and citizen-driven
media for public knowledge and action are the most important. Here,
the stakes are life and death and the need for public action to
counter government or private interests is more urgent than ever.
It is important to make a distinction between projects that are
motivated both economically and structurally from outside and more
local work that begins within the Caucasus. This is not to say that
media projects that are funded and created outside of the region are
not worthwhile, but that much of the time, as top-down projects, they
do not meet our idea of public media.
Who then, are the public media makers in the South Caucasus? Here are
a few game changers:
1. Institute for Reporter?s Freedom and Safety based in Azerbaijan
Established just a few years ago, IRFS is a case where citizen
journalists were moved to form a public around the issues they were
jointly facing, and the money followed. Their work makes other public
media projects possible.
IRFS reports on the corrupt Azerbaijani government?s actions against
citizen journalists. This allows journalists to continue to work and
persevere under nearly impossible circumstances. While citizen
journalists cannot be certain of their safety in Azerbaijan, they can
be sure that if they are arrested, beaten or threatened, IRFS will
spread the word far and wide. IRFS?s daily email blasts are always on
time and chock full of poignant evidence of the Azerbaijani
government?s attempt to silence the public.
2. Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives based in Armenia
Giorgi Vanyan and Luiza Poghosyan also share a similar story with IRFS
in that they began their work because they noticed that with a rise in
nationalist pride has come a similar rise in intolerance for other
cultures and groups of people. The trend they noticed in all three
countries was a similar misunderstanding of people living in the other
two nations. With the current image of the "other" as the "enemy" the
only reasonable outcome would be war. They wanted to do something
about this.
Caucasus Center of Peacemaking Initiatives unites like minded
individuals from all the regions: within Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Georgia and the disputed territories of Nagorno Karabakh, South
Ossetia and Abkhazia. They attract a public of readers who are
interested in reassessing commonly held images and definitions of
other cultures within the South Caucasus with their fascinating
articles challenging cultural norms held for generations in the
region. Their most noteworthy projects include: Days of Azerbaijan in
Armenia and facilitation of the Ya Chelovek Traveling Film Festival.
3. Internews
Internews has been around the "bloc" ever since the dissolution of the
Soviet Union. What distinguishes Internews from other nonprofit media
makers in the South Caucasus is its ability to work so well across
state lines. In a region where competition between cultures and
debates about unsettled borders are common everyday conversation,
Internews? offices in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia have managed to
rise above the fray. They continue to maintain strong long-lasting
friendships and work to create poignant yet realistic public media
projects that governments will not shut down but that will still be
worthwhile. Their Kid?s Crossroads program airs on local television
stations around the Caucasus and not only teaches students important
broadcasting skills but works to provide children with real-life
stories about people with a neighboring nationality. While Internews
offices in the South Caucasus are local, they are largely funded by
the Internews agency in Washington DC. Like many public media makers,
they face challenges in constantly walking a thin line between local
government, donor agencies, and, most importantly, the community.
4. Blogs
Bloggers in the South Caucasus are multiplying overnight. As Internet
access becomes more common and the first post-Soviet generation grow
older, blogs in this region flourish. Bloggers such as Onnik Krikorian
from Armenia, Anna Dolidze from Georgia and Emin Huseynzade from
Azerbaijan all blog in English, and provide inspiration to many South
Caucasian citizens searching for alternative sources of media.
Evgeny Morozov, a journalist from the former Soviet Union, wrote an
article titled Citizen War Reporter: The Caucasus Test back in August
that addressed issues citizen journalists within this region face.
"It would be sublimely naive?and condescending ?to expect South
Ossetians or Georgians to respond to intense shellfire by taking a
crash-course in podcasting, even if they did have electricity and an
internet connection. Tskhinvali and Gori were never going to be hubs
of user-generated content from a war-zone."
However, once again, the question must be asked: How is blogging
public media? Yes, citizens can log on and blog on to their hearts
content, but what will that matter if nothing comes of it? With
blogging becoming such a popular tool for self-expression, it will be
interesting to see if the ripe moment emerges when Georgians,
Azerbaijanis and Armenians really do have a reason to unite together.
It is my guess the blogosphere will be the place in which it happens.
Until then, with so much dissent within the region, the blogosphere
seems to reaffirm and entrench the warlike images that other public
media campaigns work so hard to challenge.
5. Facebook Activist Groups
In October Facebook has had its busiest month yet. It?s growing by
leaps and bounds on an international level. One of its most popular
features is the Cause groups which allow Facebook members to create a
page on the site centered around a specific cause or issue. Since the
invasion of Russia into Georgia, Georgian Facebook Cause groups have
exploded on to the scene. Facebook pages such as "Stop Fighting in
Georgia" with 9,000 members and "STOP the Russian Aggression against
Georgia" with over 23,000 members, offer tools for connection and
action. Someone even posted a link where can write letters to Putin
and Medvedev in English.
A quick search for Nagorno Karabakh Cause groups uncovers a South
Caucasian mini- information war right on Facebook with hundreds of
members taking sides. The Azerbaijanis and Armenians are at war over a
territory called Nagorno Karabakh which both claim to have historical
and legal claim to.
One of the cause groups titled Peaceful Solution in Nagorno Karabakh
seemed to be a place where some true discussion and communication
across thick state borders could take place, but I found very little
participation from Azerbaijan?s side at all. The few Azerbaijani?s
that are members of this cause group are living outside Azerbaijan. No
wonder: For an Azerbaijani to claim allegiance with an Armenian, even
on Facebook, could have serious implications if the government-
controlled press decided it was news worthy.
Facebook does serve as a forum for conversations to take place in
public among people who would not typically interact due to the wars,
but due to social rules set in place by the strict regimes and
militaristic communities, it hasn?t really in the end served much of a
public media purpose.
Now more than ever, opportunities for dialogue and public
participation are springing up through media outlets. With more
powerful technologies come stronger connections. As Internet becomes
more affordable and available, will digital media play a peacemaking
or inflammatory role across lines that are seldom crossed? What will
be the turning point? And most importantly, what are the areas of
interest that will bring Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Abkhaz,
South Ossetians and all the other ethnicities within this geographic
region together to take advantage of this growing phenomena? The
answers remain to be seen.
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