The workshop and solidarity meeting discussion of the project "more freedom and less self-censorship" was held on January 28 in Marneuli, at the Center for Democratic Engagement. The meeting, was attended by journalists, students, local civil activists, and non-governmental sector representatives.
The goal of the "Mediavoice" project is to support freedom of speech by strengthening the vitality of the media and creating a supportive media environment and in addition, strengthening the capacity of media workers to combat self-censorship and fear. Topics of the trainings are as follows: Media and self-censorship, freedom of speech, human rights and the media, solidarity journalism.
Sessions were devoted to issues of self-censorship and freedom of expression, the specifics of international law and human rights coverage, solidarity journalism, and accurate coverage of vulnerable groups.
"When discussing human rights, we should note that January 28 is Personal Data Protection Day, which was established by the Council of Europe in 2006. The purpose of this day is to provide people with more information data protection and human rights in this regard" - said Prof. Irine Kurdadze. An interesting discussion was held regarding the decisions made by international courts about the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
Prof. Maia Toradze, experts Teona Tskhomelidze and Zura Vardiashvili spoke about the importance and need of solidarity journalism, the specificity of coverage of vulnerable groups, and the importance of mutual solidarity between society and the media. Training was followed with solidarity discussion and thinkathon. Participants and trainers discussed cases, designed solution maps.
The project "More freedom, less self-censorship in the media" is implemented with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia. The goal of the project is to support freedom of expression by strengthening the vitality of the media and creating a supportive media environment. Also, strengthens the capacity of media workers to deal with self-censorship and fear. The topics of the training are media and self-censorship, freedom of expression, human rights and media, solidarity journalism.
The main partners of the "Mediavoice" project are the Institute of International Law of TSU (Jean Monet Chair / UEUPE), the University of Georgia and online platform "Publica".
