The Journalism School Summary.

How should be reflected the border conflict between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan? Can border conflicts be covered without emotion? This and other issues were discussed at the journalism school.

6 day training was held in Guliston city, Sugd Region from December 22 to 27, 2022. The school was designed for journalists and bloggers who follow conflict-sensitive topics, especially border developments between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. These six days experienced experts and trainers such as Rajab Mirzo, Kasym Bekmukhammed, Nematullo Mirsaidov, Sherali Rezoyon and others discussed issues: constructive coverage of border conflicts between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the role of journalists of covering border conflicts, international standards in covering conflict-sensitive topics and other issues related to border events. Shakhnoz Komilzoda, who covered the recent border conflict between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan directly from the scene, as well shared her experience. 20 journalists participated. Journalists shared their experiences in covering border conflicts and received useful advice from trainers and experts for their future articles.

Participants presented their topics on issues related to the border during the training. Experienced mentors are working with them to put in practice their experience.

The coverage of border conflicts has caused a lot of noise in recent years and has become one of the hot issues between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as two sides accuse each other of violating international journalistic standards and spreading false news. According to the participants, conducting such training was very important and timely.

Saidabdullo Nuriddinzoda, a participant of the journalism school, says that he received useful information about the coverage of issues related to the border within 6 days. According to him, it is possible to cover border issues without emotions and without false news. "If the information is correct, without emotions and in compliance with moral norms and international standards, there will be no doubts about the truth and reality of our words," he added.

According to the reporter Farzon Muhammadi, while preparing border reports, especially if it is in a conflict situation, the behavior of a reporter put into a question, as the reporter faces problems in this situation. "Personally, I always suffer from such a problem. The organization of this educational training with the initiative of NANSMIT to some extent solves this problem. One of the important impacts of this training will be a creation of a group or team to cover the border issues. During such times readers and users of social networks criticize journalists and the media for not providing timely information or for inactivity.

As he mentions, during this training, experts that have been working on this topic for many years have taught the journalists.

This journalism school was held and implemented by NANSMIT in cooperation with the international German media development organization DW Akademie and is part of the project "Conflict-sensitive and constructive reflection of the events of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border" funded by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany (Auswärtiges Amt).

Rukhshona Hakimova, NANSMIT Monitoring Service.