Journalism and human rights
From November, 28th till December, 1st in the capital of Norway Oslo there took place an educational seminar for journalists of Barents region. Conversations with legal experts, discussions about human rights, acquaintance with the work of the newspaper «Drammens Tidende» – all that became possible thanks to Barents Press, with direct support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.
In the newsroom of "The Drammens Tidende"
Freedom of speech in mass-media
The situation in Norway, of course, considerably differs from that in Russian. European openness of officials is not the most important factor promoting more professional work of journalists. Elementary availability of the information – that’s where all starts. Observance and respect of laws, corruption minimum, protection of civil human rights - the list can be continued… And conclusions should be surely drawn.
The XX century fascism again flies in air
Probably for the first time at similar seminars there was mentioned the issue of promptly growing nationalism. Anders Bering Brevik has crossed out the history of quiet Norway and has divided it into "before" and "after" events on July, 22nd, 2011. The center of the antiracism - which representative Shoaib Sultan addressed the Russian journalists - has just begun the work. Therefore it is visible that in such issues as racism, nationalism and fascism there are still no enough experts in the Northern Kingdom. It is understandable. As a rule (the situation in our country which defeated Hitler is similar) ultra right wear masks of patriots. Plus domestic racism which nobody has abolished either…
Film «Love me, please»became the final point in the theme of xenophobia raised at the seminar. Valery Balajan's documentary about the killed journalist of the “Novaya gazeta” paper Anastasia Baburova was released in 2010. The grief of parents, interview with Anastasia’s colleagues and friends mixed with shots of the nazi reels borrowed from the Internet – the film opens a terrible picture of today's situation in Russia. When for human values, for antifascism, for tolerance kill you in the center of Moscow ….У many spectators after viewing there were no words literally. Burdensome silence when there is really nothing to tell …
Human rights under journalistic investigation
Erling Borgen, a well-known journalist who shot 47 investigative documentaries, has infected all of us with great optimism. Having raised the issue of violated human rights in Kazakhstan, he would probably like to continue with of such films, about the situation in Russia in particular.
The participants of the seminar just discussed the forthcoming (at that time) elections. One could foresee that "United Russia" would win the elections to the State Duma. As a result, according to the official data, the authorities got more than 49 percent from the voters. But nobody expected that on the day these results to be announced, on December, 5th, in Moscow a mass meeting which participants would declare about lots of falsifications at the elections would take place. And protests would proceed on December, 6th and 7th on the Triumphal square. As a result hundreds of people and tens of independent journalists would be taken to police stations.
Enver Juliman from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee organizes seminars for Russian journalists
After the events were hushed up in the central TV channels the political analyst of radio station "Kommersant FM" Stanislav Kucher addressed journalists of news services of federal TV channels accusing TV men of nonprofessionalism and advised them "to throw out all "Tefi" prizes received for "the best information programs".
"When in the centers of two capital cities of our Motherland the first time in last ten years there are thousand people to express their attitude to the elections and you don’t say a word about it - it is nonprofessional", - declared the political observer. He added that TV men had concealed "from millions of people the information that could at least affect their mood" and by that they dishonored "both themselves and the professoin".
It’s a good ending of the seminar about human rights. I think we’ll have a lot to discuss with Norwegian colleagues next time.
Alexander Borisov,
specially for Barents Press
Translation and photos by Tatiana Polkova
