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- Published: July 19, 2019
Opening conference on the“@MediaSocieties – Armenia 2019“ project
The opening conference on the “@MediaSocieties – Armenia 2019“ project took place in Yerevan on 15 July 2019. The event was attended by about forty participants and covered topics such as transparency, good media governance and journalistic ethics. The Permanent Representative of the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Armenia, Klaus Wendelberger, also took part and opened the event. Welcome addresses were also given by Amalia Wuckert for the IRZ and Boris Navasardyan as President of the Yerevan Press Club (YPC). Thomas Wierny, who supports the project as an expert in media and press law, moderated the conference, presented the project concept and gave an introduction to the expert sessions.
Further speakers at the conference were:
- Dr. Shushan Doydoyan, Chairwoman of the Freedom of Information Center,
- Dr. Frederik Ferreau, Institute for Media and Communications Law, University of Cologne,
- Gegham Vardanyan, producer of Media.am,
- Prof. Dr. Bernd Holznagel, LL.M., Institute for Information, Telecommunications and Media Law (ITM), Westfälische Wilhelms University of Muenster,
- Mesrop Harutyunyan, assistant lecturer at the Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences, and
- Prof. Dr. Hektor Haarkötter, Professor for Communication Studies with a Focus on Political Communication at the University of Applied Sciences of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg.
During the final panel discussions, the experts Mesrop Harutyunyan, Prof. Dr. Bernd Holznagel, Prof. Dr. Hektor Haarkötter and Boris Navasardyan exchanged their views regarding the particular responsibility of the media in times of election campaigns.
Prof. Dr. Bernd Holznagel, Prof. Dr. Hektor Haarkötter, Mesrop Harutyunyan, Boris Navasardyan, Thomas Wierny during the final panel discussion (from left to right)
The conference met with a great deal of interest by media professionals. The participants repeatedly pointed out the importance of this event for Armenia in the present phase.
The continuation of the project is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. At first, several subsequent workshops are planned, which will be attended by Armenian and German experts from various areas of media and media regulation to deal with these topics in detail. It is planned to compile the results of these workshops in a paper reflecting the current state of discussions and indicating in which way the new regulation should be directed in the participants’ opinion.
Following up on the workshops, a final event will take place at the beginning of December, where the draft papers will be presented to a larger audience for discussion. The aim is to debate the considerations and results also with those players who did not take part in the workshops, and to consult on the implementation of the concepts.
About the project
The “@MediaSocieties – Armenia 2019“ project is aimed at supporting the freedom and diversity of the media and pluralism of opinions in Armenia and at strengthening the journalistic profession. The project is financed by the Federal Foreign Office within the “Expanding Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia“ programme.
The project addresses media professionals, players in the media market and the respective fields of science in Armenia.
The target groups are:
- representatives of TV broadcasting stations, newspapers and radio stations,
- bloggers,
- online editors and
- law professionals from science and practice.
The IRZ’s partner organisation in Armenia for this project is the Yerevan Press Club. The YPC supports the development of free, independent and qualified media seeking to strengthen the development of democracy and civil society in Armenia.
Thomas Wierny, an expert in the field of media and press law, supports the preparation and implementation of the project.