The Final Conference in Kyiv
Four different working groups worked for one week in Kyiv in the second stage of the project Changes in Media Education and Political Dialogue Perspectives. On Friday 10th they presented their results on a conference in presence of different Ukrainian media and students of the Institute of Journalism and the Institute of International Relations. The conference was simultaneously translated so everything was in English and Ukrainian.
At the beginning the conference Yevhen Tsymbalenko, deputy director of scholar work and international collaboration, welcomed participants and guests. Then Wolfgang Ressmann, chairman of the Association of Citizen Media of Germany, talked about the importance of international cooperation of media organizations and people working in media. He gave an introduction into the topic “armed conflicts” and it connects the participating countries: Ukraine with its war in the uncontrolled territories in the east, Armenia with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Georgia with the South Ossetia conflict. He also said that it is also Germany’s interest to have a peaceful Europe and neighbourhood. Volodymyr Danyluk, chairman of the Forum of Ukrainian Journalists, talked about the relevance of the topic and the project for Ukrainian journalists.
Sofia Samoylova, one of the organizers of the project, talked about an exhibition in the Institute of Journalism where she and the news photographer Brendan Hoffman showed photos from the uncontrolled territories. Brendan Hoffman also talked about the exhibition and he said that he took only photos of civilians and their everyday situations because these do not get much attention in media but they are very important to show the public how people live in the region affected by war.
Then representatives talked to the audience about their perspective on the project and their experiences with media and armed conflicts: Yevhen Terekhov, consultant of the minister of international relations of Ukraine, reported about his experience as a soldier in the uncontrolled territories and the politics of the Ukrainian government concerning the conflict. Deny Bobylev, a representative of the Ukrainian Youth League, emphasized the importance of good media especially for the politization of the youth.
After that the video groups presented the results of their work. First the group of the trainer Daria Jaranowska that interviewed and accompanied Brendan Hoffman and visited a western Ukrainian cultural organization. The participants and the trainer also talked about how the filming at different locations was organized. The group of the trainer Carolin Wart also presented their result. They made a street survey about what effect armed conflicts have on the peoples’ lives. They also made some shots of Kyiv for the video and made an expert interview. Both of the groups filmed very much video material and wanted to continue editing also after the conference.
Also the two other groups presented their results: The documentation group showed the audience the blog where they have published reports about the working groups, meetings, events and the background of the project. They explained the different steps from taking pictures, writing the article, editing it until the posting on Facebook. The debate group held presentations related to the topic “armed conflicts” and media. There were different perspectives on the related topics presented.
At the end Olha Hresko, associate professor of the, underlined the importance of the project and thanked the audiencefoe participating. After the conference the journalists who came to report about the conference had the opportunity to talk to the organizers and participants of the project.
