Online trainings for Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti mass media representatives
May 8, 2020 News

Online trainings for Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti mass media representatives

During Covid-19 pandemic, together with healthcare sector and authority, the media has also major responsibility. Today, when the flow of information about Covid-19 does not stop, it is important for journalists to choose right material, to distinguish between fake and valid information and to provide accurate and clear information to the society.

Caritas Czech Republic has been engaged in number of measures against the spread of Covid-19 infection. One of the important activities among them is delivery of online series of lectures “Physical, psychological and informational security in times of pandemic for mass media”, together with the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics targeting mass media representatives from Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti. The participants, together with invited experts went through a number of important issues: proper reporting, confirmation of the facts, disclosure of personal information, sensational and panic headlines, medical ethics and healthcare legislation. Above mentioned issues was so interesting for participants that additional sessions are planned for the next week.

„First of all, I would like to mention that it was a challenge for me to attend in the lectures remotely. I was expected that it would be difficult for me to get involved and concentrate in parallel with my work schedule and I’m glad that I could manage it. The hours I spent on these lectur.es were necessary and productive for me.

Accuracy of information is very important for the media. In a pandemic situation when you have to deal with lots of news, it is especially important to know how check information, photos or videos. Therefore, it was very useful to get a links, which are technically very easy to access. I did not use them before but I will definitely use them in the future.

I would especially like to highlight the session on „Medical ethics and healthcare legislation”. The  lecture was based on examples and it ensured our involvement in the discussion. In the future it will be interesting for me to attend the lectures in this field again. Medical ethics and health legislation is the topic that requires more knowledge and more experience also for media representatives”-mentioned Tamar Zantaraia, internetportal Livepress.ge, journalist from radio liberty.

Lectures have been organized for the representatives of Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti mass media and will continue for the journalists from different regions.

The activity is part of Zugdidi Screening Center project implemented with the financial support of Czech Development Agency.