Media Days Kick off in Tashkent

Media Days will be held fr om April 25 to May 11, which coincide with World Press Freedom Day, and is organized by the National Association of Electronic Mass Media of Uzbekistan (NAEMM), the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, the Parliamentary Commission on the management of assets of the Public Fund to Support NGOs and Other Civil Society Institutions, the Public Fund to Support Print Media and News Agencies, the Independent Institute for Monitoring the Formation of Civil Society (IIMFCS), the OSCE Project Coordinator in Uzbekistan, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Coordinator in Central Asia and the UNESCO Office in Uzbekistan.

Seventeen days full of the most diverse programs: six workshops and master classes with the participation of international experts at which will take part more than 100 staff members of non-governmental TV and radio broadcasting companies of the republic, international and national experts and guests.

Ludovic Petho and Regis Ghezelbash (France), Rene Falkner (Germany), Gytis Iodpusis (Lithuania), Andrei Zybkin (Russia), and Alfia Kharchenko (Uzbekistan) will share their experience in the production of media content.

Sevel social presentations devoted to “The Year of Healthy Mother and Child” will be presented by non-governmental NGOs.

More than 100 countries of the world annually celebrate World Press Freedom Day proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993. Traditional Media Days will be marked in this connection at the Miron Hotel and at the Amir Temur Conference hall of the International Hotel Tashkent, within the frameowrk of which working meetings, round tables, presentations, festivals, and competitions will be conducteed.

The International conference on the subject “Mass Media as an important tool of public dialogue, ensuring the openness of the bodies of state power and administration” will become the main event of the days.

It’s also planned to organize the work of 4 sections prior to conducting the conference with the participation of leading national and international experts, journalists, editors and other representatives of non-governmental TV and radio broadcasters from all the regions of the countries for ensuring the successful and fruitful work of the International conference and for getting maximum efficient practical and applied results.

The sectional meetings will be conducted on four topics:

- “Implementation of citizens’ Constitutional rights for information and raising the responsibility of the organs of state power and administration for the quality of taken decisions as an important factor for ensuring the freedom of speech and information”,

- “Role and significance of support and encouragement of the activities of media in the creation of socially-oriented media content aimed at securing the openness and transparency of government agencies’ activities”,

- “Modern media dimension technologies as a tool for assessment the efficiency of social partnertship projects”, and

“Practical aspects of ensuring the openness for the activities of the bodies of state power and administration through the segment of non-government printed and internet Mass Media”.

Proposals will be elaborated on consolidation the role and the significance of Mass Media in the implementation of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On the openness in the activities of the organs of state power and administration”, as well recommendations on the elaboration of iindicators for the assessment of Mass Media development”.

The basic provisions, practical recommendation and proposals on the problems of raising the role and significance of Mass Media in the formation of an efficient public dialogue between the government agencies and the civil society institutions, worked out at sectional meetings, will be presented on the 3rd of May for their further discussion and summing up the results of the International conference, which will serve as a platform for 120 national and international experts.

Within the framework of the event it is planned to discuss practical aspects of realization of the tasks outlined by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the Concept for further deepening democratic reforms and shaping up the civil society in the country; problems of raising the efficiency of Mass Media activities in ensuring the execution of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On the openness of the organs of state power and administration” and such other legal acts in this sphere; examine the international practices and study the recommendation on the problems of raising the role and significance of Mass Media in building up an effective concept of public dialogue and social partnership securing the onward advacement of democratic processes and further formation of civil society.

The conference expects the presentation by the National Association of Electronic Mass Media of its project on economic support of transition to digital broadcastiing of its members – non-government TV and Radio Stations.

The Media Days program envisages the particpation of the guests in the prize awarding ceremony of winners of the 9th “Oltin qlam” national award.

A traditional “Jurnalistlar bahori-2016” Festival will be held in Tashkent on the 3rd of May, the World Press Freedom Day. The festival will also iinvite the participants and guests of the NAEMM Media Days take part in the prize awarding ceremony of the best employees of the non-government TV and Radio channels and in the pilaff competion in compliance with the best traditions of the regions of the country. Journalists from all over Uzbekistan will present their national costumes, culinary traditions and customs of different regions of the country. The guests of the Festival will be able to taste 13 types of pilaff from 13 regions of the country: the most famous chefs and reporters from all the regions of the country will compete  in the pilaff cooking contest to identify the best among them in cooking the main dish of the evening. 

A training seminar entitled “International practices in the creation of social video reels: specific features and innovation” has already started at the “Bunyodkor” youth complex within the framework of the Media Days, which is facilitated by French documentarist Lui Peto. He is a well-known film directos and a cameraman with a rich professional expereinice and an executive producer of the “Panorama Worldwide” media company.

It was emphasized at the opening of the workshop that the NAEMM prroject on the creatioon of socially-significant media product had started up in March 2014. Taking part in it are creative groups from the capital city and the regions of the country. They represent young and promising journalists, cameramen and editors, who raised the level of their qualification at trainings with the participation of prominent national and foreign specialists. 700 social video reels have been producing during the past period.

Theoretical and practical trainings will be conduted during the workshop, wh ere the participants will get acquainted with the new forms and methods of producing social media output on international level, and will abe able to further increase their professional skills. With consideration of received knowledge and skills the young TV journalists will prepare their own social video reels.

“This is my second visit to uzbekistan,” said Petho in an interview with an Uzbekistan Today correspodent. “I had already conducted a seminar here in 2015 devoted to new approaches to production of media output in covering ecological problems. In my opinion, the NAEMM has been conducting large-sale work on rasing TV journslists’ practical knowledge and continuously improving the style and quality of presented information. The youth full of so many interesting creative ideas prevail among creative and technical staff.”