Journalism skills in focus of OSCE training in Turkmenistan

ASHGABAT, 13 November 2014 - More than twenty journalists from Turkmenistan participated in an OSCE-organized training course on journalism writing and editing skills that concluded in Ashgabat today.

The four-day course provided participants with an opportunity to exchange views on trends in modern journalism and enhance practical journalism skills, including writing, reporting, editing and interviewing skills.

“The training course is organized as part of the OSCE Centre’s project designed to promote contemporary international standards in journalism”, said Ambassador Ivo Petrov, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat. “Regular exchanges of practical experiences and journalism capacity building activities are essential for the media development and we believe that this course will contribute to the efforts of the host government in this important area”.

The training course brought together journalists representing newspapers and magazines from across the country, as well as journalism instructors from Turkmenistan’s institutions of higher education.

The topics addressed included news as the main media product and genre and changing format of news in the digital age, interview as a genre and method of fact gathering as well as differences between news and analytical articles. Participants also discussed the needs of audiences and language of modern media, including stylistics and linguistic usage and the importance to promote equality and tolerance. Practical exercises enabled participants to reinforce their skills of writing news and analytical articles, interviewing and editing as well as illustrating media products. 

The training course is part of the OSCE Centre’s extra budgetary project, which is fully funded by the British Embassy in Turkmenistan.