Conference for journalists in the South Caucasus, 8-11 December

TBILISI, 6 December 2000 - A three-day conference for Abkhaz, Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Nagorno Karabakh and South Ossetian journalists will be held at the Gudauri Conference Centre, Georgia from 8 to 11 December. Participants will discuss the formation of the South Caucasian Journalists' Association. The conference is organized by the OSCE Mission to Georgia and supported by the Swedish government.

The focus of the seminar will be on the support of journalists' rights, raising professionalism in journalism, advocating the principle of freedom of speech, and supporting information flows free of ideological influence.

The OSCE Mission to Georgia, in co-operation with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, has organised several round tables and projects to promote professional journalism and increase awareness of journalists' rights in the Caucasus since 1997.

The OSCE Mission to Georgia was established in December 1992 to promote negotiations aiming at the peaceful political settlement of the conflicts in South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region and Abkhazia, Georgia.

For more information, contact Peter Selepec, Press Officer of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, Old Parliament Building, 3rd Floor, Room 302, Tbilisi, telephone/fax ++995 3298 99 04, mobile ++ 995 99 51 95 01, e-mail oscepo@access.sanet.ge