Journalists from Turkmenistan complete OSCE-organized study visit to Lithuania

VILNIUS, 3 October 2014 – Five journalists from Turkmenistan’s print and online media discussed modern journalism practices on an OSCE-organized study visit to the Republic of Lithuania which concluded today in Vilnius.

The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, in close co-operation with the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, organized the four-day visit to facilitate the exchange of experiences in the area of media development and expose journalists from Turkmenistan to the work of print and online media outlets in Lithuania.

“Enhancing professional skills of journalists and facilitating the exchange of international practices are important conditions for media development”, said Ambassador Ivo Petrov, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.

“The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat initiated this project to support the host Governments’ efforts to further advance the professional capacity of Turkmenistan’s journalists. We believe that the study visit provided participants with an excellent opportunity to exchange views on the role of the media in the modern world and discuss practical aspects of journalism with their Lithuanian counterparts”.

The journalists from Turkmenistan had meetings with representatives of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry and Union of Journalists as well as a number of news agencies and online and print media outlets, such as ELTA, the Baltic News Agency BNS, “Delfi” and newspaper 'Lietuvos zinios'. The meetings highlighted specifics of journalism in the new media environment, the rights and duties of journalists and modern journalism methods and techniques.

The agenda of the visit included training sessions held at the media hub of the  European Humanities University in Vilnius. The journalists discussed objectives of new media in society and practiced writing techniques for different types of media as well as methods of news gathering and verification.

The visit was organized as part of the OSCE Centre’s extra budgetary project “Enhancing professional skills of journalists and media specialists”, which is fully funded by the British Embassy in Turkmenistan.