At the opening of this workshop, the importance of the role of young journalists in advancing media standards was emphasized. At the same time, the need for continuous strengthening of the capacities of the young journalists and improvement of the working conditions in the newsrooms in order to build credible media with integrity and influence was also highlighted.
The new publication “Young journalists as a chance for a new era of media with integrity and influence”, which can be downloaded for free from the website of the publishers, KAS and AJM, was presented in the first part of the workshop.
The workshop, which was implemented in the form of a debate forum followed by some practical work, was run by journalist and co-founder of the Investigative Reporting Laboratory (IRL) Saška Cvetkovska, and journalist from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), Ana Petruševa.
Saška Cvetkovska, introduced IRL’s working concept and spoke to the young journalists about the process of preparing research stories and the innovations in presenting them. At the same time, Cvetkovska introduced the participants to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – OCCRP, as well as the latest topics covered by the IRL as a newsroom, related to high corruption and abuse of power.
The journalist, Ana Petruševa, shared her personal experiences from her many years of work in journalism, pointing out the problems and challenges that journalists and media workers have faced and are still facing. In that context, Petrusheva pointed out that there are fewer and fewer young journalists, and that many newsrooms face a serious problem in finding new staff. She stressed the importance of this type of training, which enable young journalists not only to gain new knowledge but also to exchange views with more experienced colleagues regarding professional standards and red lines in the profession.
David Ilievski, researcher and producer at IRL, as well as Luka Blažev, graphic designer at IRL, as guest speakers at the workshop, addressed the participants on the topic “Creating an infrastructure for analytical skills, research techniques, data collection and organising research – Meet Aleph”.
The journalist, Srećko Popovski, emphasized in his presentation that workshops of this kind contribute towards better understanding among young journalists of the differences between the so-called ordinary and in-depth journalism. According to him, the young journalists at this workshop got better acquainted with the research tools available to them, and how they are used, but also with the standards and principles that should be observed when preparing the topics, they work on.
The three-day workshop, which took place from July 22 to 24 in Ohrid, was attended by journalists from several newsrooms, covering both traditional and new media. During the workshop, experiences on the development of journalism were shared, as well as the problems and challenges in the journalistic profession. The three-day workshop was concluded with an initiative to establish a section for young journalists within AJM.
