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Structured dialogue among journalists
The high point of this project, funded by HasNa Inc. was the organization of a structured democratic dialogue to support a diverse group of journalists identify the obstacles they face in doing their job in Cyprus. The results are documented in:
Activities and results
Facilitate two structured dialogue closed-door conferences
- Organize two follow-up, closed-door conferences (to the media co-lab that transpired in December 2008) with a total of 24 journalists – 12 from each side of the island. Journalists worked together to finalize a vision of a future media landscape in Cyprus and to develop an action plan with steps towards a feasible transformation of the existing media landscape
- Provide the opportunity to prominent journalists and experts in Cyprus to produce a shared, clear and strong vision for an ideal media landscape. The envisioned ideal situation will hopefully serve as a magnet to mobilize a chain of actions that will facilitate positive transformation.
- Diagnose and explore the action items/tools revealing in the current Cypriot media landscape.
The Greek Cypriot experience
Upon setting the date for the for the Greek Cypriot (GC) workshop invitations were written in Greek and distributed to over 100 media professionals in Cyprus. When the head of Union of Cypriot Journalists received the invitation he responded in an unexpected way. A letter was written demanding that we cease our project immediately. The reasons given were:
- There are no problems with journalism ethics in Cyprus
- Even if there were problems with journalism ethics in Cyprus it should be addressed and handled by the journalists themselves
- A foreign organisation should not be interfering with the inner workings of the media in Cyprus
The letter specifically named project director Larry Fergeson as an outside agitator and agent provocateur who should be avoided in all instances. The head of the Union of Cypriot Journalists then demanded that no union members take part in the project under threat of exposure and retaliation. The letter was also submitted to the GC parliament.
These developments seriously hindered our ability gather participants and facilitate the follow-up, closed-door conference in the South. Only one GC participant agreed to attend and he is actually employed at Eastern Mediterranean University which is a Turkish Cypriot (TC) university. The follow-up, closed-door conference in the South was cancelled after consultations with CNTI director Yiannis Laouris.
The Turkish Cypriot experience
Efforts in North Cyprus were much better received and there was renewed hope that we could continue on with a large part of the project and produce useful, valid results. Two well-known and respected leaders in the TC media, Hasan Kahvecioglu and Ozcan Ozcanhan, were engaged and provided assistance to the project by helping to contact other members of the TC media. The consultations were an expression of their support for our endeavours. In Cypriot culture this is invaluable as local support is very helpful in achieving positive results. Several meetings were set up with the respected leaders and communication was frequent. The project team also created invitations in Turkish and distributed these to over 75 media professionals in the North. Follow-up phone calls were made and assurances of participation were given.
Ozcan bey was the most active and through his efforts many developments occurred: 1. we arranged a sit down meeting with the owner of Genç TV to discuss the station’s operations as a community supported television station and their participation in our project; 2. We had an audience with Mehmet Ali Talat, the President of Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. We provided the president with our project materials and informed him of our activities.
What originally was thought of as a benefit of this meeting ironically ended up being a negative development for the project. The next day after the meeting and because of its high profile, TAK, Türk Ajansı Kıbrıs (in English, Turkish News Agency-Cyprus), the official government news agency called the project team to announce their support for the project. They told us they sent out a message to all media outlets in the north requesting they participate in our project. This is where a miscommunication or mistranslation of the language occurred that seriously damaged the effectiveness of the project. We thought the affect of the TAK press release would increase our participation rates. However, the media understood this as a call to come and cover the event and not as an invitation to participate. On the day of the event at the appointed time, nearly 20 media professional showed at the Saray hotel. Initially, we were thrilled as we thought all would stay. However, the 3 television stations, 4 radio stations and an international reporter were only there to cover the story. Thus, we were left with only 7 participants, but we went ahead as scheduled. During the first break, the project team started making phone calls to the media professionals who agreed to participate as well as the media who showed up to cover the event and find out where they were. 10 of these phone calls were successful as the media professionals agree to come the next day. Therefore, we decided to go ahead with the next day’s workshop. However, none of the 10 showed the next day. Nonetheless, we went forward and completed the work shop with 7 participants which was not enough to produce valid scientific results.
Put together a set of guidelines
A Guidelines Book for journalists in Cyprus was drafted called The Peace & Media handbook: Cypriot Peace Journalism. The booklet shares good practices and potential steps towards a new media world. It was disseminated among the main stakeholders related to media on both sides.