Iran: Climate Change and Peace Journalism

elisabe on 16. March 2017

Leader of JMIC, Elisabeth Eide, and the Afghan delegation.

In end February/early March, Dagny Stuedahl and Elisabeth Eide visited partner institution Faculty of Communication Sciences and Media Studies at Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Teheran. A workshop was held on Media and Climate Change – and on Peace Journalism, with colleagues from Afghanistan. The attendance was good and the discussion lively and creative, demonstrating that media pay too little attention to climate change perils – and to peaceful solutions to conflict.

JMIC’s representatives also visited the newspaper belonging to the IAU, and ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency), and were received by Prof. Hamid Mirzadeh, President of the whole university, which has more than 1.5 million students, at home and abroad.

From the left: Dean Seyed Vahid Aqili, Dagny Stuedahl, Director Haid Mirzadeh, Elisabeth Eide og Terje Skaufjord (accompanying partner).

New book about what cell phones means to refugees

elisabe on 15. March 2017

An increasingly important traveling companion for people fleeing is the cell phone. It is a friend who provides many kinds of services during long and dangerous journeys from war and persecution. In these stories, the cell phone forms the core, woven into the larger stories of the lives of the eighteen interviewed. The book shows how important modern technology can be in precarious situations in which people are at the mercy of traffickers, police, border guards and changing weather conditions. Through this, stories about the journey and life in “no man’s land” between absolute insecurity and relative safety, are told. Two of the authors look back on their flight ten years ago when technology played a somewhat smaller role, yet the situations that arose were equally harsh.

Read about the event in Khrono (in Norwegian only)

 

 

 

Women, Media and Communication Revolution Challenges Conference

elisabe on 20. February 2017

JMIC´s partner institution An-Najah National University hosted a conference on gender and journalism in Nablus in Palestine on February 14.

Kristin Skare Orgeret gave the keynote speech and presented a paper on women journalists in conflict and war at the conference.

In addition to a number of local journalists and women’s rights activists journalist Francesca Borri attended the conference and shared some of her experiences as a war reporter.

Teacher of photojournalism Bernt Eide also attended the conference. He currently teaches in Nablus and has been engaged in cooperation with An-Najah University for many years.

Kristin Skare Orgeret also attended the launch of a new Palestinian policy paper on media reform in Ramallah.

Successful course on journalist security

elisabe on 8. February 2017

Two of Norway’s leading experts on journalist security, Trond Idås and Marte Høiby, gave an introductory course in Kristiansand, Norway, 6 February. The course was aimed at journalists and programme staff members working in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Topics on the agenda were how to handle stressful situations and how to operate in conflict zones, and the course was well received among the 10 participants.

The course was a collaborative effort between JMIC and Strømme Foundation.

If you are interested in organizing a similar course, please contact us and we will taylor it to your needs.

Debating Free Expression

elisabe on 23. January 2017

Professor Elisabeth Eide

Read about the event covered by The Jakarta Post.

Under the headline Ten Years Debating Freedom of Expression – Looking Back, Looking Forward appr. 40 participants – both journalists and media academics – from twelve countries gathered in Jakarta 23 – 25 January.

The debates started after the controversies in the aftermath of the Muhammed caricatures published in Jyllands-Posten. One of the initiatives was to invite journalists from a wide range of countries for dialogue conferences in Indonesia and Norway respectively. Now, more than ten years after the first Global Intermedia Dialogue (GIMD) conference was held in Indonesia, the ambition was to highlight experiences and look ahead.

The discussions focused on themes such as Hate Speech – Social media, Media and Marginalization – Gender, Religious, Ethnic and Sexual Minorities, Dialogue vs Confrontation, 20 Years after Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”, Terrorism – Extremism, The Post-Truth Era?– and last, but not least: How free is fiction? Literature and limits.

The conference was a cooperation between the Department of Communication, Universitas Indonesia and JMIC.

A publication with journalistic and academic contributions from this and a conference in March last year is planned.

 

Students from seven countries for MA-course in conflict journalism

elisabe on 16. January 2017

From South Sudan, Nepal, Iran, Pakistan and Palestine 13 students have arrived in Oslo to attend a course in journalism on globalization, war and peace at HiOA together with 11 students based in Norway.

The course will run from 16 January until 3 February. The students will learn different theories on globalization and conflict, the processes of media globalization and journalistic performances in war and conflicts.

Their teachers are JMIC staff Elisabeth Eide, Rune Ottosen, Kristin Skare Orgeret and Roy Krøvel, as well as editor Nawzat Shamdin from Iraq and the independent journalist Anders Sømme Hammer, who has done extensive work in Afghanistan – among others.

The students already have bachelor´s degrees, and will write a term paper or a reportage as part of their exam. More information about the course is available here.

JMIC to evaluate IAWRT

elisabe on 5. January 2017

A team with partners from Uganda and Norway will do the job, starting from a meeting with IAWRT representatives Friday 7 January.

The team is led by JMICs director Elisabeth Eide, and includes research associate Hanna Marie Knudsen (MA, Journalism Studies, HiOA), Prof. Goretti Linda Nassanga and research associate Brian Semujju, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

The evaluation work includes desk studies, interviews and polls, as well as field trips to selected chapters of the IAWRT.

Read more about IAWRT

Rune Ottosen in the National Commission for UNESCO

elisabe on 16. December 2016

JMIC staff member Rune Ottosen has been appointed as a member of the Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO in the period 2017-2020 by the Minister of Education and Research Torbjørn Røe Isaksen.

The new Commission has eight members from different academic and civil sectors. The composition of the Commission reflects the four disciplines UNESCO: education, science, culture and communication.

The National Commission’s mandate is to promote UNESCO’s ideas and make UNESCO known in the Norwegian society. Co-operation with other National Commissions and international actors is a priority for the Commission. Read more

Master candidates graduate in Norhed project

elisabe on 2. December 2016

The first master candidates of the Norhed project “RUIICAY-HIOA Intercultural Communication Linkage” graduate this fall. The project is a university network collaboration aiming to increase institutional capacities on autonomous intercultural communication in education and research. The students learn how to address the challenges of indigenous people in Latin America from an intercultural or journalistic perspective, and how journalism and media can facilitate respectful dialogue between people and cultures.

The courses of the program circulate between Ecuador, Colombia, and Nicaragua, and the 21 master candidates represent all three countries.

Read more about this in HiOA’s newspaper Khrono (in Norwegian only).

Visitors from media in Angola

elisabe on 25. November 2016

They are attending a course in human rights organized by International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI) for the third time in Norway 21 – 25 November.

The delegation´s visit is part of a larger human rights project focusing on capacity building in international human rights standards and mechanisms. The theme of this course is journalism, freedom of expression, privacy, defamation, ethics and mechanisms for self-regulation and complaints.

The participants represents the Journalist´s Association, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Social Communication Ministry and civil society organizations in Angola, according to ILPI advisor Anja S. Østgård.