On June 12-13, 2014 a 2—day «round table» for journalists «Forced Migration Issues in Mass Media» took place in the Sport Centre Logoisk. Event’s goal is to attract republican and regional Belarusian mass media journalists to refugee and forced migration issues, to get them acquainted with the major coverage aspects which are necessary for preparation of the materials concerning this topic, and also to avert mistakes and inaccuracies in the future for the avoidance of difficulties with representatives of other nationalities who for now suffer enough from being without home and family.
The UNHCR Office in Belarus and regional representation of the UNHCR in Moldova, Ukraine in Belarus, Refugee Counseling Service, Centre for Supplementary Instruction «Evrika», Belarusian Red Cross Society, republican and regional mass media representatives.
The «round table» opening started with the welcoming speeches from Mr. Jean Yves Bouchardi, the UNHCR Representative in the Republic of Belarus, and Mr. Victor Shadurski, the Head of the INA «Evolutio» Observation Board. In their speeches they underlined the importance of journalists in the modern society and noted that they expect new ideas and active discussions as a result of this event.
In the major theoretical part of the first day of the event the organisations’ representatives dealing with the refugee issues took the floor. They told about the efforts which they undertake at the national level in order to help forced migrants and problems which they face during their work. At the end of the first day Mr. Andrey Selivanov, INA «Evolutio» Executive Director, and Mr. Maksim Butkevich, specialist in the International Journalism, enlightened journalists on the specialized terminology and touched upon the major guiding aspects concerning the writing process of information and publicistic materials on refugee issue.
Aliaksandr Velikarodnau, Programme Associate of the UNHCR Representation in the Republic of Belarus, reported on the UNHCR in general, presented the main aid directions in the Republic of Belarus for 2013—2015 and projects, told about the UNHCR mandated persons in Belarus and about the long-term decisions for refugees.
Further on, Natallia Karkanitsa, Legal Coordinator of the Refugee Counseling Service, informed on the organization's functioning, provision of assistance to refugees and stateless persons, decision of the accommodation problem and on the protection situation monitoring. During the presentation statistics information on provided consultations by Service was also presented.
Valentina Mostovlyanskaya, Deputy Director of the CCA «Evrika», reported about this organization's activities in the framework of tolerant attitude education towards refugee children with the help of multicultural pedagogy means. She presented the project «Integration and adaptation of refugee children and teenagers», which goal is to help refugee children to become a citizen enjoying full rights in our country. She also demonstrated several videos recorded by refugee children and spoke about the exhibition of children's art works «Budzem razam» («Let’s be together») which was opened on 4th June, 2014. She also invited all the participants of the "round table" and journalists to see the gala concert of CCA "Evrika", which is an annual event devoted to World Refugee Day, where children, both refugee and Belarusian, show the best performances in front of the general public.
Inna Lemeshevskaya, Deputy General Secretary of the Belarusian Red Cross Society, focused on the joint project of UNHCR and BRCS concerning the integration of refugees in Belarus and events that accelerate and stimulate this process. The work with detained migrants was not left without attention.
Nina Sorokopud, Associate Regional Public Information Officer UNHCR, regional representation for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, introduced a presentation «Refugees in Mass Media: One Thousand and One Story», where she told about refugees’ destinies and coverage of these stories in mass media all over the world, about goodwill ambassadors, the stories of successful integration of refugees in Ukraine and the temporary stay of refugees.
On the second day of the «round table» the training for journalists was scheduled, which was held by Maksym Butkevich, Media Trainer, NGO Social Action «No Borders». With extensive experience in international journalism Maksym Butkevich shared with the participants the main «pitfalls» that a journalist may face in the process of preparation of the materials on forced migration.
The participants of the event were divided into 4 groups. Each of the groups received two tasks, the one task suggested to analyze the proposed text on the stylistic and meaningful errors. The participants got down to business with enthusiasm. As a second task the journalists were asked to do an editorial job on the following subjects:
1. Why should Belarus protect refugees?
2. Several European countries, including the Republic of Belarus, has agreed to take refugees from Syria
3. Ukraine 2014: the first crisis of internally displaced persons in Eastern Europe
4. From the «illegal» to the «citizen»: a personal history of citizen X from Afghanistan
According to the results of the event the resume of works in the groups and the results of the «round table» were summed up and individual consultations were held.