CITIZEN JOURNALISM E-MEDIA PROGRAM

With financial assistance from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EPF launched a 2-year Citizen Journalism E-Media program in Azerbaijan in January 2011. The goal of the program was to aid the development of free, independent media in Azerbaijan by introducing alternative means of collecting and sharing information. The program aimed to achieve this goal by (1) empowering, educating, and providing technical assistance to civil society and media organizations and (2) promoting independent electronic media and encouraging the free flow of unbiased information in Azerbaijan. Because the need for unbiased, high-quality information was greatest in the regions, the program focuses on 10 target regions outside of Baku.

The program developed a group of active citizens possessing the skills needed to exploit non-traditional media. Project activities aimed at empowering, educating, and providing technical assistance to civil society and media organizations and  also encouraged participants from throughout the country to engage with each other to exchange lessons learned and best practice. In the framework of the program the participants were expected to undergo extensive training sessions and produced media products which will be highly publicized to showcase the advantages of alternative means of collecting and sharing information.