|
On the 8th April 2005 the youth journalists and
the editors from the GPKT newsletter ‘Youth Bridges’ met in Kumanovo
the day after the first issue of the tri-lingual youth newsletter
was delivered from the printers. 33 youngsters discussed the
achievements and challenges faced in the work on the first issue and
agreed on topics for the second issue in this pilot phase of three
bi-monthly publications.
On the 9th and 10th April the young journalists from the four GPKT
municipalities took part in an Interactive Training on Journalism
Skills, focussing on interviewing and investigative techniques, as
well as on reporting and story writing. The participants worked in
four teams competing for the first prize for best journalistic
performance.
|
|
The training was a follow-up to the one-day Basic Journalism Skills
Training held in January in Kumanovo. While the first training aimed at
introducing participants to news writing and interviewing, the second
course allocated more time for practical exercises on interview
technique, information gathering and work with different sources. The
young journalists also wrote stories on the events taking place during
their stay in Kumanovo.
The 3-day programme included a number of social activities allowing the
participants to interact and make friends across state, ethnic and
linguistic borders. Following the popularity of this accommodation
arrangement at the last training, a ‘home stay’ system was again
organised for this event, allowing participants from Kosovo and Serbia
to stay with their peers living in Kumanovo. The highlight of the
training was a fancy dress party at a local café with Albanian, Serbian
and Macedonian music. “Behind the mask were hiding faces of young people
who did not see ethnic, religious or language differences”, wrote one of
the groups in their report on the party.
The training welcomed for the first time Serb participants from
Gjilan/Gnjilane municipality (the Kosovar Serb young journalists
involved in the newsletter had been unable to make the January meeting),
who easily integrated in the group and demonstrated a keen interest in
writing articles for the newsletter. As a participant from Novo Brdo,
Gjilan/Gnjilane municipality, commented, “Socialising was great. Not for
a moment did I feel any hate or coldness - no matter what people think
of Serbs, Albanian or Macedonians in general”.
Supported jointly by EWI and Inter-ethnic Project Kumanovo (IPK), ‘Youth
Bridges’ is an initiative of the GPKT Youth Council, written by the
young journalists themselves and disseminated to high school and college
students in GPKT. The first issue covered a variety of issues, including
nightlife in the various towns, the risk of HIV, education problems and
interesting sites around the GPKT region. The second issue will give
centre stage to the ‘Proms’ and plans of this year’s high school
graduates from the micro-region.
|
