Armenian Journalists were Trained at "The Internet Literacy and Information Security" Workshop

The workshop entitled “Internet Literacy and Information Security” organized by the “Journalists for the Future” NGO (JFF) was held on July 19-21, 2014 within the framework of the “Free, Reliable and Secure Online Information for All” project supported by the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

The workshop organized in Aghveran was attended by 16 journalists from Yerevan and from other regions of Armenia. It aimed to provide the participants with fundamental knowledge regarding the Internet security and to increase the level of their Internet literacy with the help of proficient specialists.

“Also it is very important for us that as a result of this workshop the issues, tendencies and challenges anyhow concerning the Internet, the free and secure exchange of information flows are kept in the spotlight of journalists and actively covered by them during their professional activities,” JFF president Suren Deheryan said.  

According to him, the active coverage of such kind of issues will help to evoke interest towards this field among the society fostering the increase of the level of their awareness.

Oliver McCoy, Democratization Program Officer at the OSCE Office in Yerevan, expressing his gratitude to JFF for organizing such kind of workshop, hoped that the participants will put into practice the obtained knowledge during their future activity.

According to him, nowadays the development of information technologies has a great role, and good countries are those which are able to give a place to IT changes.

“It is important for us that the journalists could provide the society with qualified information thanks to the knowledge obtained during the workshop. Media field nowadays is very various, but it does not mean that it is not under the danger of attack,” McCoy noted adding that the journalists have the possibility to understand how they can improve their work and literacy related to new technologies.

Workshop participant Srbuhi Grigoryan, editor of “The Voice of Sisian” newspaper, believes that it is very difficult to catch up the changes in the era of technology development, and regardless of self education, time after time there is a need for specialists’ assistance.

“With this regard, I greatly evaluate this workshop: journalists should be more protected in the Internet to avoid information overflow and not to be interrupted in the half way of writing an article,” Grigoryan emphasized adding that further she is going to use the Internet and digital devices maximally following the rules of information security.  

“My expectations from the workshop are justified, and they must be organized more often. Surely, I advice my colleagues to take part in such kind of workshops: they are necessary for all journalists,” Grigoryan mentioned.

Trainers Arthur Papyan and Suren Deheryan, media experts, as well as IT expert Mickael Ghazaryan referred to the impact of convergence media and elements of the Internet security, policy of the media outlets in the Internet, journalists' behavior and other topics. 

In the beginning of the workshop the participants were sure that they have sufficient knowledge to securely and effectively use digital devices and the Internet, however during the workshop they had to change their opinions.

“It was found out that the participants’ knowledge was quite poor,” Edvard Arzumanyan, editor of Lorinews.am mentioned and added, “At the beginning we graded us 3 and 4, but during the workshop we understood that, in fact, it was minus infinity. Though I have looked through the agenda beforehand and was sure that we would deal with experienced specialists, I did not expect to obtain such multilateral and detailed knowledge on the Internet security.”

Arzumanyan was more interested in the topics related to information security and formation of a personal brand in the Internet, which, he says, will be applied on the website coordinated by him.

“I would like the conduction period of similar workshops to be a bit longer, as far as the topic is very urgent, and it is difficult to pick up the information in two days,” mentioned the journalist adding that regional journalists are more vulnerable regarding the Internet security.

Gevorg Hayrapetyan, coordinator of the website of “Sharavigh” TV company in Goris, highlighted the importance of such kind of workshops mentioning that with the help of the experts he got informed about the new tools providing Net security which will enable to avoid dangers on the Internet being more armed in online platform.

Worth mentioning that it was the second workshop organized by JFF within the framework of the “Free, Reliable and Secure Online Information for All” project. In June JFF organized another workshop entitled “The Internet Rights and Security” for the civil society representatives of Yerevan and other regions funded by the OSCE Office in Yerevan and Counterpart International Representation in Armenia. The workshop aimed to provide the participants with fundamental knowledge on the legal boundaries of free expression in the Internet as well as on the evasion from information security issues and protection from undesirable intervention.

The workshop photos can be accessed here.  

"Journalists for the Future" NGO