On May 7, BIRN Bulgaria held a training session on minorities reporting for journalism students from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” with US-based journalist Andrew Lam.

Lam described the ethnic minority media scene in the context of US demographics and spoke of his experience as a writer an editor of New American Media – the largest national on-line collaboration of ethnic news organizations in the US. Some of the issues he highlighted were the fragmentation of the media sphere and the growing importance of alternative news sources, such as minority media and blogs. The students had the opportunity to ask questions relevant to the situation in Bulgaria.

This was the first of a week-long series of events organised by BIRN Bulgaria as part of its on-going minority reporting project.

On May 8 – 10, BIRN will conduct a three-day workshop sessions for six young Bulgarian journalists from around the country. The main lecturer of the workshop will be Lam, who will present the minorities’ situation in the US and discuss media developments, related to the coverage of minorities. He will also hold discussions with the participants on parallel developments in Bulgaria and participate in a brain-storming session for future stories.

On the last day of the training, the participants will meet with two other trainers. Tatyana Vaksberg, a journalist and expert on the Balkans, will discuss how the Bulgarian media can improve in their work with the minorities and whether ethnic media can go beyond the boundaries of their own ethnic societies. Velin Belev, a lecturer in the Oriental program at the New Bulgarian University, will speak about the structure and new tendencies and developments of the Bulgarian Muslims communities.

On May 11, he will have a meeting with editors-in-chief of Bulgarian ethnic media, where he will discuss his experience at New American Media and share good practices. This will be a chance for them to establish contact and means for future cooperation with BIRN and among themselves.

The events are part of a three-month-long minorities reporting project organized by BIRN, which began on April 20, 2007. The aim of the project is to address and counter cases of systematic campaigning against minorities and bad journalistic practices, of which Bulgarian media are often criticized. BIRN intends to develop a network of Bulgarian journalists to report on minority issues.

This project is part of BIRN Bulgaria’s long-term program to foster tolerance and mutual understanding in the country, through the dissemination of reliable and in-depth analyses on crucial topics and the improvement of Bulgarian media professionalism. It will also strengthen BIRN’s capacity and positively affect media in the Balkans, which widely republish the organization’s articles.