The School of Advanced Journalism taught two courses last week: Ethics and Diversity in the Media and Media Law.

The two modules lasted six and five days, accordingly, and mostly focused on the best practices in journalistic ethics, as well as the legislation regulating the media in Moldova. The courses included both lectures and lively discussions of the students and the guests. Aided by the trainer, Nadine Gogu, the students worked on case studies, analyzed videos and articles, learning to identify how local media violate journalistic ethics. Lawyer Tatiana Puiu explained to the SAJ students what laws regulate the functioning of the media in our country, what relevant European practices there are, as well as the position of the ECHR regarding the freedom of expression and the limitations to the media.

'Often we have to choose between morality and personal interest. The Ethics course made me analyze my own moral principles, and also helped me to define what a professional journalist should be like, to identify the connection between morality and professional ethics. Thus, fairness, impartiality and objectivity ceased to be abstract concepts in the very moment when I realized that a thoughtless word can harm somebody's life,' said one of the students, Tatiana Lujanscaia.

Since they focused a lot on diversity at the Ethics course, the students enjoyed a number of meetings with the representatives of minority groups – Ion Duminica, the Head of Ethnic Minority Division at the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, and Angela Frolov, the representative of NGO GenderDoc-M. The students discussed about equal opportunities with Daniela Terzi-Barbăroşie, who is a gender expert.

'I have more clarity about intolerance now, due to these discussions. I realized that, whenever we write about someone, we need to see the person rather than the color of one's skin, sexual identity etc. We need to analyze the decisions and actions of a person rather than his racial, national or group identity,' said firmly Stela Boico, who is a SAJ student.

Nadine Gogu, the trainer of the course on Ethics and Diversity in the Media, stressed that it was crucial that aspiring journalists understand, amidst current challenges and ethical dilemmas in modern media, that the media may both help and harm. 'Quite often, rushing for sensational headlines and bigger audiences, many journalists disregard ethical and professional principles. Resorting to unorthodox methods of obtaining and disseminating information, without checking the facts and without making sure that their sources are balanced, they end up distorting the facts. I hope very much that the discussions during this course have helped the students to better understand that the truth is always in the middle and that they would begin to look critically at all press materials, learning from the mistakes of others,' concluded Nadine Gogu.

Next week at SAJ will begin with a module on Television Journalism, which will last four weeks. During that module, the students will work as a TV newsroom team.