Seeking peace, and peace journalism, in Kyrgyzstan


Active participants at Generation Peace conference



45 NGO leaders and journalists from across central Asia are gathering this week in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan (see photo--wow!) to learn about new media and, at least today, peace journalism.



My two hour presentation this morning was exhilarating, at least for me, thanks to the high energy and keen interest of the participants. It was one of those seminars where, if I had stopped to answer every question, my two hour session would have taken six hours.



Beach, Issyk Kul lake. Stunning!



The interest was keen, I suspect, in part because of unrest here in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, and because many of the participants are alumni of the Fulbright program.

The most vibrant discussions we had today were about what constitutes a terrorist, and about a Russian media article that demonstrated inflammatory, biased media.

Our morning session culminated with the participants producing scripts for a peace-themed public service announcement. The best one—a simple series of peace advocacy statements by women in their native tongue .

I’m looking forward to presentations tomorrow about the use of new and social media.