2003 Embassy Events
April 10, TELEVISION EXPERT REACHES GEORGIAN-ARMENIAN AUDIENCE
On April 10, FSA speaker and media expert Karl Idsvoog addressed an audience of more than 50 students and professors at the university in Akhaltsikhe, the region in southeast Georgia populated mostly by ethnic Armenians. Idsvoog stressed the significance of free media in a democracy and spoke at length about the benefits highly qualified journalists bring to a society. He also cited examples of successful investigative television stories in the United States and described how the media gains financial independence by operating as a business - an essential topic for fledgling media community in Georgia’s provinces. “The university dean invited journalism students first, but the entire humanitarian department joined in. We all wanted to ask questions,” said one of the students. Akhaltsike was the last of five regions where Karl Idsvoog visited to train local television news producers. PAS invited Karl to train five independent regional and two Tbilisi television stations over the period of eight weeks within the framework of the Professional-in-Residence program.