Andrew Lam was the main speaker of the workshop.

A frequent commentator for the most popular radio station in the US – the National Public Radio, writer in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, Lam is the typical successful journalist.

But his career has a completely original side to it too. Lam is a writer and editor of the world’s biggest on-line ethnic media portal – New America Media. In 2050, when the white population in the US is ecpected to be below the 50 per cent markv this may be the most powerful media organization on the planet. For now, it unifies around 2,500 ethnic media in the country and one of its goals is to help them get an adequate share in the advertising market.

Andrew Lam spoke about the techniques his organization uses, in order to decrease stereotypical reporting on the ethnic and religious minorities by the media of the majority. He gave positive and negative examples of a tolerant and responsible treatment of national media towards the ethnic minority groups.

For a summary of his presentation, see here.

Tatyana Vaksberg is a journalist in Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, the author of a documentary film on the forcible change of the names of Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks in the 1980’s and a book on the Hague International Tribunal and the process against Milosevic, Tatyana Vaksberg is an extraordinary speaker on themes connected to human rights and journalism ethics and practices.

The theme of the discussion she led was the implications of irresponsible and insensitive reporting on minorities, concerning racial, ethnic or religious differences. “In the end, the journalist’s responsibility is personal,” she said, illustrating her words with case of the genocide in Rwanda.

Over a three month period in 1994, the Hutu tribe kills almost a million members of the Tutsi minority group. After the fact, the special tribunal for Rwanda ruled that Hassan Ngeze, founder and editor of Kangura newspaper, was responsible for the bloodshed. The court found the negative assertions in the newspaper to have been sincere, and even partly justifiable, but ruled that they were an unambiguous criminal act, which led to the genocide.

For a summary of her presentation, see here.

Velin Belev is an oriental scholar who teaches at New Bulgarian University and is one of the Orientalia magazine’s founders. He is an expert on the Muslim community in Bulgaria and an analyst of the development in that community.

Belev’s presentation concerned some of the peculiarities of Islam, which determine the different social behavior of that religious community. He offered the participants a new perspective on that community, which may lead to a more understanding and interested treatment.

He touched upon the challenge of reporting on the Bulgarian Muslim communities and the difficulties they have with nominating an elite who can represent them. A point he raised was the Muslim community’s sensitivity towards the Bulgaria media’s chaotic and indistriminate use of terms, such ‘Islamists’, ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘terrorists’.

For a summary of his presentation, see here.