PANJAKENT, July 12, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- A seminar for local journalists on web journalism was held in the northern city of Panjakent on July 11.  

The event was staged by local NGO Women of East under financial support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.  

The seminar trainer Zuhra Sharipova told Asia-Plus that the objective of the seminar was to involve the Panjakent journalists in using Internet and give them a basic understanding of the technical means of creating web content.   

According to her, the seminar participants discussed the following themes: variety of media; Internet as means of media; e-mail and access to it; sites and methods to create sites; level of Internet journalism in Tajikistan; access of journalists to Internet journalism; and Internet publications.  

The seminar is part of the project designed for six months and including four seminars: web journalism; legal aspects; ethical norms of journalism; and censorship and self-censorship.  

The NGO Women of East has worked in the Zarafshon Valley for more than ten years in cooperation with and under financial support of international organizations such as IREX, OSCE, and UNDP.  The NGO is aimed to support development of in the Zarafshon Valley, including creation of new jobs and legal education for local women.  

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is a non-governmental (NGO), non-profit organization which monitors compliance with the human rights provisions of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) within all OSCE signatory states and supports initiatives to strengthen democracy and civil society.  The work of the Committee is based on the Helsinki Declaration that was signed in 1975.  The Declaration states that respect for human rights is a fundamental factor in the development of peace and understanding between states.