DUSHANBE, October 20, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- A two-day training seminar, formally titled “Access to Information: Rights and Responsibility,” for journalists from central and regional media began at Tajik Journalists’ Union in Dushanbe today 

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the Journalists’ Union executive secretary Poulod Nourov said that the seminar is conducted by the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit) under financial support of the Internews Network Tajikistan.  

The main objective of the seminar is to promote raising professionalism and legal awareness of journalists and consider issues related to getting reliable information while applying to the state institutions, the executive secretary said.  

“Besides, the goals of the seminar are also to involve representative of media in a wide public discussion of that subject and encourage journalists to study and comprehend national and international norms and laws regulating issues of free access to information,” Nourov said, noting that practice has shown that the level of legal awareness of journalists leaves much to be desired.