KHOROG, August 18, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A five-day seminar entitled “Media’s Legal Activity and Human Rights” concluded in Khorog, the capital of Gorno Badakhshan on August 16.

Staged by local Civic Society Support Center, Kalam, the seminar brought together journalists from all districts of the region to discuss issues related to legal regulations of media, journalist’s rights and duties, basic principles of behavior of journalists, access to information, the right to get and release information, etc.

According to Mahmadali Chorshanbiyev, a lawyer at Tajikistan’s Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law who conducted the seminar, conducting such a seminar in Gorno Badakhshan is very timely.  “Taking into consideration that there are no journalists support centers in the region, we have decided to raise legal awareness of local journalists through conducting such a consultative training,” he said.

The Kalam head Buribek Buribekov noted that the seminar had been conducted in the framework of the project, Freedom of Speech is Way to Development of Civil Society, under financial support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

Earlier, similar seminars had been conducted for other groups of civil society, including representatives of NGOs and political parties, he said.