Embassy Events
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| Afghan journalists came to visit Handlova's TV station |
Handlova TV Brings Democracy Building to Afghanistan
The civic association, On Your Side, a Slovak NGO established in Prievidza near Handlova, used a grant from the American Embassy in Slovakia to further the establishment of democratic institutions in Afghanistan. By sending a group of Slovak journalists from the local Handlova TV station to share their hard-earned reporting skills, civic association On Your Side helped transplant freedom of the press ideas, without which democracy cannot survive, from Slovakia to Afghanistan.
The first round of training, which took place in 2005 and 2006, included a twelve-day visit by Branislav Cukan and Miroslav Majer -- both journalists at Handlova’s 3.TV station -- to the multi-ethnic region of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. The purpose of the training was to impart professional skills including training in state-of-the art digital video production and post-production technology in order to strengthen regional media development in Kunduz. As part of the project, prior to the Slovak journalists going to Kunduz, a group of six Afghan journalists and cameramen came to Slovakia for a two-week long course aimed at sharing ideas in freedom of information, balanced and fair news production, as well as mutual relations between local media and local government.
The director of TV and Radio Kunduz stated that all the premises were available to the Slovak journalists to allow this project to flourish. On October 2007, with the most recent grant from U.S. Embassy, Jozef Pavelka and Miroslav Majer from 3.TV station went to Kunduz to train twelve journalists there, including anchors, reporters, cameramen and editors for a total of eleven days. Slovakia, which has just recently celebrated its 18th Democratic birthday, had a wealth of advice to share about its venture into democracy.
