Arctic media debate was held in Helsinki
16.1.2014 17:44
On Wednesday 15th January the Barents Mediasphere project organized a media event at the International Press Club in Helsinki.
About 40 Finnish journalists participated in a professional
discussion. The theme was to find out what happens when a place like Murmansk
is suddenly a center of world interest. That was the case when the Greenpeace
crew was arrested and sent to custody in Murmansk.
The event had two media experts visiting from Murmansk:
Elena Larionova from Barents Press Russia, a network of journalists, and
journalist Sari Pöyhönen, who works at the Finnish Consulate in Murmansk but
who gave her personal reflections, telling how the Murmansk media seemed to
react to the episode.
“The conclusion of both speakers was that the regional media
coped well and provided news that in general was balanced, giving space for both
sides, official Russian and Greenpeace comments”, says Markku Heikkilä, head of
the Science Communications of the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland.
“This discussion proved that also local media operating with
small resources are able to provide a balanced picture in a complicated news
situation. This is good to know as it widens the general image of Russian
regional news among Finnish media”, says Markku Heikkilä.
The Barents Mediasphere project is led by the Science
Communications unit of the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland and financed by
the European Union’s Kolarctic ENPI cross-border co-operation programme. The
partners are the Internet news site BarentsObserver, run by the Norwegian
Barents Secretariat, and GTRK Murman, a regional radio and TV company of the
Russian state. The aim of the project is to promote cross-border communication
in the Barents Region. One of the tools is to get journalists and editors from
different countries to meet and discuss common questions and media practices.
More information:
Markku Heikkilä
Head of Science Communications, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland
markku.heikkila (at) ulapland.fi
Tel. +358 40 4844 300
www.barentsmediasphere.org
www.arcticcentre.org
www.pressiklubi.fi
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