Participants VALDIP 2018

Gohar Hayrapetyan

is currently affiliated at an Armenian-based weekly newspaper “Champord”. In previous time Ms. Hayrapetyan worked as an author, a scriptwriter and a hostess of the “Apolitika” program at the Yerkir Media television, as an editor-in-chief and an art director on the imyerevan.com.

She holds BA and MA in Russian Literature from Yerevan State University. Ms. Hayrapetyan is alumni of Yerevan School of Political Studies and the Professional Experience and International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Eleonora Begoyan

Is a public management professional with 3 years’ experience in international relations, the Eastern Partnership countries’ youth policy and in domestic affairs of Armenia as well.

Actually, Ms. Begoyan is president of the “Open Borders” Institute of Peace, Democracy and Development based in Armenia. Her field of interests included political disillusionment, social turbulence and inequality, peace and security, gender issues, and public policy related to human mobility, migration and border security.

Azer Hasret

is an Azerbaijani journalist with more than 25 years of experience in media field. He is a member of International Press Institute based in Vienna, Austria. Mr. Hasret is one of the founder members of the Azerbaijan Press Council and a member of the Azerbaijan Public Broadcasting Council as well. His field of interests is politics, international relations, media, human rights and migration issues. Mr. Hasret lives in Baku, Azerbaijan and writes in English, Turkish, Russian and Azerbaijani languages.

Nurana Mammad

is a journalist from Azerbaijan. She holds BA and MA degrees in English Linguistics. As a child, Nurana has a dream to be a journalist. Nowadays, she does everything to make her dream comes true. Nurana has collaborated with different local and international media outlets in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Scotland, and has over five years´ experience in print and online journalism. Her area of interests are political and social issues such as human rights, migration, civic diplomacy, women activism and ethnic minorities. She is currently implementing her own media project.

Zulfiyya Safkhanova

is a media professional specialised in video and photo journalism. She holds certificate of the Baku School of Journalism from 2013. Next year she is going to work for an Azerbaijani local media as a video journalist.

At the current time, Ms. Safkhanova is a freelancer at the jam-news.net and a volunteer in some peacebuilding projects in her country.

Khatia Kardava

Khatia Kardava works in Civil Society sector since 2012. Currently she works for IDP Women Association “Consent” (https://www.idpwa.org). The organization works with IDPs, conflict affected population, women and youth. Main directions of activities are: informal education; advocacy of IDP problems; medical and juridical consultations. Ms. Kardava works with youth from conflict areas. Ms. Kardava holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Tbilisi State University. Also, she has journalistic experience, she was writing analytical articles on politics for English language newspaper “The Messenger” in Georgia. Her field of interests are Peace and Conflict studies, Human Security and Gender.

Yana Israelyan

is a journalist with 10 years’ experience in conflicts and migration issues, South Caucasus domestic politics, Georgia-EU/Georgia-Russia affairs. Ms. Israelyan holds diploma in political sciences from Ilya State University in Georgia. She also graduated from the School of Journalism at Radio Liberty and the School of Media Management in Kiev, Ukraine.

In 2008, Ms. Israelyan was awarded the UNFPA prize in the category Best Article. Her field of interests is human rights, information technology, social media, internet freedom, green energy.

Galina Petriashvili

is a feminist journalist and a photographer. Over years, she has worked as an expert, media coordinator and media facilitator for the Regional Program on Labour Migration in Central Asia and Russia. She also was an investigator in a frame of the UN Women initiative in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

Ms. Petriashvili is a founder of the GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association based in Georgia. It is a non-governmental organization that aims to create the larger professional alliance with journalists and media activists from CIS-countries. Ms. Petriashvili is a blogger enthusiastically writing her posts in the social networks.

Mykola Mirny

is a journalist with 10 years’ experience in conflicts and migration issues, South Caucasus domestic politics, Georgia-EU/Georgia-Russia affairs. Ms. Israelyan holds diploma in political sciences from Ilya State University in Georgia. She also graduated from the School of Journalism at Radio Liberty and the School of Media Management in Kiev, Ukraine.

Ekaterina Makarevich

is a media professional, columnist, philosopher and communicator. She worked as a TV producer and journalist. Nowadays, Ms. Makarevich is a program director of the OTIUM Academy- the Ukrainian humanitarian and educational project, which activities are driven by the mission to design meaningful experiences to everyone. She also founded a web-based project The Virtuoso, which aims to rethink and evaluate a philosophical discourse of virtues from antiquity to modernity. Her area of interest is philosophy, ethics, and human anthropology.

Hanna-Asya Schastlivtseva

is a journalist and communicator with 15 year´ experience. She writes extensively about economic issues and domestic affairs within Ukraine. Her professional interests are development of communities and persons which biographies are worth for storytelling.

Andrii Romanenko

is a journalist and a coordinator of non -governmental organisation “Centre for a Public Control DIJ-Kramatorsk” based in Kramatorsk

Oleg Shevtsov

is a director of the autonomous non-government organization ‘Publishing House MIR BELOGORYA’ that produces two newspapers, three magazines (for children, young people and sport fans) and online media ‘BelPressa’ (www.belpressa.ru). Mr. Shevtsov is Presiding Commissioner of the Commission on Information and Mass Communication Development of the Public Chamber of Belgorod Region.

He also teaches at the Department of Journalism of Belgorod State University. He is an author of practical guidelines for kids, youth and students that aim to identify the propaganda and manipulative technologies in mass media and social networks.

Daria Korchak

is a media professional with over two years´ experience in the news agencies of Russia: TASS (Moscow) and URA.RU (Ekaterinburg) . Ms. Korchak studied German philology and also got her MA diploma in journalism. Her fields of interests is international relations and national affairs.

Irina Umarova

is a journalist based in Yekaterinburg, Russia and Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Ms. Umarova She fluently speaks and writes in both Russian and Farsi, because she was born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Ms. Umarova holds MA in Economics. She has over eight years´ experience in Tajik and Russian media. She worked as a head of Russian broadcasting station “Voice of Dushanbe”, a news-reporter and an author of the program “Events. Evidence. Comments” on Radio and TV. Her field of professional interests are labor migration, human rights and people that change and influence the history. She has received many international awards for covering issues such as challenges and threats of labour migration, racism, and xenophobia in modern societies.

Alexandr Zhelenin

is a journalist, political scientist and a historian. Currently he is a political columnist at the Rosbalt Information Agency. In previous years, Mr. Zhelenin worked as a correspondent for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the journal “Smysl” and the newspaper “Time MN”. He is an author of over 2000 op-eds and journalistic reports.

Gulmira Amangalieva

is a journalist with 6 years of experience in independent regional media in Russia. Actually, she works at the news agency FreeNews-Volga based in Saratov, Russia. Her field of interests included political and social activism, corruption, human rights, inequality, poverty, rights and freedoms of national minorities and migration issues as well.