Media associations such as the IAPA have more than a solidarity function,

Media associations such as the IAPA have more than a solidarity function, as you note, Drew. They have been a beacon for decades in perpetuating the profession of journalism. Consider the self-conscious journalistic practice we have seen exercised by local reporters in the Osolobodjenje case. The different techniques such as opinion and editorial columns, guest columnists, letters from readers, were all alien to a one-party state version of ”news”. So local reporters were at best unaccustomed to these formats, and in some case unfamiliar with them at all. The experience Kemal and others had of working in more democratic settings increased the arsenal of tools they had to challenge the veracity of the propaganda coming from the state media.

In a visit to a previous class, Tom Gjelten noted an exchange he had with editor Kemal Kurpahic on the prevalence of opinion and commentary columns in Oslobodjenje. Kemal had an entirely other strategy besides adopting standard practices of independent press. The validation and cohesiveness the signed columns reinforced the professionalism and camaraderie among the multiethnic staff.

Associations represent a forum to learn and exchange techniques such as practices that clearly delineating opinion from news reporting. Professional media associations fortify members by setting and enforcing uniform standards, including ethical ones. As with other professional associations they combine standard-setting, a source for networking, a clearinghouse for resource material and financing, and a platform for amplifying voice and empowerment.

Standard-setting comes in many forms. It is offered in formal training – see the educational arm of the IAPA, for example, http://www.institutodeprensa.com/v2/index.asp

See also the European Journalists Association; it includes both East and West European countries in response to your inquiry, Drew (http://www.ejc.net/). It also compiles country-based associations, many in former Eastern European states. Regionally there is a specialty association on investigative reporting: Balkan Investigative Reporters Network (http://birn.eu.com/).

Elsewhere in the developing world journalists have access to training, resource material and other sources of professional development in regional and sub-regional associations. See, for example:

Asia Media Forum (http://v2.theasiamediaforum.org/ )

Southeast Asian Press Alliance (http://www.seapabkk.org/)

Pacific Islands Forum (http://www.pina.com.fj/)

In Africa, former West, East and South Africa Journalist Associations are increasingly using Facebook to revitalize associations that have struggled to sustain themselves as independent operations. This signals a shift into more peer-mentoring than formal workshops or training.

Beyond formal instruction and mentorship is the variation of on-the-job training that comes in the form of exchanges and fellowships which allow reporters from less developed countries to be immersed in a more stable and well-equipped environment in Europe or North America.

Think about what such experiences offer. True, they may occur in an environment that is unrealistic to maintain when the reporter returns home. But beyond that there are the practices of journalistic professionalism that are modeled and taught. There are opportunities to team up with colleagues to share complementary but often distinct perspectives. These sojourns also permit the visiting reporter to gain some distance and altered perspective of her/his own country seeing it through the eyes of an external observer. And then there are the relationships that are established and networks built.

How did these cross-border experiences serve the journalists of Sarajevo during the conflict?
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