Report on
the CRN workshop in Ploiesti, October 6-8, 2003
By Alexandru Ulmanu, consultant
Summary
CRN East-European leaders took part in a Ploiesti, Romania, workshop dedicated to freedom of expression issues, governance and institution building. The workshop was organized by the CRN Eastern Europe head office coordinated by Nicolae Ionita. The workshops objectives were all accomplished and the consultant was able to make other more broad ranging observations about the growth and governance of CRN, Eastern Europe.
The workshop objectives
The workshop was organized to train CRN Eastern Europe leaders in freedom of expression issues, the fundamentals of responsible journalism as they impact cartoonists, as well as project management and fundraising. It was also important for CRN to arrive at some governance decisions about how the Eastern Europe Regional Office would be guided in its leadership of the region. CRN Inte3rnaitonal has been using the OSI grant as a test to explore the assumption that managing its growing network of Affiliate organizations through a Regional Office is a sound management design.
Participants
CRN leaders from Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro and Ukraine
took part in the workshop. The participants were Ilian Savkov (Bulgaria), Alex
Dimitrov (Moldova), Nicolae Ionita (Romania), Nicola Otas (Serbia), Vladimir
Kazanevsky (Ukraine), supervised by CRN's Executive Director Robert Russell.
They were later joined by other cartoonists from Romania, France, Bulgaria,
Moldova and Serbia, who travelled to the Annual Festival of Humour at Slatina.
Alex Ulmanu, a lecturer in Media in Bucharest was hired as a workshop
facilitator and technical expert.
Location
The workshop was first organized at the Prahova hotel in Ploiesti on October 6th
and 7th. A seminar room was available. The workshop took place at
the same hotel where participants were hosted, and the meals were served in the
hotel restaurant, which contributed to saving time and energy and to making the
workshop more efficient.
On October 8 participants travelled to Slatina, to participate in a three-day humour and cartooning festival where other workshop activities were organized (see below).
Translation
As some of the participants were not fluent in English or Russian, translation
and interpretation in Romanian, English, Serbian and Russian was provided by
Mihai Ionita of the CRN head office in Ploiesti, as well as trainer Alex Ulmanu
and cartoonist Ilian Savkov.
Course materials and equipment
Training materials were provided by trainer Alex Ulmanu. Participants received materials on human rights issues, with a focus on freedom of expression, as well as materials on institution building, cooperation with other institutions and fundraising (see attached).
An overhead projector was also available to provide visual
aid for presentations and discussions. Simultaneous translation equipment was
available as well, thanks to the efforts of CRN executive director Robert
Russell. The translation equipment was of limited value. It became obvious that
while the equipment itself was very useful, getting optimum use from it required
a dedicated translator. Using the participants as translators detracted from
that participant’s experience of the workshop and some participants knew other
languages better than others. The equipment worked very well and was fully
worth the investment, but better planning has to be made about who will be doing
the translating.
Guest lecturer
The executive director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Ioana Avadani, has participated in the first half of the second day, to join trainer Alex Ulmanu in talking about institution building and fundraising. It was important for the CRN Affiliate leaders to talk with someone who have been through this institution building process in a simular organization to CRN. Her presentation gave the participants not only a working model of an administrative design for an affiliate network, but her enthusiasm and experience meant that building such a network could be done and that the CRN Affiliate Leaders could in fact put together a workable administrative or governance design that would serve their purposes.
Training methods
The consultant chose to adopt an interactive style, avoiding unilateral lectures and trying to involve the participants in debates, discussions and role-play exercises. Visual aid, such as whiteboard and overhead projector, was used to make issues easier to understand. For certain sessions, participants were split in smaller workgroups to discuss specific issues, come up with solutions and present them for debate in the larger group. Involving the participants in the commentary, asking each to contribute their reactions to the materials was encouraged. In addition to the expert’s presentations (Ulmanu and Russell), each Affiliate Leader was asked to give a presentation about the development to date of their Affiliate organization and report on the situation for cartoonists and freedom of expression in their own countries.
The program
The topics covered in the workshop:
- Specific issues and problems faced by CRN offices in various countries;
- FreeEx (Freedom of Expression) issues in Eastern European countries compared to the EU and the US – a look at constitutional provisions regarding freedom of expression, Article 19, criminal codes (with a case study on the libel and insult provisions from the Romanian Criminal Code. How do these provisions affect the press and freedom of expression?
- Regional networks – their roles and functions. What members need to do for regional networks to work smoothly. The role of the regional coordinator. Tools to use for an efficient coordination (example discussion groups. Human rights organizations – who they are and how do we access them? Fundraising – who are the donors and how can we approach them? How to design a successful project.
- Freedom of expression abuse investigating and alert reporting
The workshop started on October 6, with a discussion on the problems and issues faced by the CRN Affiliates. It continued in the next day with lectures and discussions on institution building, network building, fundraising, and freedom of expression legislation in each of the countries represented in the workshop. On October 8, the group travelled to Slatina, to a humour and cartoon festival, where informal team building activities and one-to-one sessions on specific cartooning and freedom of expression issues took place. During the three-day festival, CRN leaders were joined by other cartoonists from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Moldova and France and took part in cartoon exhibitions and other festival activities. Also, a new workshop session on identifying solutions to increase the network’s efficiency took place. Participants were split in smaller work groups to identify the roles and duties of the CRN Regional Leader, the local offices and the coordinating office in the US.
Description and assessment of workshop activities and results
It was evident to the consultant that CRN leaders are excellent cartoonists, but have poor or no experience in running a non governmental human rights organization. The role of the consultant, as it was emphasized by CRN Executive Director Robert Russell, was to explain to the participants what the role of a human rights worker will require of them, how to lead efficiently a cartoonists’ rights organization, how to better network within the CRN as well as with other media organizations, how to attract funding and how to better communicate their message to the world. Another task for the trainer was to train participants in human rights and particularly freedom of expression issues. But the most challenging role for the consultant was to serve as a moderator in discussions to define the mission of CRN Affiliates (as the problems faced by cartoonists in their respective countries are different and complex), and to identify ways to better organize the regional network in order to increase its efficiency. Other CRN Regional workshops have taken place in the past under earlier OSI funded activities. All of those workshops dfealt with introducing the concept of human rights for cartoonists, and also covered very elementary principle of institution building. This workshop focused most of its energies on harvesting the past experiences of the CRN Leaders, and moulding that experience into a governance process that can serve as a model for the growth of CRN Regional networks all over the world. CRN Affiliates are will established in Africa, and they will need to learn from the Eastern Europe experience. Affiliate are also now open in South America and in Asia. These small offices will also need to grow along the lines of a tested and tried governance model. This workshop helped establish what that model should be.
Specific issues faced by cartoonists and CRN Affiliates in Eastern European countries
In this respect, the workshop was extremely interesting and effective in identifying the types of problems faced by cartoonists in different countries, and the types of actions to be taken by CRN Affiliates.
One major issue was to realize whether certain problems faced by cartoonists in Eastern Europe were actually freedom of expression issues. Participants drew attention to the fact that in some cases cartoonists in the region are not paid according to agreed contracts. It was agreed that this is not necessarily a freedom of expression issue, but that in some cases economic pressures are actually a means to censor and limit the creative work of cartoonists. One cartoonist made a passionate plea that CRN should assist cartoonists who are having difficult being treated fairly in contract situations. No other institutions are available to help cartoonists negotiate with difficult editors or publishers.
In some countries, mostly in the Middle East, Africa, and certain countries within the former Soviet Union, cartoonists can be overtly intimidated by authorities, put in prison, threatened, beaten and tortured. However, in Eastern Europe, editorial cartoonists are subjected to more subtle pressures, as Nicolae Ionita, the director of CRN Eastern Europe, said during the workshop. In this part of the world, pressures on cartoonists, just like those on writing journalists, are mostly of an economic or juridical nature – cartoonists can experience difficulties in getting paid, or be sued for libel and/or slander very easily. This economic and legal censorship is all the more difficult to deal with as it has the same results as censorship, but is done more or less legally. Cartoonists learn that if they want to continue to be employed, they will self censor their cartoons. This was notes as a very serious breach of freedom of expression as it is so difficult to counteract or even identify in many cases.
In a private discussion with the consultant, Mr Ionita said the main problems faced by cartoonists in Eastern Europe are “economic censorship and ‘hidden’ censorship”. Economic censorship means cartoonists are not being paid for their cartoons, while ‘hidden’ censorship means the newspaper owner “will only allow you to publish cartoons that serve his own interest”.
Known cases of abuses against cartoonists in South-Eastern Europe have been recorded in Turkey, where cartoonists have been jailed, as well as in Cyprus, former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Romania.
According to Alex Dimitrov, the CRN leader in Moldova, in his country there have been no specific abuses targeted especially at cartoonists. However, as editorial cartoonists regard themselves as journalists, they consider any abuse against the media an abuse onto themselves – and Moldova has known many cases when the political power put pressures on independent media.
Another conclusion drawn from the discussions during the workshop was that CRN leaders and their organizations have to carefully assess and investigate each and every case brought to their attention in order to evaluate whether there has been an abuse against freedom of expression. One example was brought about by Nikola Otas, the CRN leader in Serbia: a Serbian cartoonist claims authorities confiscated his cartoons under the socialist regime, and he later obtained a court order for them to be released back to him under the more recent system. However, he never received any of them back. On the other hand, the cartoonist in case is known to be disorganized and some question the truth of his allegations. After debate in the workshop, the conclusion was that, no matter the reputation of the cartoonist, an abuse has been clearly committed when authorities did not obey the court order, so the CRN office should act to help him secure justice. Another conclusion that sprung from the case was that CRN leaders should not let their preconceptions and personal opinions interfere with their activity.
Vladimir Kazanevsky, the CRN leader from Ukraine, spoke of another important phenomenon in the world of cartooning: the ever-increasing divide between editorial cartoonists and social cartoonists. According to Mr Kazanevsky, in some countries there is a certain animosity between the two categories of cartoonists, which leads to a lack of solidarity in the profession and to the two types of cartoonists mutually ignoring each other. Some of this mutual suspicion can be traced to the cartoon contests that most cartoonists in Eastern Europe use as a major part of their income. Some cartoon competitions have been “captured” by certain political or economic interests and cartoon submissions that are very controversial or politically volatile can have the effect of embarrassing the judges or the competition organizers. Social cartoonists have the reputation of criticizing society, but not a single politician. Editorial cartoonists on the other hand often satirize a specific politician. This can make them less welcome at the cartoon competitions where most of the money in cartooning is sourced.
Mr Kazanevsky also reported on his visit in South Korea, where he was invited to lecture to students in art schools who learn the craft of cartooning. According to Vladimir Kazanevsky, in countries like Korea and Japan there are thousand of students in cartooning, of excellent quality, which is a clear indication that cartooning has a great future and is regarded as a very important area. Art education in Korea is a great model to follow, although this is very difficult in countries in transition such as those in Eastern Europe.
Institution building, governance, networking and fundraising
Several sessions of the workshop were dedicated to identifying ways to improve the efficiency of the CRN network and of the individual offices. Guest lecturer Ioana Avadani, from the Centre for Independent Journalism in Bucharest, spoke of her organization’s experience in creating an efficient structure and in participating in global, regional and local networks. The CIJ is an affiliate of the Independent Journalism Foundation in New York, which has journalism centres in several countries, and is also part of the South-East-European Network for the Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM), a regional network of dozens of journalism centres in South-East-European countries. The Bucharest centre is also part of the Convention of Media Organizations in Romania, a network of 33 media organizations including CRN Romania.
Mrs Avadani emphasized the need for a clear structure within each organization and network, with carefully thought of principles of functioning and clear roles for each individual organization within the network. She explained the way SEENPM works, with a rotating presidency and secretariat, and the principle to include all individual organizations equally in the network’s activities. Based on the model presented by Ioana Avadani, the CRN leaders later adopted a new system of regional leadership, with a rotating presidency and a permanent secretariat, and established clear roles for the regional leader, the local organizations and the coordinating office in the US. Since this workshop CRN International has completed a Governance Policy Document, that spells out these new relationships for all CRN leaders on every continent. That document is attached to this report.
Alex Ulmanu and Ioana Avadani also presented participants with ideas for future projects, as well as a list of potential partner organizations and donors in the region. The consultant and the guest lecturer also provided participants with a ‘to do’ list necessary to run an efficient project (see attached), and spoke to participants of project management skills.
Mrs Avadani said her organization was ready and interested to cooperate with CRN in future projects, and had a concrete discussion with the CRN Executive Director Robert Russell to establish the types of projects CIJ and CRN would run together.
Freedom of Expression
The consultant prepared and presented to the participants an overview of FreeEx issues as laid out in international documents and the laws and regulations regarding FreeEx in each of the countries represented in the workshop. Participants have also shared their take and experience on the specific legal aspects in their countries.
Informal discussions
Participating in the humour and cartoon festival in Slatina was a great opportunity for the CRN leaders, other cartoonists, the CRN Executive Director and the consultant to engage in informal, but very informative and interesting group and one-to-one discussions on institution building, FreeEx issues, fundraising and other specific topics. Such discussions are a great way for the members of the profession to share experience and ideas, to identify problems and solutions, and to plan future activities.
For the consultant, these discussions were not only a great way to deepen some of the aspects tackled during the workshop, but also an opportunity to get an honest and open evaluation from the participants of the workshop and of his own activity as a trainer. I have had such private conversations with all participants, and was very positively impressed with their assessments of their colleagues, of the workshop and of the consultant. All participants have tremendous respect for each other as professionals, and great appreciation for the regional leader and the CRN Executive Director, which is an excellent premise for a very good cooperation within the network. Also, all participants agreed that the workshop was tremendously useful and interesting, and had extremely positive words of appreciation for the activity of the consultant.
Conclusion
The CRN workshop was without doubt a success. It managed to accomplish all its objectives:
· it provided participants with knowledge on human rights and particularly FreeEx issues;
· it helped them further define their role as CRN leaders and it helped them identify themselves as parts of a new and important international and regional FreeEx network;
· it created a clear set of principles and regulations by which the activity of the network should be administered;
· it provided CRN leaders with knowledge on how to more effectively lead an organization;
· and it was a great opportunity for brainstorming and sharing ideas and experience between cartoonists’ leaders.
But the foundation created by the workshop has to be consolidated in the future in order to really make the difference for this unique cartoonists’ rights organization. There are many historical influences of politics, ethnicity, language, history, all pulling these leaders apart. CRN should be seen by the journalism community as the primary and really only FreeEx institution in the region that monitors, processes and makes available for better regional strategic planning, information about editorial and social cartoonists and the health of that part of the journalism industry. CRN’s periodic workshops for cartoonists should be institutionalized. They should be followed up by workshops on even more specific issues including ‘training of trainers’ skills that would enable CRN leaders to further spread the knowledge they gather with the cartooning community in their own countries.
For CRN to be able to come to this level of infrastructure and administration in only a three year period is an accomplishment that is noteworthy for the donor community. That the leaders are all volunteers, all busy with other income concerns, and all making this strong commitment to learning about, working towards and being personally involved with issues of FreeEx is also remarkable. It is rare that such a far flung voluntary network, made of so many different linguistic roots and nationalities, working in close cooperation, already working with forged bonds of trust and cooperation is a unique accomplishment in OSI’s stated mission of changing civil society for the better. While it may still be difficult to see exactly where it is going, there is a new train on new tracks moving in a new direction. CRN through its OSI grant is bringing together highly intelligent, socially conscious communications experts in a new working relationship in new bonds of trust. Something of high value is being created where nothing existed before.
The web site that CRN Eastern Europe has put up is quickly filling up with new information on FreeEx in the world of editorial cartooning that the world would otherwise never have seen or been able to learn from. Each individual affiliate leader is contributing his and her own materials gleaned from the local environment. Patterns of FreeEx abuse are being identified, anecdotal evidence of abuses is being complied, new individual leaders in FreeEx are being developed and new information is being made available to the world for better strategic planning.
For me it was a rare privilege to work with such talented, dedicated people, and I am sure their human quality will translate into making CRN Eastern Europe an ever-stronger organization.
Consultant
Alex Ulmanu
Bucharest, November 2003