FROM THE EDITOR This year we celebrate the jubilee of J.Mirror, it’s 5th anniversary. We discuss in this issue not only the theory of journalism but also to involve opinions of those graduates who studied journalism in our University and those who taught them. Here we present the articles about the history of international journalism as well as modern trends of journalism. Thank-you-note Dear graduates, this year is your last year at the University. You’ll start a new life. Thank you for all the study, work and insights. It is with great sadness that I now have to say my farewell to you. I was truly glad to have worked with such a group of creative and initiative students and I am so proud of the achievements that you have accomplished both in the study and in your personal life. The efforts and contributions have been great. I hope you leave our university with great confidence in yourself, knowing that you are capable of overcoming any hurdles that will come up, singularly, and more importantly, together. I hope that you continue to succeed through life journeys. I wish you all have a Creative, Inspiring and Exciting life after the University. Please keep in touch! Arevik Gevorgyan Editor-in-chief 4 Le journalism au coeur de la vie… French is a national language, spoken and taught everywhere in France. Brogues and dialects are widespread in rural areas. However, many people tend to follow their regional linguistic customs either through traditions or through a voluntary and deliber- ate return to a specific regional dialect. This tendency is stronger in the frontier areas of France. Still a lot of French adore read daily news- papers in French, and they don’t have problems with under- standing information. My professor in ever, one major difference; French quality University of Perpignan dailies are on the whole more intellectual Via Domitia told me that and more left of centre than their counter- reading French National parts in the English-speaking countries. Newspapers is a great Every my day starts with the website way to keep improv- of the newspaper «Le Monde». This news- ing my French learn- paper is a highbrow centre-left paper before ing, while at the same which even politicians tremble. Last year Le time keeping abreast of Monde faced bankruptcy. Three business- what is happening in the men, Xavier Niel, an internet billionaire, French language world Matthieu Pigasse, an investment banker, and in Francophone af- and Pierre Bergé, the former business part- fairs. Press gives me an ner of Yves Saint Laurent, rescued it. Now insight into the various Mr Niel, the wealthiest of the three and the Francophone countries’ most closely involved with the business, is perspectives on the world tackling the union head on. It means that the and national events. press in this country of cheeses and wines France has three has a really high level of social involvement. major national quality Elections, holidays and festivals, problems dailies: Le Monde, Le Fi- and solutions – all info you can find both garo and Libération. They in regional and national press. More over, target at the same kind of all information comes from common peo- educated reader market ple, because the French believe that their as serious quality papers. press is independent from their government. There are also the so-called “broadsheets”: such as the Times, the Independent and By Anna Drogalova the Guardian in the UK, or the New York Times, the Boston Globe or the San Fran- cisco Chronicle in the USA. There is, how- 7 Africa. Dangerous journalism Being a jour- Newspapers Group. The editor who took the nalist in Africa is like decisive step in probing the excesses of gov- walking through a ernment was Geoffrey Nyarota, who has minefield at midnight gone on to write about his experiences in a book published in 2006 Against the What is an in- Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean News- vestigative journal- man. Nyarota’s claim to fame is the story ism? It’s a form of many Zimbabweans and media observers re- journalism in which member as the Willowgate Scandal. In 1988, reporters deeply in- the newspaper undertook an investigation of vestigate a single topic of interest, often irregular deals at the state-owned Willowvale involving crime, political corruption or cor- Mazda Motor Industries, a car assembly plant porate wrongdoing. It is one of the most where cabinet ministers and senior govern- dangerous spheres in our profession. ment officials were using their positions to When we speak about investiga- buy cars cheaply as they were officially en- tive journalism we usually remember titled to do, but later reselling the vehicles at only famous journalists from well-known exorbitant prices which they were not. countries. Such as James Steele, Don- Before the story broke, Zimbabwe’s ald Barlett, Robert Greene, Lois Kilzer Defence Minister, Enos Nkala summoned who got Pulitzer Prize twice. Among Rus- Nyarota and his deputy, Davison Maruziva sian journalists the most famous investi- to his office. He said that if they failed to gative journalist was Anna Politkovskaya. stop the report, he would send soldiers to Investigative journalism exists not only drag them to defense headquarters to be in big countries but also in the Third World taught a lesson they would never forget. countries. There are many journalists who Instead, the two editors intensified their in- have contributed greatly to the develop- vestigations and eventually broke the story. ment of the investigative journalism. We tried The Chronicle’s investigations were to find out some information about them. so embarrassing to government that Presi- Do you know who Carlos Cardo- dent Robert Mugabe appointed a judicial so, Nobert Zongo, Mohamed Benchicou commission of enquiry to investigate the or Daniel Bekoutu are? They are journal- matter. The commission’s findings vindicat- ists who are worthy respect, the journal- ed the newspaper’s reports and several min- ists who dared to tell the truth. They were isters, including Geoffrey Nyarota well awared of the risks: assaults, impris- Nkala, resigned onment, torture, censorship and death. in disgrace. Wil- Zimbabwe: Mazda Motor Industries case lowgate may In the late 1980s (before today’s strin- have earned gent press censorship was enshrined in law), Nyarota and Zimbabwe provided the only known example Maruziva much of a major investigative project being under- prestigiousness taken by a government-owned newspaper, from within Zim- refuting the myth that only commercial me- babwe and be- dia can carry out investigative reporting. The yond its borders, newspaper in question was The Chronicle, but government a regional paper that was part of Zimbabwe was not amused. 8 Nigeria: First Lady’s story Dele Giwa, founding editor of the Lagos-based weekly News- watch was killed by a parcel bomb delivered to his family home on October 19, 1986. Nigerian press reports alleged that the parcel bore a stamp with the Nigerian govern- ment coat-of-arms, and that Giwa had been investigating a story in- volving First Lady Mariam Baban- gida at the time of his death. Two days before he was killed, Giwa had been summoned to the head- quarters of Nigeria’s State Security Services and accused of planning revolution and arms-smuggling. He later received a phone call asking for directions to his home so that an ‘official invitation’ could be de- livered. In 2001, former president Ibrahim Babangida, who had ruled the country at the time of Giwa’s death, refused to testify before the country’s human rights commis- sion about Giwa’s death, despite calls from inside the country and from international human rights and journalists’ organisations for him to do so. No one has ever Dele Giwa been prosecuted for Giwa’s death. Christine Anyanwu, the edi- to produce stories on a par with their far better tor and publisher of The Sunday Magazine, resourced colleagues elsewhere in the world. was wrongly convicted for plotting a coup Actually this is not a miracle: it simply takes against General Sani Abacha, Babangida’s passion, courage and extremely hard work. successor. She was imprisoned, tortured and We should understand that these almost blinded while in detention. Anyanwu persons put their lives to the future gen- demanded and received an apology for her eration. They wanted to get justice. It’s the suffering from Alhaji Zahari Biu, a retired as- main aim of any journalist. Speaking by the sistant commissioner of police, who had been words of famous journalists Mark Hunter and one of her torturers. Dele Olojede was the Luuk Sengers: “We gather information to first African-born journalist to receive a get a story out of it;… you want to stir emo- Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. tions. You want your readers to get angry, Conclusion to weep, to become determined to change We have been struck repeatedly by things. Otherwise, what is the point of spend- the miracle of reporters working with erratic ing so much time collecting evidence, risk- computer connections and electricity, limited ing your life and your relationships?”... budgets, across long distances and often un- der surveillance and threat, who still manage By Amina Gudova 9 Spanish media advancement to democracy Spain is a It was first published country with a devel- on May, 4, 1976, oped system of mass six months after the media. Now Span- death of the dictator iards are the most Francisco Franco, reading newspapers and in the beginning nation in Europe. of the Spanish tran- But it wasn’t always. sition to democracy. Francoist It was the first pro- Spain refers to a pe- democracy news- riod of Spanish his- paper within a con- tory between 1936 text where all other and 1975 when Spanish newspa- Spain was under the pers were influ- authoritarian dicta- enced by Franco’s torship of Francisco ideology.