On September 11-12, the Anti-Corruption Agency, in collaboration with Regional Dialogue International NGO, Slovenia, organized trainings for heads of press offices of government agencies and organizations, journalists and bloggers, representatives of NGOs, as well as public activists with the participation of Rachelle Cohen, editor at the Boston Globe.

For reference: The Boston Globe has over 150 years of publication today and is considered one of the most influential newspapers in the United States. Consistently ranked among the top ten newspaper websites in America, it has won numerous national awards and took two regional Emmy Awards in 2009 for its video work. The newspaper’s editor, Rachelle Cohen, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with more than 50 years of experience in journalism. She has worked for some of the world’s largest media outlets, including the Associated Press and the Boston Herald. She has conducted investigative journalism on open government, corruption, politics, and other fields. She serves as co-chair of the Supreme Judicial Court’s Judiciary-Media Committee.

Through these trainings, it is planned to widely involve government bodies and organizations, as well as civil society institutions, in particular, the media, representatives of NGOs in the processes of combating corruption, boosting their involvement in ensuring the implementation of reforms in the field of combating corruption, as well as further strengthening mutual cooperation in this track.

The first day of training addressed the role of the media and NGOs in ensuring the transparency of government bodies and the fight against corruption, and gathered journalists and bloggers, representatives of NGOs, public activists.

As noted, the media and NGOs have effective power and capabilities in exercising public control, openness and transparency in the fight against corruption. Therefore, in the context of modern globalization, it is becoming increasingly important to develop strategies aimed at strengthening their potential and popularize best practices at that.

From this point of view, participants were provided with detailed information on such issues as promoting anti-corruption initiatives and ensuring transparency and accountability in this, strategies aimed at strengthening the organizational capacity and experience of NGOs in the fight against corruption, issues of international and cross-border cooperation, the role of journalistic investigations in uncovering corruption cases, as well as information on specific mechanisms for preventing corruption and building integrity through the media and the Internet.

Rachelle Cohen shared with the media her experience in collecting, using, analyzing and publishing data on corruption, as well as complying with legal requirements and professional ethics.

At the training organized for heads of press offices of government bodies and organizations on the topic ‘The role of press offices of government bodies in developing intolerant attitude towards corruption and creating effective information environment’, the role of press offices of government bodies in cultivating in people intolerant attitude towards corruption was considered, as well as strategies for effective anti-corruption messages to the public.

The heads of press offices who participated in the training received answers from a foreign expert on issues of transparency in the work of press offices to identify and eradicate corruption, cooperation with civil society institutions and the media to promote intolerance towards corruption.

The speaker presented the problems that press offices face when fulfilling their mission to create an environment of zero tolerance for corruption, and recommendations for overcoming them.

During the trainings, measures to strengthen the mechanisms of cooperation of the Anti-Corruption Agency with government agencies, the media, and NGOs were discussed in detail.

In this regard, the participants put forward a number of proposals, on the basis of which an agreement was reached to regularly organize similar trainings, combined with a practical part, to expand the circle of journalists and bloggers interested in this area, and to conduct a constant dialogue with them.

Following the trainings, participants were awarded certificates.

Press Office

The Anti-Corruption Agency