DUSHANBE, February 23, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A three-day training seminar for Tajik journalists on issues related to support of women’s and children’s rights has been launched in Dushanbe today morning.

The event, organized by the BBC trust in cooperation with the National Association of Independent Media of Tajikistan (Nansmit) and the Osh Resource Center of Kyrgyzstan’s Media, according to press release issued by Nansmit.

The seminar is part of the regional project, Mobilizing the Media in Support of Women’s and Children’s Rights in Central Asia.

The participants include representatives of print media and young journalists that were competitively selected from among reporters fro all regional of the country.

Each of creative teams consists of journalist, press photographer and an expert, and members of the team that will prepare the best material will be given an opportunity to take training course at School of Journalism in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Nansmit said, noting that similar seminar would be held in Khujand as well.

Joint efforts by Central Asian and international organizations to galvanize the media’s capacity to safeguard the rights of women and children are the focus of the project, Mobilizing the Media in Support of Women’s and Children’s Rights in Central Asia.  The project is supported by the European Union and trains journalists, editors, media managers and NGO workers in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan to produce publications and broadcast programs, including television documentaries, on issues related to women and children.  In addition to harnessing the media’s ability to raise awareness of the situation of women and children in the region and hold policymakers to account, the project builds the abilities of civil society organizations to develop and disseminate key messages about vulnerable groups.