By Sophie Holloway
The multimedia exhibition “Conflict Journalism Episodes” is currently on show at the Loft in Ijevan. Focusing on the Nagorno-Karabakh wars and organized by the Media Initiatives Center, the display has been touring Armenia since January 2023.
“After the forcible displacement in September, we edited some more material from Karabakh, which documented the exodus,” says Gegham Vardanyan, one of the exhibition’s directors and editor of Media.am.
The exhibition covers thirty years of reporting, and raises questions about the nature of media coverage in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the evolution (or decline) of press freedom, the rise of civic journalism and the use of social media.
The center hosted its first exhibition during the nine-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, from December 2022 to September 2023.
Max Sivaslian, whose photographs are featured in the project, has been documenting the conflict for the past three decades.
“In the 1990s, one was free to go wherever you wanted to,” says Sivaslian. “This included journalists from Europe and elsewhere – there was no surveillance or restriction.”
In recent years, journalists documenting the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have had to contend with more and more constraints.
“During the 44-day war in 2020, and even the four-day war in 2016, there were big changes,” he says. “I was not free to move as I wanted to, I needed confirmation from the press office. Things were no longer the same.”
Not everyone covering the conflict started out as seasoned reporters. Hayk Hasutyunyan (22) was an amateur photographer living in Stepanakert.
“During the blockade, there was minimal [external coverage],” says Vardanyan. “Hasutyunyan started taking more professional photographs and sending them to international agencies. Now this is his career.”
Many of the journalists and photographers who worked on the frontline of the Nagorno-Karabakh war had insufficient training. The Media Initiatives Center aimed to plug the gaps in knowledge by providing first aid training and funding for safety gear. “During the four day war in 2016, in Karabakh, the journalists had no bullet proof vests or helmets – nothing,” he says.
The exhibition, which runs until 31 October, has a range of multimedia on display. It pinpoints different stories along the way, such as the Artsakh Jazz Band’s effort to transport all of their instruments and equipment out of the region. Other media includes a collage of newspaper headlines dating back to the 1990s.
Showcasing the work of journalists is not the only goal of the exhibition. It also aims to promote conversations about media and journalism more broadly. “It’s a media literacy project,” says Vardanyan. “It’s a place for reflection. I believe we need this, we need analysis, and we need to understand how we work, why the media is working or why it is not.”
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