![Nikolai Pavlov, an international journalist, May 23 in Bishkek lectures journalists, security specialists and college students about coverage of terrorism. [Asker Sultanov]](/cnmi_ca/images/2016/06/08/5515-kg_osce-739_416.webp)
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz journalists, security specialists and college students gathered in Bishkek May 23 to hear about media methods for covering terrorism.
About 30 listeners attended the talk.
Nikolai Pavlov, a Reuters reporter, delivered the lecture. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) organised the event.
The world's media are grappling with the task of covering extremism, especially after the emergence of the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), Pavlov said in his address.
"The question of how to cover such events without panicking the public has become urgent, because that's exactly what terrorists are counting on," he said.
"The explosions that occurred in Brussels [in March] and the terrorist acts in Paris [last November] forced Western mass media to think about how to cover such events," Pavlov added. "The task of a journalist is to recount events truthfully, but we can also make the material less harsh and bloody."
Journalists have to "deny terrorists the opportunity to spread panic", he said.
"One Western TV channel, during the [Paris] attacks, did not show the act," he said. "It ran a story about people coming to the scene and talked about how they were not afraid."
Social media represent a crucial platform for spreading information, he said, calling them a "a highly important resource for fighting radicalism".
Pavlov discussed ways for reporters to protect themselves while covering terrorism.
College students praise seminar
Students from Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University (KRSU) in Bishkek who attended the talk described the information that they took away.
Adel, one of the students, told Central Asia Online that she particularly valued the information on how to protect oneself in war zones or at terrorist attack scenes.
Yekaterina Pak, another KRSU student, cited Pavlov's advice about professional journalistic practises. Some journalists call suspects "terrorists" even before an investigation is finished, Pavlov said, according to Pak.
Kyrgyzstan has a "growing problem with extremism", Rayimbek Toktomambetov, a third-year student at KRSU, told Central Asia Online. "The situation ... fortunately has not reached an extreme point yet. It's possible to fix many problems."
"Journalists have an important role to play," he said. "We can illustrate the significance of events."
Temike Nooruz, editor-in-chief of the Bishkek news agency Nooruz KG, told Central Asia Online that he found the lecture highly worthwhile.
"Journalism comes with great responsibility," he said. "We badly need these lectures ... Young journalists don't always toe the ethical line when covering radicalism ... Every fact needs to be checked and re-checked."
Lectures like Pavlov's are highly valuable, Bishkek-based security consultant Vladimir Shkolnyi told Central Asia Online.
"Many of our journalists who write about religion and radicalism have poor knowledge of the subject," he said. "One out of four covers the subject properly."
"Journalists use many clichés," he said. "We need to hold these events to improve reporters' abilities."
A similar event took place in Issyk-Kul May 18-21. The OSCE, Bishkek-based NGO Media Policy Institute and Kyrgyz government conducted that multi-day session for reporters.
