Presenter: Jonathan Bach
Faculty Mentor: Peter Laufer, Kim Sheehan
Presentation Type: Poster 4
Primary Research Area: Humanities
Major: Journalism
Funding Source: The University of Oregon-UNESCO Crossings Institute, Airfare to Azerbaijan; the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, $1914.26 for airfare; the Government of Azerbaijan, hotel and occasional food
Around the globe, countries suffer from constrained media outlets and a lack of access to public information. In the former Soviet Union, there has been a struggle to maintain a balance between media autonomy and censorship. Such censorship hinders reporters’ roles as watchdogs against the government, free to uncover corruption without fear of a threat to their lives. But as I found through research in and outside of Azerbaijan—a country on the Caspian Sea—those at the top of the government come down harshly on journalists who are just doing their jobs. So that I could better understand the ways in which censorship occurs, I conducted interviews via my research fellowship with the University of Oregon-UNESCO Crossings Institute for Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Intercultural Dialogue with journalists and academics in Oregon and Finland. For this thesis, I draw on my experience at the World Forum for Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan, as well as the experiences of journalists who have worked on press freedom issues in countries like Ukraine. For example, I spoke with Steve Bass, President and CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting, about his time in Kiev, Ukraine, working with national broadcasters there to develop a cohesive national public station. I also spoke with Juan Barata Mir, who works with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, about the ways in which external officials put pressure on governments like Azerbaijan to release jailed journalists. It’s a common fact that the public has a right to access official information—so when that right’s impeded, there must be backlash.