Around 30 participants including 24 Journalists, CTA media officers and young professionals in Dharamshala attended the three-day journalism workshop organized by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) in association with the Association of Tibetan Journalists (ATJ) from 22-24 November 2021 in Dharamshala.

Editor, Chevening scholar, and long-time Tibet supporter Amitava Sanyal covered ‘Fundamentals of Journalism’ while Shoma Chaudhury, an award-winning Indian journalist and editor led the ‘Investigative Journalism’ sessions.

The workshop touched upon the unique challenge for Tibetan journalists of representing the community vs. reporting the community, striking a balance between public interest and privacy, the global phenomenon of polarisation and post-truth journalism, among others.

The participants were encouraged to introspect on how and why they became journalists, what neutrality and objectivity mean in different circumstances and the personal and legal consequences of adversarial journalism.

Intern, reporters, photojournalists, and editors from tibet.net, Phayul, Tibet Times, Tibet Express, Bangchen, Voice of Tibet (VoT), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Voice of America (VOA), Tibet Post International (TPI), took turns discussing their role, the media organization they represent, their digital presence, coverage topics, and medium.

The session on ‘Truth-telling, Repression, and Democracy: how stories can serve justice and accountability brought up deliberation on the impact of counternarrative stories in widely followed news stories in India like the 2008 Noida double murder case and Nandigram violence as examples.

All participants shared their mock story pitches that were developed and refined by exchanging ideas on what could be the most suitable narrative, one-line pitch, and the medium for each story.

The workshop saw an open discussion on the prospect and barriers present in the strict application of common journalistic principles in the exile media landscape.

Both the trainers shared their insights on how the Tibetan journalists can navigate the complexity of the Tibetan political reality and put out compelling stories that will capture the imagination of those who could aid the Tibetans’ quest for justice.