Women Reporters Academy

The Women Reporters Academy brings together female journalists and media workers from Eastern Europe. The Women Reporters´ Academy is supported by the German Foreign Ministry. The focus of the 2023 programme lies on conflict and war reporting. It aims at fostering pluralism, diversity, and democracy, at making female journalists voices heard and empowering them in their professional capacities.
The Women Reporters Academy combines different methods and formats: international conferences (online and presence), intensive training workshops in the regions and a publication challenge followed by study trips to Berlin for the winners.

The 2023 Women Reporters Academy develops two different programmes in Poland/Ukraine and Georgia.

Awarded Publications 2023

Daria Kotova - Publication
From Sukhumi to Khurvaleti

The Story of the Director of a Nursing Home Near the Occupation Line

Daria Kotova
Constant Escape

How Women Live in Khurcha, Abkhazia, Near the Dividing Line

Manana Kveliashvili
Living with disabilities in Georgia

Many promises but insufficient support

Tata (Natia) Kachkachishvili
All EXHIBITION
2023

Georgia

Female journalists living in Georgia were invited to join the 2023 Women Reporters Academy GEORGIA. The focus of the 2023 programme lied on conflict reporting in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.
In addition to these general challenges, women reporters are confronted with problems such as unequal payment or lack of representation among decision-makers (e.g. in big publishing houses). Structural discrimination of female journalists is the consequence.
These and other topics will be addressed during the following series of events:
  • Online Conference: Women Journalism in Times of War and Conflict
  • Workshop in SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI on Multiethnicity and Migration in Georgia (1–2 July 2023)
  • Workshop in Imereti Region: War and Migration (8–9 July 2023)
  • Workshop in Samegrelo Region on Internal Displacement and Women’s Rights (15–16 July 2023)
  • Batumi Conference (4–6 September 2023)
  • Publication Competition
  • For the winners: Study trips to Berlin
MORE INFO
2023

Ukraine/Poland

Ukrainian journalists and media workers are invited to join our workshops in Poland. The 2023 programme aims at highlighting challenges and difficulties that Ukrainian journalists and media workers face when reporting about and from Ukraine. It will offer them a safe space to exchange their experience and get inspiring input from international experts. The programme combines capacity-building of journalistic skills with forward-looking discussions about Ukrainian post-war legacies, gender justice reporting and Ukraine’s role in Europe.
These topics will be addressed during the following events:
  • 25–28 June 2023 in Krakow: Women journalism at the time of war with focus on storytelling and working with people who are migrants and traumatised by war
  • 10–13 July 2023 in Wroclaw: Women journalism at the time of war with focus on earning opportunities for journalists in times of AI and digitalised media and photography workshop
  • 30 July – 2 August 2023 in Lublin: Women journalism at the time of war with focus on the role of civil society in raising awareness about forced migration from Ukraine
  • Publication Competition: The best human story related to women in crisis or war
  • Award: Study trips to Berlin, invitation to vernissage in Berlin, web cameras, smartphones
  • Awarded publications will be shown in a public exhibition in Berlin
  • Vernissage in Berlin in December 2023
MORE INFO

Our Team

GEORGIA

Galina Petriashvili

Journalist and gender expert. Galina is a president and co-founder of the journalists’ association “GenderMediaCaucasus”. Gala is the regional project manager for Georgia.
GERMANY

Dr. Olga Gulina

Legal and migration expert. She holds a PhD in Law (2002) and PhD in Migration Studies (2010). Her field of expertise included migration management in Eastern und West Europe. Olga is the program leader.
GERMANY

Dr. Mechthild Baumann

Political scientist and head of IfAP e.V. She coordinates the Women Reporters Academy.
POLAND

Dr. Iwona Reichardt

PhD in political science and is a deputy editor-in-chief of New Eastern Europe Magazine, neweasterneurope.eu. Twitter [at]iwonareichardt. She is the Regional Project Manager in Poland of the Women Reporters´ Academy.
UKRAINE

Olexandra Stepanova

Trained as a legal scholar (LL.B, MA). She is executive director of the Human Rights Platform in Kyiv. Olexandra is the Regional Manager of the Women Reporters Academy in Ukraine.
POLAND

Arzu Bunyad

Arzu is an Editorial Assistant and translator with New Eastern Europe magazine. She holds a BA degree in international relations from Hacettepe University, Turkey. Arzu fluently speaks Azerbaijani, Turkish and English.
UKRAINE

Oleksandra Savchuk

Oleksandra is an assistant working at the Human Rights Platform in Kyiv. She graduated from the Kyiv University of Law at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and obtained the qualification level Bachelor of Law.
GEORGIA

Ekaterina Vadachkoria

Ekaterina is an economist by profession, and works in a number of projects of the GenderMediaCaucasus Association of Journalists.

Previous Projects

2021
Media Migration Academy
The Media Migration Academy aimed at training journalists from Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia in reporting about migration. The program was composed of inputs by international exp...
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2020
Media Migration Labs
Within the project „Media Migration Labs” 130 journalists from Georgia and Ukraine met in 2020. International experts gave inputs on migration during workshops and webinars. Exp...
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2018
Valuing Diversity and Pluralism (VALDIP)
The VALDIP project aimed to train diverse skills of journalists and civil society members from the Eastern European countries and Russia and to raise their awareness for migrati...
Learn More