Meeting of the Journalists’ Club

On October 18, 2024, a meeting of the Journalists’ Club of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan was held at the Sarsen Amanzholov East Kazakhstan University. This event is traditionally held not only in Ust-Kamenogorsk, but also in other cities of our republic, which emphasizes the scale of information coverage of the activities of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and the importance of implementing state policy in the interethnic sphere.

Members of the Assembly, employees of the press service of the regional “Kogamdyk Kelisim”, journalists, bloggers, as well as students of the Kazakh-American Free University attended the meeting as participants.

The event was held in a mixed format and was dedicated to solving the main tasks – exchanging experience and analyzing current problems. That is why each speaker tried to structure his speech in the form of a dialogue in order to interest the participants in discussing issues affecting pressing topics.
Valentina V. Mironova, Head of the Secretariat of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan of the East Kazakhstan region, addressed the audience with a welcoming speech. She outlined the main issues on the agenda and congratulated the participants on the beginning of the meeting.

Galym N. Shoikin, Chairman of the Committee for the Development of Interethnic Relations, spoke online on the topic “The Role of Mass Media in the Development of Interethnic Relations”. He noted that geopolitical changes are observed in our country, which lead to interethnic conflicts and problems. Therefore, the situation in Kazakhstan directly depends on the activity of media representatives: journalists, bloggers, press service employees, etc.

Mukhtar T. Kulzhan, Inspector of the Assembly Secretariat of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Adilzhan Akhmetov, Project Coordinator of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Representative Office in the Republic of Kazakhstan, also addressed the participants of the event with welcoming speeches. They emphasized the benefits arising from the work of the Journalists’ Club, as well as the reasons why such meetings should be held on a regular basis.

The topic of priority areas of information support for the activities of the Assembly was raised by Deputy Director of the State Institution “Kogamdyk Kelisim” Asel S. Artakshinova. She noted that national unity is important in overcoming all the difficulties. Therefore, this year the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan developed 13 special projects that cover a wide variety of areas of life. Such work directly contributes to strengthening unity, both national and interethnic.

Blogger and journalist, winner of the East Kazakhstan Akimat Award “Best Presenter of Kazakhstan – 2022” Anuar K. Akhmetkaliyev shared his practical experience. Anuar has been blogging on Instagram for 11 years now, and his page is currently followed by 31,000 people. In his report, “Interactivity as a Key to Success: How to Interact with the Audience,” the blogger noted that to increase the popularity of videos or posts, you need to adhere to three main principles: creativity, relevance, and mobility. Also, an essential point is the active use of stories to “warm up” the audience to the published content.

The report, “Principles of Publishing Interethnic Topics in the Media,” by Duman Smakov, Editor-in-Chief of the Factcheck.kz website, was a logical continuation of Galym’s speech. The editor prepared a multimedia presentation that reflected the main points of the journalist’s work with materials on interethnic topics. To determine the reliability of information on the Internet, Duman Smakov proposed unique tools that any journalist can use.

Gennady G. Shipovskikh, member of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and head of the Assembly project “State language – the language of interethnic relations”, also expressed his position on the topic of covering interethnic relations in the media and emphasized the special importance of developing the state language as the language of interethnic communication.

The final report was made by the director of the research center “PaperLab” Serik Beisembayev on the extremely relevant topic “Hate speech: definition, types and methods of prevention”. He considered the very definition of the concept “hate speech”, its main features, and gave 10 key rules for preventing interethnic conflict in the information field. The speaker also illustrated the causes and prerequisites for the emergence of hate speech using a special method “Problem Tree”.

At the end of the event, all those present were solemnly awarded certificates of participation in the meeting of the Journalists’ Club of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan.

The meeting produced extremely positive impressions on every participant, because everyone had the opportunity to ask questions of interest, share their experiences and take part in the discussions.