Text by Triin Ilves
Photos by Gabriel d’Alincourt
In the age of rapidly renewing online tools, grassroots journalism projects stick strong with the traditional values and fact-based objective reporting.
In countries facing extremism, grassroots activists and journalists are seen as reformers who employ innovative online media tools to counter anti-democratic practices. Many of them have proven, that the most powerful weapon is to provide objective, facts-based reporting, said Emin Milli, Managing Director of MeydanTV, an independent online media for Azerbaijan.
Milli, together with Karam Nachar, Executive Director, Al-Jumhuriya Collective, and Polina Cupcea, freelance journalist and founder of Oameni si Kilometri, are using media platforms that help foster democratic transition in their native countries.
When diversity is seen as a taboo, their stories, often developed and written over a long period of time, become strong blocks in the overall storytelling narrative.
“Storytelline is not a new concept, but it’s new for the Moldovan public,” Cupcea said.
In Syria’s case, Nachar explained, they help rebuild national identity. In a society where the ruling regime is restricting free speech up to a point that people become afraid to share their stories, the platform Al-Jumhuriya, offers a way to push against that fear.
“We emphasize a countermove,” he added.
From ‘powerless’ to empowered
Often, new grassroots platforms turn to classical storytelling in order to maintain their safety. Both Nachar and Milli emphasized, that mobile devices allow us to share information fast, but nowadays it’s almost impossible to publish anonymously – something that may cost a life in extremist societies.
Alternatives are harsh: Milli explained, journalists can face harassments or kidnapping threats, even abroad. Milli, too, spent some time in jail.
And in societies where government officials get away with direct terror against their people, the counteraction is not perceived as something outstanding.
“I don’t believe that we are heroes – we aim to protect our dignity,” Milli said.
Due to strict government censorship, his project – MeydanTV website – has faced a significant drop from a total of 500,000 monthly readers to a fifth only.
Readers turned to VPNs to access the platform. To further distribute content, a magazine layout of the text articles are being produced so people can read and share them over social media. Notably, without the censorship from government, MeydanTV’s social media followers are increasing continuously.
Polina Cupcea said that in Moldova, even with less harsh censorships, independent and investigative journalists, and mainstream media reporters struggle with access to information, making it more difficult to guarantee fact-based reporting.
Both the Moldovan and Syrian platforms work with long-form stories and take extra time than traditional outlets to publish stories. And it has its purpose, especially to avoid misinformation by virtue of traditional journalism values of validating and counterchecking information from both regular staffers and contributors.
