The event brought together journalists and bloggers from the leading Kazakhstani TV channels, periodicals, radio and internet-sources: "Qazaqstan", "Khabar", "Pervyi Kanal Evraziya", newspaper "Astana", "Almaty TV" "24KZ", "Egemen Kazakhstan", "Kazakhstanskaya Pravda", "Liter", "Kazislam", radio "ALQA", information portal "Stan.kz", "Center for the Study of Religion", representatives of Spiritual Authority of Muslims of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The purpose of the workshop was to raise and discuss the issues of the most relevant and problematic aspects in coverage of religion in the mass media. The representatives of the Department on Religious Affairs from 14 regions of the country joined the workshop online.
The main speaker at the workshop was Zhapal Doliyev, the Head of the Department of Coordination for the Prevention of Religious Extremism in the Internet Space of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In his speech, he outlined the key information priorities and principles of preparation and publication of materials on the religious topics. Some other important issues were presented by the fellows of the Center: Ruslan Ibrayev, the Director of the Department for External Relations and Information, who spoke in detail about the activities of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions and its media coverage; Zarina Kudabayeva, the Senior Consultant of the Department for External Relations and Information, touched on the actual aspects in coverage of religious topics in the mass media.
The participants of the seminar had an opportunity to discuss current challenges and receive recommendations from leading experts on professional coverage of religious topics. Special attention was paid to ethical aspects, the principles of unbiased estimation, religious tolerance and respect for different denominations when carrying out the journalist's professional activities. At the end of the seminar, all participants were given a certificate.
