ANNOUNCEMENT

Caucasus Media Investigations Center is pleased to announce the start of a new regional media investigations project “Development of Media Investigations in Caucasus” with the financial support of OSI AF Azerbaijan office. The project covers Azerbaijan and Georgia. 

The project will continue six months beginning from November 15 and CMIC will announce a competition of articles on different topics in each month.

The competition will be held on specific topics announced beforehand once a month and the articles submitted to the competition should be first printed in local media. Six best stories (1 story for first place; 2 stories for second place; and 3 stories for third place) will be chosen among submitted articles at the end of each competition and they will be awarded with $550 total (first place - $200; 2 – second places each $100; and 3 – third places each $50).

The articles should be submitted for the competitions in Russian, English or Azerbaijani languages. Information about the winning stories and their authors will be placed on the Web site of Caucasus Media Investigations Center . (http://cmic.aznet.org)

     Investigative topics that will be announced within the framework of the project:

Months	Topic for Investigation	Starting day of competition	Deadline to submit articles
Month 1	Protection of the rights of Children and abuse of child labor	November 15	December 15
Month 2	The role of Media in fighting against corruption and bribery	December 15	January 15 (2007)
Month 3	Trafficking in person and sexual violence in Caucasus	January 15	February 15
Month 4	Handicaps and problems in their reintegration in the society	February 15	March 15
Month 5	Illegal circulation of narcotics in Caucasus and factors creating fertile conditions for this	March 15	April 15
Month 6	Gender problems in the family of Caucasians.	April 15	May 15

 Results of the each competition will be announced within 15 days after the deadline.

CMIC encourages all journalists form Azerbaijan and Georgia to actively participate in these competitions. 

For more information please contact caucasusmedia@yahoo.com or (+994 50) 319 2079.