Challenging 2020
With the timely, needed, and valued support of the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of Norway, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting successfully conducted a wide array of activities in Central Asia in 2020.

Despite the challenges, IWPR Central Asia and CABAR.asia took upon the complicated tasks, provided objective, unbiased, verified reporting, narration and analysis of the developments, ensured the appearance of brave new ideas on resolving issues and contributed to the development of the media and civil society in the whole region. IWPR Central Asia thanks its donors and partners, who help us drive a much-needed change.

In 2020, the coronavirus challenged journalists. Fake information and outright lies about COVID-19 were spreading as fast as the virus itself. Nevertheless, the professional media around the world managed to take the information back under their control and, together with competent specialists, provided people with verified fact-based information.

IWPR Central Asia also faced this challenge. In 2020, our team together with local journalists and partners worked to ensure that society, authorities and ordinary citizens of Central Asian countries have access to reliable and verified information about the situation around COVID-19. In its publications, IWPR referred to facts, cited the opinions of competent and experienced specialists. IWPR stated what istrue and what is false, leaving questionable issues to the audience's decision.

In addition to publications, the online events were held: 15 country and regional discussions on COVID-19, and more than twenty marathons, webinars and workshops were organized.

In 2021, the fight continues both against the virus and against the fake news. IWPR Central Asia is among those involved in this fight and will stay fully committed to its mission.

Below, we present a selection of the most interesting and useful materials on the mentioned activities.
COVID-19: Documentaries
4 countries, 12 documentaries with authentic people's stories. These are movies about people's lives, which were interrupted by the pandemic in 2020, about misinformation and fake news. The movies were created in real time by teams of journalism students from universities of the region. They worked on it diligently and passionately. The teams observed the process of fake news spreading in society. They learned about the possible consequences of neglecting the verification of the materials online.

We present the final movies of the participants of the Documentary Filmmaking Workshop about fake news and misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CABAR.asia
Despite the transformation of many processes due to the coronavirus pandemic, the significant events for the Central Asian countries took place in 2020. The CABAR.asia analytical platform regularly provided demanded analytics of various issues and trends in analytical articles, journalistic materials, expert comments, interviews, data materials, journalistic investigations, as well as longreads and extended analytical publications – policy briefs.
Expert meetings
IWPR Central Asia regularly held expert meetings at the international, regional and country levels, discussing upon the most important problems and issues of the Central Asian countries.

We present the video recordings of online discussions in 2020.
Roundtable discussion
"Taxi Safety
in Central Asia"

CABAR.asia Media School Ambassadors Zulfiya Raisova and Dastan Akkozha presented the results of the research on the women's safety in taxis in Central Asia, summarized the information campaign's results, and, together with invited experts and speakers from Central Asia, discussed further plans to create a harassment-free environment in the region.
Research results published by:
Publications by CABAR.asia
IWPR research activities in Central Asia are aimed at detailed study of important trends and problems that need to be solved. These publications are useful to experts interested in the problems of the Central Asian countries, policy makers, representatives of international and local organizations, research institutions, media, as well as anyone interested in changes and development of the media and civil society in the region.
Marathons
Marathon for Analysts
"Analysts Are Coming"
Kilogram of Content
Best posts
Read more on the Marathon
Media School Ambassadors
Masterclasses/Workshops by Media School
Podcasts We Produce
or Support

Courses and webinars
CABAR.asia online — other IWPR CA events digests: