Journalism for Future Challenges is a programme for early career journalists from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, or Ukraine who are looking to expand their investigative reporting skills, knowledge of international law and politics, as well as expand their professional network.

This intensive training programme is taught by international experts from renowned newsrooms and it focuses on teaching cutting-edge, updated tools and methods for improved investigative journalism. The sessions cover topics such as basic investigative reporting, planning and managing an investigative project, an overview of how organized crime and corruption works, personal security, advanced research on the internet, encrypting, source protection, ethics, and new social media as a platform for publicity.

The programme is organized in cooperation with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

Detailed programme: www.mediaforfuture.lv

The Summer School on Investigative Reporting is primarily aimed at participants from the Baltic countries and Scandinavia. Participants from the Baltic countries can apply for a scholarship covering the participation fee.

The seminars and workshops, for the most part, are one full day of focusing on each subject rather than on a variety of subjects. The trademark of the Summer School is to go in-depth on selected topics. Seminars are run by experienced and seasoned craftsmen – colleagues with globally recognised reputations. On the final day, participants have an opportunity to listen to summaries of what has been taught in parallel seminars.

Detailed programme: www.media-summerschool.lv

The Summer School on Journalism is organised in cooperation with Delfi.ru in Estonia and the Swedish Embassy in Estonia.

The aim of the Summer School is to educate and inspire future Russian speaking journalists in Estonia.

This programme is designed for journalists and media managers from Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine who direct independent news outlets and want to develop sustainable business models for their enterprises.

In four week-long modules, founders or directors of both non-profit and for-profit independent outlets improve their leadership, strategy, marketing and financial accounting skills, study both fundamentals of management and emerging models of innovative news media. Participants also apply their learning directly to plans for their own enterprises.

The programme cover four modules: Leadership, Strategy, Marketing, Accounting.

Detailed programme: www.mediamanagement.lv

Journalists are seldom economists but they often have to cover economic issues nevertheless. This programme aims at remedying this mismatch.

The objective of this programme is to help participants understand major macroeconomic concepts and how they interact in order to make them:

• able to perform economic analysis
• able to understand the links between various economic variables
• able to communicate economic developments to their audience

The course presents major economic concepts such as GDP, exchange rates, unemployment, interest rates and many others. How they are defined, what they mean and how they interact.

The aim of this programme is to acquaint journalists with the basics of political science, while at the same time applying the theoretical knowledge to the global context, and specifically concentrating on understanding the Latvian case.  

The lectures are based around topics commonly discussed in the public forum such as; what is a nation state, who constitutes the nation, populism and its impact on political parties and elections, Latvia’s role and influence in the European Union and international organizations, polling data and its application to the political decision making process, the role of the media in the political process, and in-depth discussion of some of the most urgent problems facing Latvia such as migration, integration, inequality, and the lack of social trust.

This programme helps to develop data visualisation skills. Visualization provides insight into data that cannot be learned any other way. And that's more powerful than any pretty chart. 

Which visualisation tools to use to make your story more easily understandable and still look professional? This is practical workshop based on examples and best practices.

This practical progamme is organized with the aim of providing opportunities for journalists to develop their data visualization skills and acquire the newest and most efficient fact-checking and news verification skills.

The content of this programme cover topics such as:

• Basic First Aid &  Dealing With Emergencies
• Travel Security
• Wounds & Bleeds
• Moving Through Mobs & Holds
• Handcuff Escaping
• Body Armor
• Personal safety training, health issues and evacuation techniques in war zones and zones of social unrest
• Understanding the threats, avoiding common mistakes and finding a proper vantage to cover the war without taking needless or unreasonable risks