Salome Achba, 25, Georgia
Salome has five years of experience in journalism. Nowadays she is the editor-in-chief of the media portal Mediachecker.ge, a web portal about media ethics, professional standards and media critique. She is also a media researcher at the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics. Salome Achba has a BA degree in journalism. 

Mykhailo Bagan works as a journalist at the media organisation News of Donbass (novosti.dn.ua) and the Public Television of Donbass. He was a journalist and regional representative of the Institute of Mass Information. He is currentliy finishing his studies at the Donetsk National University, faculty of political science. At university he is also a participant of the HURT Radio Camp 2015.

Mariam has graduated from the Georgian National University in 2014 with a BA degree in journalism. Her work experience as a journalist consists of almost 5 years. During these years, she worked as a magazine, radio and news agency journalist. Varied work experience in different media sources led her to the decision to enter MA studies in journalism in September 2015. Currently, she works in one of the Georgian company’s public relations department.

Cristina has started her activity as a journalist at the age of 19, when she was styding at the faculty of Journalism. In July 2015 she took MA Degree in Management of the Media Institution. She is working at the news website www.tribuna.md. She took part in different activities for journalits focused on political and electoral topics and in other projects focussing on the EaP countries. She loves to try new experiences, meet new people, loves to travel and runs a travelblog.

Ara recently graduated from the Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management. He worked for the Public Radio of Armenia, RFE/RL’s (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) Armenian Service. Currently he is a freelance journalist for  the NGO Chai Khana, which aims to strengthen citizen engagement and independent journalism in South Caucasus.

 

Aharon has been working as a broadcast journalist for nearly 5 years at Armenia's Kentron TV. His focus is on domestic politics of Armenia. Regional issues and the Nagorno Kharabakh conflict have also been in Aharon's spotlights. He took part in Turkey-Armenia Journalist’s Dialogue Programme, held in Istanbul, November 2013.

 
Dariya Hirna, 21, Ukraine
Dariya has one year left until she will graduate with a Master degree in journalism at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Her experience in journalism goes back 5 years. She worked on the different topics and as well as in different media. Dariya was a sport correspondent for two years at Lviv TV, then had an author's music program on the Radio and published many articles for several internet media. Recently she went to Poland to undergo an intentisve work practice in journalism for two weeks. Since last year she is working for the few independent media organisation Hromadske TV.

 

Tamar Karelidze, 26, Georgia
Tamara is a news aditor at the Georgian Association of Regional Broadcasters (GARB). She has around 5 years of experience in journalism. She's also been working as a multimedia journalists at the Gender Informacion Agency for 3 years, writes blogs for Liberali magazine and is working as a media-monitor at mediachecker. Tamara Karelidze has BA degree in journalism. 

Olha Konsevych is currently getting PhD at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She has 6 years of journalism experience and specialised in writing articles related to the democratic changes in Ukraine and Post-Soviet states. Also, Olha works with NGOs in Poland, Moldova and Russia as a journalist and media expert on EU-Ukraine relations and the political situation in Ukraine. She was a participant at the M100 YEJ in 2014.

 

Katerina finished her studies in Broadcast Journalismat the university of Leesd three years ago. She has been working as a freelance journalists during her studies and gained particular experience with her posts at the Yorkshire Evening Posts and the BBC. Katerina was elected as a board member of the Euopean Youth Press in 2013. She has already been participanting at the M100 YEJ both in 2013 and 2014.  

 

Vahe obtained a Master's degree in journalism at the Yeveran State Unniversity. He works as a Journalist at the media organisation Hraparak daily and Hraparak.am. Besides covering domestic political affairs as Hraparak daily’s correspondent, Vahe publishes articles about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, on Armenian-Turkish, Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Georgian relations and regional security issues.  Interested especially in parliamentary diplomacy, he follows and covers the sessions of PACE, as well as the activities of EuroNest and other international structures.

 

Kostiantyn Medianyk is co-founder and journalist at the information agency Actual Pravda, that has been created to strengthen civil society and free media development in Eastern Europe. He is also a member of the Coordinating Council of the public organisation Alazan Club, the international union of journalists of the Eastern partnership countries. The organization has already integrated media workers of progressive and democratic positions, regardless of their political, social and religious beliefs in 5 countries in Eastern Europe. Kostiantyn has a degree in political sociology of the Kharkiv National University VN Karazin.

 

Khayyam Namazov, 26, Azerbaijan
Khayyam is about to finish Humboldt University in Berlin, the interdisciplinary program of GetMa (German Turkish Masters Program in Social Sciences). His master thesis is about the pro-democracy social movement in his home country Azerbaijan. He is interested in democracy issues, social change and social movement. He was the editor-in-chief of the Society e-Journal, has written some essays over social-political issues and is an author of a novel called Monologue which deals with woman and political rights in Azerbaijan. He is a lecturer, activist, young researcher; founder & director of MIL Network promoting activism, liberal and human rights values in Azerbaijan.

 

Olha Novikova, 21, Ukraine
Olha is currently in the last semester of her master studies in translation and interpretation. She works at the regional profile of the all Ukrainian newspaper Dnepr Vecherniy as a part-time correspondent. She writes articles and does field reporting in a wide range of topics, mainly connected with the vital social issues of Dnipropetrovsk region, such as education, voulunteering, and the conflict in East Ukraine.

 

As a pupil Anastasiya made interviews for the National Radio Company of Ukraine. She has been honoured by the Minor Academy of Literature and Journalism for her work as a journalist and a host of a festival. After graduating from high school, Anastasiya moved to Cracow (Poland). Now she studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in the Jagiellonian University. In May 2015 she represented Ukraine with a speech Ukraine and Europe: a millennium together. 7 things Ukraine shared with the World at the Multicultural and multilingual Europe contest in Aachen, Germany.

After obtaining her BA in journalism she is now finishing her Master degree of Media Communication at the Ukrainian Catholic University. She is an Editor and translator at media monitoring website Telekritika and has worked for the English-language newspaper KyivPost, where she focused on writing articles for the lifestyle, innovations & technology department.

 

Catalina has been working as a journalist at the National News Agency MOLDPRES for 2 years. At the moment she is studying for her master degree at the State University of Moldova for the major: the management of media production. Before journalism, Catalina has worked in an international company, which linked together worldwide experts, headhunters and tenders. She has travelled a lot through these projects, to Passau, Germany, Krakow, Poland, Sibiu, Romania, Thessaloniki, Greece and many others. She is fond of reading, journalism and marketing.

 

Sophie has just completed her French-German Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences. During her binational studies, she spent a year at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix en Provence. Afterwards, she completed two internships in France, the first one at Arte (Thema & Géopolitique) and the second one at the ARD studio in Paris.

 

Currently Stanislav is a senior news editor and a columnist at Novoye Vremya (nv.ua), covering a wide range of topics focusing on politics and business and keeping track of science and IT spheres. He was an alumnus at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and has three year record of an online journalist and editor for well-respected national media. Additionally he has got over six years of experience in writing and editing policy analysis for Ukrainian NGOs.

 

Tamar has around eight years of experience in journalism. Currently, she is the chief in editor for the Georgian English language website Georgia Today, and also has contributed for the weekly newspaper Georgia Today. Furthermore, she is a freelancer journalist at the Internews Georgia, where she has been providing short documentaries about conflict issues, ethnic minorities and political elections. In addition, she is the founder of a non-profit organisation called Multimedia Training Centre (MTC) which aims to provide knowledge about new media tools to young journalists across Georgia. Through the organisation she runs an online radio, as well.  

 

Tamta has freshly graduated from the Master programme New Media and Media Management at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). During the last four years she worked at several media and non-governmental organisations as a journalist. She also has obtained her BA degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Tbilisi State University with honours. She also works as a freelance journalist at the NGO Chai-Khana, where she prepares video reportages and documentaries. For the Caucasus bureau of IWPR (Institute for War & Peace Reporting) and Transitions Online she covers social themes and writes analytical features. 

 

Olesya Yaremchuk is an Ukrainian journalist and reporter. Graduated from Lviv Ivan Franko University, she worked in the international department of the daily newspaper Day (Kyiv), completed internship at Deutsche Welle (Bonn) and Hamburger Abendblatt (Hamburg). Now Olesya Yaremchuk is working as a freelancer for the newspaper Day, the web-site Litakcent, the magazines New Eastern Europe, UZH and Prosto neba.