USAID supports independent media in Georgia’s communities to keep people informed about the issues that matter most. That includes providing local outlets with equipment, training, and technical assistance to help them keep up with the rapid pace of development in the media sector.
In Kvemo Kartli, we support Radio Marneuli, the region’s only community radio station that broadcasts in Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian languages. Radio Marneuli’s newsroom includes a team of ethnic Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Armenian citizens of Georgia working together to deliver fact-based information to the community.
In recent years, we helped the station develop a website that publishes content in three languages, and provided equipment and training to enable its journalists to produce multimedia stories, including videos and infographics.
Etibar Dashdamirov is a native of the village of Molaogli and a journalist at Radio Marneuli.
“Interest towards equipment [computers] brought me to Radio Marneuli. Now, I am editor of the Azerbaijani language section of the website, but I take great pleasure in working with radio equipment and software. This area [the technical side of journalism] is developing and Radio Marneuli never lags behind.
Regional media always needs support and this is not just finances. Our mentors and experts, our experienced friends, give us more [than just financial support]. We successfully cope with a lot of problems together with our partners. When you have an opportunity to call someone with the needed knowledge and ask for some advice, this helps greatly.
Radio Marneuli is a free space oriented towards development. I have invested my resources in this space, which I want to maintain and develop. I hope that with our knowledge and with the help of experts, we will not lag behind in this development. This will help us to achieve the main goal – to keep the population well informed.”
