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The answer, in the end, was a positive one, and proof of this is me writing these lines. However, the question has not disappeared completely. It reappears whenever I access some news, but also when I simply try to guess what is in the mind of the tomorrow's graduates of the CSAJ’s ninth promotion and how their professional future will look like.
In May this year I celebrated two decades of activating as a “legitimate” journalist. I graduated from Moldova's State University, Faculty of Journalism, and Ion Bunduchi – who on the first day of April was also speaking here, on www.media-azi, about his about 20 years as professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, State University of Moldova - was the only who one gave me “six” at the state examination from the summer of 1995. Even today I do not know why students were forced to pass a state examination and were not asked to carry out a practical work. The fact is that that mark has not kept me from entering and remaining into the wonderful world of the media. However, I would not be honest to the end if I would not mention the role played by the editorial office in this entire story. And here is my second lyrical digression: I became a journalist thanks to two outstanding personalities of the local media and the provided by them opportunity of working within institutions that they themselves have created or that we have created together.
With Val Butnaru I did the first „Flux” issue which appeared on May 23, 1995. It was a time that I associate with the first days of driving – when the confidence in your driving skills breaks into smithereens as soon as you hit the traffic. The first “praise” received from Val Butnaru after I wrote my first article sounded something like this: „Get out before I throw this computer at you!” And he was right, considering the mistake that I had done. However, it has remained forever in my memory and I have not ever committed it! This was the beginning my second university.
Working with Constantin Tanase was a real competition – him as editor and me as reporter. I still remember how excited I was in July 1998 when, for the first time, he did not correct a word in my article. Maybe he was too busy and just skimmed through it … But for me that summer day marked a turning point in my life, because it is since then I began to feel the text differently. And this is how, having studied within three universities, I joined Timpul...
I remembered all this not because a wave of nostalgia swept over me, but because there are days when after viewing some reports or some reading news on the Internet I ask myself if there are still some editorial offices and editors able to teach you what you have not learned at university - namely the practical journalism.
Because the things have not changed much during these 20 years - only the number of faculties “producing" journalists that the media practitioners must train subsequently in their own "university" increased. One of such “universities” is the Chisinau School of Advanced Studies in Journalism – the today’s pilot editorial office that teaches you how to survive in the tomorrow's editorial office.
This institution, founded in 2006 and based on the universal journalism concept, has successfully trained over 120 students dreaming about a career in journalism. More than 90 of them are now working within their specialization and do their job with dignity and responsibly, as they have been taught by their instructors - many of whom, meanwhile, have become their fellow workers. Thus, the school can be considered a real university after the university...
The CSAJ means ten months of intensive training during which, those who graduated from the Faculties of Law, Economics and Polytechnics, or who want to fill the gaps left by the Faculty of Journalism, learn to be journalists. For this purpose, the school is trying to attract the best media practitioners, who sacrifice their own time and become teachers simply because they stubbornly believe that in Moldova the press should and can be truly professional.
They teach our students to practice journalism in accordance with the highest international standards – in a fair and unbiased manner, something that appears to have remained only in the specialized textbooks. They teach them to be just as good in radio, newspaper, online and television. They teach them to be both efficacious and as fair as possible. They teach them how to enter through the window when they are chased out the door and also take into account the ethical principles. And, last but not least, the School of Advanced Studies in Journalism teaches its students to write correctly and properly formulate their thoughts. And when you think, you do not want or can not do „copy paste” any more.
The article was published within the Advocacy Campaigns Aimed at Improving Transparency of Media Ownership, Access to Information and promotion of EU values and integration project, implemented by the IJC, which is, in its turn, part of the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, implemented by FHI 360.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
