Institute for War & Peace Reporting: Staff

Beka Bajelidze comes from Ajaria on the Georgian Black Sea coast. He took a degree in English Language and Literature and recently obtained a masters degree in Public Administration. He also speaks Turkish. After experience of project management with the OSCE mission to Georgia and the National Democratic Institute of the United States, he joined IWPR in April 2004.

Seda Muradyan

Armenia country director

Seda has a degree in television journalism from Yerevan’s State Pedagogical University. For six years she was on the team of A1+ television station, which was taken off air in 2002, working as reporter, editor, and news presenter. After closure of A1+ she joined the newly established Caucasus Media Institute. She continues to write for A1+’s website and weekly newspaper. In 2003 Seda spent six months as Knight Fellowship visiting fellow, researching new trends in war reporting, at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

Shahin Rzaev

Azerbaijan country director

Shahin trained as an engineer in Azerbaijan's State Oil Academy before turning to journalism in 1991, when he started working for the newspaper Istiqlal. He has worked for IWPR since 1999. He is an active member of Azerbaijan's human rights community and has worked on a number of projects across the Caucasus, cooperating with Armenian journalists and with NGOs such as International Alert and the Centre of Extreme Journalism in the Union of Journalists of Russia.

Shorena Ratiani

Georgia country director

Shorena began her career as a journalist 13 years ago at Georgian State Radio, before moving to work in print media. For two years, she worked as a sports reporter, then became a political correspondent and is the author of various journalistic investigations. Since 2003, Shorena has been working for the IWPR Caucasus Programme. Before becoming Georgia Country Director, she was Georgian co-editor and trainer at “Panorama” newspaper.

Claus Bekker Reinholdt

Cross Caucausu Journalism Network project leader

Claus joined IWPR in September 2008. He runs the Cross Caucasus Journalism Network, which aims to establish a sustainable network of journalists covering the North and South Caucasus. Previously, Claus worked as a journalist at the national television station TV 2 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and as a news anchor at a national radio broadcaster. Claus has also been a freelance journalist in Murmansk and worked for an NGO in Kazakstan.