INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

Editors at the newsdesks and chiefs of local desks on February 26 came to the headquarters of AK News in Irbil for a 3-day training. Senior trainers Xdir Domle and Judit Neurink of IMCK taught them about text editing, news choices and the contacts with their correspondents.

Around twenty editors in chief (or their representatives) of Kurdish newspapers met in Irbil and decided to set up an informal club to meet regularly, to discuss matters of mutual interest. The meeting on Wednesday February 25, 2009 was the third of its kind, and the first that led to a clear decision . Two commissions have been formed to inform colleagues about the initiative and to invite them to the next meeting. That will take place after the Kurdish New Year, Newrooz , in March, in Sulaymaniya . That is where the initiative was started by IMCK , in December 2008.

What is an responsible journalist and why is he/she important for the Kurdish media? More then twenty young people from all over Kurdistan wanted to know the answer to this question. IMCK-director and senior trainer Judit Neurink held a workshop for the group 'young leaders', during a week of workshops organized for them by the Kurdish ministry of Youth and Sport. Press freedom cannot be complete, Neurink told them. A responsible journalist tries to inform the people without causing damage to the subjects he writes about. He works inside the culture and has to always take into account the possible result of what he writes or reports. His role in a democracy is to act as a translator between people and politicians, and to report in an honest and independent way on the society and on politics.

'Civilians have the right to know what parties and politicians want and do. That's what you need the media for'. That was part of the message two Dutch former parliaments members had for their colleagues of KNA, the Kurdish National Assemblee in Irbil. On February 2nd Gerrit Valk (social democrats, PvdA) and Jan Dirk Blaauw (liberals, VVD) started the first of three workshops for KNA-members on the relation between politicians and the press. They talked to them about how to make good use of the press, from their experiences in the Dutch parliament and as trainers in many different countries, and how important this is in a democracy. Their workshop is the first phase of a project by IMCK with the KNA on politics and press. Later in February KNA members will be offered mediatraining to help them get their message across to the civilians. This project has been made possible through a donation out of the American reconstruction fund.