INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

Kurdsat TV-maker Hemen Amin was presented with the first prize in the contest of the Swedish organisations Qandil and Global Reporting, on reporting on water usage and wastage. His news item on the way people in Kurdistan waste water was chosen as the winner of the contest. He will visit Sweden this year as part of his prize. The prize was the result of three workshops IMCK conducted with Global Reporting on the huge wastage of drinking water in Kurdistan. A jury consisting of Ari Harsin (former head of Awene Erbil office and former IMCK trainer), Sabah Abdulrahman (Unami) and IMCK director Judit Neurink choose the three best out of 26 items and stories. A second prize was for Ferman Abdurachman of Rozhnama newspaper, the third went to Asos Serawi of Awene newspaper.

Xidr Domle, experienced journalist and senoir trainer for IMCK, started on May 25 a four month training on text-editing at Hawlati newspaper. He will do this on-the-job project together with Mariwan Hama-Saeed, working for IWPR. The project in Sulaymaniya runs until September 2010. Hawlati is the oldest independent newspaper of Kurdistan, founded in 2001. To make the newspaper more professional Xidr and Mariwan will train the editors in how and why all text has to be edited, how to make leads and headlines and how to write good, unbiased stories. The training is funded by the Open Society Institute.

News, the follow up of news and researching for news. They are the major subjects of the on the job training Rob Siebelink started on Monday May 24, 2010 at Rudaw newspaper. Siebelink will spend five days with the journalists of Rudaw in their office in Erbil. Rudaw is a semi-independent Kurdish newspapers which is published weekly for the whole of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The satellite TV channel Gali Kurdistan , based in Sulaymania , asked IMCK for a workshop to improve their decors. For this reason , decorbuilder Kees Starink from Holland, started his 5- day workshop on May 23. He will work with the decorbuilders on-the-job and will give them mobil decor ideas ,. Kees will also focus on the different materials that can be used and give them advise in colour combinations .

News is the base of journalism. And without research, no news. To find good news stories that are interesting for the people, research is needed, as not all the news can be found on the street. That is part of the message Dutch trainer Rob Siebelink (international reporter, former deputy editor in chief and now journalism trainer) brought to reporters from different Kurdish media. The 5 day training 'Researching the news' started at May 16 in the training hall of IMCK in Sulaymaniya. Siebelink will show what news is, how it is made and what a news cycle is, as it exists in the rest of the world. His co-trainer is IMCK-trainer Ako Muhammed, translator is Ferman Fazel.

The 'Reporting on local issues' training for Kirkuk TV-makers ended on May 5, 2010 with a program of the items produced, and a group picture. The participants showed progress, and declared their happiness about the training and about the way they were able to work in harmony with colleagues from other media in Kirkuk. The two projects for Kirkuki journalists IMCK conducted, were possible due to funding through the British consulate in Erbil. Project coordinator was IMCK's Saman Penjwini, who was assisted in Kirkuk by Mohammed Kirkukly. Trainers were Hassan Rachidi, Xdir Domle and Robert Slagt.

The board of the Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan welcomed a new member. Media and civil law specialist Saman F. Omer (picture) joined the IMCK board, which now consists of six people. Chair women is Parwa Ali (picture), deputy chair person is Asos Hardi. Other board members are Kurdo Jamal, Aram Ismael and Abdullah Sabir.

Lukas Morawski gave the 10 participants of his sound and light training in Gali Kurdistan their certificates. The director of the satelitte channel thinks the training was very succesful and he will stay in contact with Lukas about new equipment.

Robert Slagt started his second training on May 2. This time he will train the journalist working for the women newspaper Rewan three days. He will tell them how to make their weekly more attractive for readers and will teach them how to make professional leads and headlines.

Robert Slagt gave the print journalists from Kirkuk during their 5-day training the exercise to make a newspaper together and they choose to name it the free pens. The participants wrote stories about telecommunication, children playing with gun toys, the freedom of women, tourism, immigrants, politics and election and about a demonstration of students. Sardasht, working as a designer and co-trainer for IMCK made the layout and the design.The stories were edited by Xidr Domle.

Hassan Rachidi and Xidr Domle started on May 1 their 5-day training for TV journalists from Kirkuk. Fifteen journalists with different backgrounds will get a training in reporting on local issues in the training hall of IMCK in Sulaymania. Hassan, working for Al-Jazeera in Doha, is training for IMCK for the fourth time. Xidr works together with Judit Neurink since 2004 and is lead-trainer of the post-graduate course Media bo Khalk.