INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

International trainers Felix Meurders and Henk ten Oever started a 2 day on the job training at Kurdsat. The training, which started on October 31, 2011, focusses on interview and presentation skills. Meurders is a veteran of Dutch television and has presented several programs on national Dutch television and ten Oever is a Dutch media specialist. In total, there are 8 participants from 2 different programs of Kurdsat, namely "Subject" and "Behind the News", taking part in the training.

IMCK director and senior trainer Judit Neurink offered staff of media offices of different departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sulaymaniya a two hour lecture on basic journalism. About twenty people were present in the language training room of the Residency office in Sulaymaniya. The lecture on Ocotber 26, 2011 was part of a training on working with media organised by Radio Nawxo in Sulaymaniya.

International trainer Gie Meeuwis started a 5 day training of trainers. The training, which started on Saturday October 22, is ment to prepare the trainers of Media bo Khalk for the third edition of this postgraduate course in journalism. The trainers that Meeuwis works with are Ameen Muhamad and Aram Saeed, and the training mainly focusses on TV making.

IMCK, together with Masallah and Kirkuk Journalists Group (KJG), started the first of three workshops on Natural Resources. On Saturday October 22, a group of 30 journalists from all over Iraq came to Erbil for a first training on Oil, Water and Gas. The project is initiated and funded by Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) Trainers are James Gavin, who is specialized in the subject and trained a group of Kurdish journalists for IMCK before, and Khaled Suleiman, who is one of IMCK's trainers and publishes on the subject in Kurdish and Arabic media. The workshop takes place at the IMCK training hall in Erbil. The workshop is the first of three; the 20 best participants will pass on to the next workshops in December and March. Participants come from all over Iraq. Working language is Arabic.

Trainer Walrick Halewijn gave a one-day selfdefence training for Lveen newspaper on October 19, 2011. The training took place at the IMCK training-hall in Sulaymaniya. There were 6 participants who were taught how to handle aggression directed at journalists and how to defend themselves in case of an attack. On October 20, 2011, Halewijn offered an afternoon training in selfdefence at the Hawlati newspaper office. There were six participants who took part in this training.

Trainer Walrick Halewijn trained photographers attached to the Kurdish organisation Metrography on self defence. The one day training took place on October 17, 2011 at the training hall of IMCK in Sulaymaniya. Sixteen photographers were very happy with the information offered on how to handle agression, and the exercises how to act if attacked. At Nawxo News Agency, he offered an afternoon of training (on October 18, 2011) which took place at the premises of the radio-station/newsagency in Sulaymaniya. About 18 members of the agency and radio staff attended.

In reaction to the violence against journalists in Kurdistan, IMCK started a series of one day trainings on selfdefence for journalists. The first workshop took place on October 16, 2011 at the IMCK training hall in Sulaymaniya. Trainer Walrick Halewijn trains on how to avoid agression, how to be aware of dangers and how to react when attacked.

Eddy van Wessel returned to Kurdistan to conduct another workshop on portrait photography. Van Wessel is an internationally admired photographer who traveled the world ( http://www.eddyvanwessel.com/ ). The training, that focusses on portrait photography but also covers basics, started on October 14, 2011 in the IMCK training hall in Erbil and lasts three days. The 11 participants are from Erbil and Kirkuk. Some of them work as reporters who also make pictures, some work as photographers.

Twelve editors and experienced journalists from different newspapers in Erbil joined IMCK on Saturday October 8, 2011 for an evening training on editioral subjects. The workshop of six late afternoons (4-7 PM) is the first that IMCK has organised for those journalists its normal trainings to not reach because of their working hours. Trainers are IMCK-trainers Ako Mohammed, Khaled Suleiman and Khaled Suleiman. The training will focus on text editing, making better leads and headlines, making stories more attractive to read and making them with the reader in mind.