INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

A big group of journalists gathered this morning to participate in the training on Human Rights and Illegal Migration; a cooperation between IMCK and STATT. The morning was opened by Goran Sabah from STATT who provided information and data on illegal migration. After that international trainer Ruth Hopkins and IMCK lead trainer Khaled Sulaiman took over. They will talk about the international human rights, laws considering illegal migration and how to turn these subjects in stories for media. More pictures of today's training can be found on Facebook .

International trainer Joris van de Kerkhof arrived in Sulaymaniya this morning at 4, for a three day training with radio makers from Radio Nawxo. Joris van de Kerkhof, together with our lead trainer Khaled Sulaiman and San Saravan who does the translating, trains on news for radio. Radio Nawxo is based in Sulaymaniya, a station that is there for the people, to inform people. Joris van de Kerkhof is an experienced radio maker and international trainer. He works with the biggest public news network in Holland, NOS. Find more pictures of today's training on our Facebook .

International trainer Rommert Kruithof started on Sunday November 25, 2012 on the second week of media training for the Kurdistan Parliament. Because of a national holiday, the first session of the week with three members of parliament took place outside the parliament, in the Safeer Hotel in Erbil. Kruithof is joined in the second week by international trainer Maria Frauenrath. Both are experienced trainers on the subject with politicians and CEO's all over the world. They are assisted by local trainers; Kurdish presenters of TV-stations in Iraqi Kurdistan. Pictures on Facebook .

International trainer Ruth Hopkins returned to Kurdistan to train a group of Kurdish journalists on human rights. With IMCK senior trainer Khidher Domle she offers a 5 day workshop on human rights issues and international law. The participants come from all over Iraqi Kurdistan. The training is meant to help journalists to specialize in the subject. A second workshop, for journalists from Arab speaking parts of Iraq will be held in December. The project is funded by the Swiss embassy in Amman. Pictures are to be found on Facebook .

The website Kirkuk Now received a Certificate of Honor from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) for the objective way of covering the news, stories and the activities in the city of Kirkuk. On November 7, 2012, Mohammed Najem, branch manager of IRCS-Kirkuk, presented the certificate to Kirkuk Now, as the site is “working to accomplish the principles of the charity organization and the principles of the Iraqi people”.  KirkukNow.com is set up by the IMCK, and it congratulates editor in chief Salam Ibrahim and his staff with the prize. Before the site got another Certificate of Honor from the Olympic Committee in Kirkuk, praising the website for being the front runner in covering news events of the province.  Kirkuk Now is the first and the only independent website in the city of Kirkuk that covers the news events and civilian stories in all the different languages of the communities.

IMCK's blog that results from the Environment Workshops in Erbil and Sulaymaniya is on line and has been updated. The blog shows stories that are the result of the workshops, where experts (from Nature Iraq and elsewhere) gave their views and shared some of their knowledge. The workshops were funded by the American Consulate in Erbil. Read Nature Now on this location .

IMCK coming Director Julia Shaw started the second part of IMCK's ToT on Social Media for Journalists in Sulaymanyah. On November 21, 2012 she started two days training with six of the participants to teach them how to convey their knowledge to others. Together with international trainer Marco Visser Julia will make these six participants ready to co-train in workshops IMCK's is going to organize in the rest of Iraq in 2013. The project is funded by the Dutch NGO Hivos.

Trainers to be on social media gathered in the media centre of IMCK in Sulaymaniya on November 18, 2012, to start a 5 day training. Trainers Marco Visser and Sardasht Aziz will train a second group of experts on social media to become (co)trainer for workshops for Iraqi journalists to be organised in 2013. The workshops are made possible by the Dutch NGO Hivos. Pictures are to be found on Facebook .

International media trainers Rommert Kruifhof and William Reeve started a ten day media training for the Kurdistan Parliament in Erbil. From 18 to 29 November IMCK is offering Kurdish parliamentarians media training to help them get their message across to the media and thus to the civilians. The training is taking place at the Parliament Building in Erbil, and is being conducted with support of the British consulate in Erbil, and the Speakers office in the Parliament. Kruithof is a senior international trainer with IMCK who has been training in Kurdistan since 2004. He trained Kurdish parliamentarians before in 2009. Reeve is ex-BBC and has experience in (media) training in different countries, amongst them Afghanistan. More pictures on Facebook.

IMCK senior trainer Khidher Domle started the second part of IMCK's ToT on Social Media for Journalists in Erbil. On November 14, 2012 he started a two day training with four of the participants to teach them how to convey their knowledge to others. Together with international trainer Marco Visser he will make these four participants ready to co-train in workshops IMCK's is going to organise in the rest of Iraq in 2013. The project is funded by the Dutch NGO Hivos. More pictures on Facebook.

Winter starting early in Kurdistan had its effects on the opening van the second part of the Environment Workshop by IMCK and Nature Iraq on November 12, 2012. The workshop started in the Eco Camp of Nature Iraq in Mergapan, outside Sulaymaniya, but had to be moved to the IMCK training hall in Sulaymaniya because of the heavy rain. The walk on the Piramygroon mountain that was planned as part of the first day, had to be canceled because of the muddy and slippery conditions of the terrain. The workshop started with British expert Tony Miller (of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh) talking about deforestation and the results for the mountains of Kurdistan. International trainer is Jan Michael Ihl, and he is seconded by co-trainer Shwan Mohamed, as lead training Khaled Sulaiman was away for urgent family reasons.T he website  Nature Now that is made for the workshop will be renewed with the stories that derive from this workshop.  The workshops are possible thanks t

How do journalists use social media to do their job? That is the main subject of a series of workshop IMCK will organize in Iraq in 2013 and 2014. To be able to do so, first the trainers for the project had to be trained. International trainer Marco Visser and local trainer Sardasht Aziz on November 11, 2012 started the first of two ToT's (training of trainer's) on Social Media for Journalists. In Erbil they teach six participants from all over Iraq how to use social media as a source and as a tool to get your information out. A second workshop will take place later this month in Sulaymania. The best trainers that come out of these two ToT's will be teaching in 2013 and 2014 on the subject for IMCK. The project is funded by the Dutch NGO Hivos. Photo's of the workshop are on Facebook .

International photographer Eddy van Wessel returned to Sulaymaniya and started a 3 day workshop for students of the Media Faculty of Sulaymaniya University. Fifteen students came to the training hall of the IMCK on Saturday November 10, 2012 to work with him on the basics of photography. The workshop is the result of cooperation of IMCK with Sulaymaniya University and the Department of Youth of the KRG Ministry of Culture. Van Wessel, a prize winning journalist, is a regular trainer with IMCK and works regularly in the Middle East and other conflict zones. The pictures are on Facebook .