INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

Due to the poor state of health of the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani IMCK, STATT and the Ministry of Culture decided to cancel the Documentary Festival 'Illusion of Paradise'.

IMCK, together with STATT and the Ministry of Culture, organizes Documentary Festival 'Illusion of Paradise' in Erbil on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 16-19.30. The central theme is illegal migration, we will show local and international documentaries, art work and photos. Please join us in Peshawa Hall!

IMCK trainer Sardasht Aziz leads a three day on the job training for PUK in Kirkuk. The participants will learn all about the use of social media like Facebook and twitter. Questions like how to find and spread news online, how to present your own profile and how to build up and maintain a network using social media will be discussed. Trainer Sardasht is accompanied by co-trainer Bahar. More pictures to be found on Facebook .

Finally... we found trainers who allow you to use your phone during trainings! Today is the kick off of the three day training of trainers 'story maker', making and spreading stories with a wireless reporting application. The international trainers, Brian and Steve, will show the participants how to use the newly developed application and how to get their news and stories spread. The application can provide a new way of working for civic reporters, human right workers and professional journalists. More photos of today's training are to be found on Facebook .

Julia is a journalist from the United Kingdom. She mostly worked with the BBC, producing programmes for BBC Radio 4, reporting and training journalists. She was also Head of Development and senior producer with an independent Television production company. Until a few months ago she ran Television Journalism on the M.A. Broadcast Journalism course at the University of Central Lancashire. Julia Shaw: ''Becoming Director of IMCK is a great challenge and one I am looking forward to very much. I share the vision and values of IMCK and hope to develop and grow our organisation."

Friends and colleagues gathered last night to say a fond farewell to IMCK Director, Judit Neurink. The Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan was founded five years ago by Judit Neurink to raise the standard and quality of journalism throughout the region. Each year IMCK has conducted over 50 projects, mainly workshops, and on the job consultancies for media, politicians and public officials. Judit is well known for her tireless efforts on behalf of all journalism. She is a highly respected journalist and expert on media issues in Iraqi Kurdistan. She is not leaving the country, she continues as a writer, journalist and media consultant. The IMCK staff considers Judit as family. We will miss her a lot, but are grateful for all that she did for us, both on professional and personal level. Luckily for us she only left the building, not the country! More pictures of the reception are to be found on Facebook .

A group of 19 journalists arrives this morning at IMCK to kick off a 2 day training on illegal migration and radio. The journalists work for various radio stations in Kurdistan. Hazhar Taha from STATT started this morning with a presentation on illegal migration. After that international trainer Joris van de Kerkhof and IMCK lead trainer Khaled Sulaiman took over. They will train the group on how to translate the subject illegal migration into items for radio. More pictures of today can be found on Facebook .