INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

The new Dutch ambassador in Iraq, Peter van Leeuwen paid a visit to the offices of IMCK in Sulaymaniya, on Sunday October 11, 2009. It was his first visit since he became the ambassador to Iraq earlier this year. Van Leeuwen spoke to IMCK director Neurink and was informed about the work of the Independent Media Centre. The Netherlands is financially supporting the IMCK-course Media bo Khalq, which runs in Irbil.

Radiomaker Joris van de Kerkhof arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan for the third time to conduct a workshop for IMCK in making radio. This time the participants of Media bo Khalq, the post graduate training of IMCK in Irbil, are his students. Van de Kerkhof will train them on the basics of radio making, to give them a better choice of what they like in journalism. Another reason for the training, which brings both the print and TV group of the course together, is that journalists more and more have to be multi medial. The training started on October 11 and will end on October 14, and takes place in the training rooms of Media bo Khalq in the Hotel Safeer in Irbil.

The TV-group of IMCK's post graduate training Media bo Khalq/Media for People started a training on TV news. Dutch TV-maker Karin Greep started with the group on Monday 28 September 2009, together with lead trainer Xdir Domle. Greep will teach them what news is, how to find it and how to report it. Her four day training will end in making newsitems by all members of the group. The training is taking place in the traininghall for TV of Media bo Khalq in Irbil. Karin Greep has been working in journalism for almost 25 years, first radio and the past 7 years in TV news programs on Dutch TV.

Dutch trainer Tanja van Bergen on September 5, 2009 starts a four day training on 'theories in print journalism' for the print students at Media bo Khalq. She is the first foreign trainer for the participants of the post graduate training in Irbil, next to the local Iraqi trainers who work with them 5 days a week. Van Bergen has been working as a newspaper journalist at Het Parool in Amsterdam and is a teacher at the School of Journalism in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

A British diplomatic delegation visited the students at the Media bo Khalq course in Irbil on Tuesday afternoon September 1, 2009. The deputy head of mission in Baghdad, Jon Wilks, and the British consul general in the Kurdish region of Iraq, Jeremy Macadie, allowed the students to interview them for more than an hour. Great Britain has granted IMCK part of the funding necessary to run the post graduate course for Iraqi Arabs and Kurds in Irbil. The training runs for 8 months and started in August 1, 2009.

August 1 rst , 2009 saw the start of Media bo Khalq , Al- I'elam lil nass , Media for People, the post graduate training in journalism of IMCK . The Kurdish minister of Culture Falahadin Kakei opened the training of young Iraqi graduates, together with minister of Foreign Relations of KRG , Falah Mustafa . While Mr Kakei talked about his past as a journalist, Mr Mustafa called the 'encouragement of a professional and free press one of the key facets' to the Kurdish social process. ,,The KRG fully believes in supporting and encouraging the establishment of a free and professional media in the Kurdistan Region'', he said. ,,Also in the US it took generations before there were good journalists'', Andrew Snow, the US Embassy Regional Reconstruction Team leader told the audience of diplomats , press and trainees. ,,Press Now is proud to be supporting the IMCK and thus Media bo Khalq '', director Leon Willems said. They joined the two Kurdish ...

IMCK -trainers are getting ready for starting the post graduate course in journalism, Media bo Khalq , on August 1, 2009. Xdir Domle , Ako Muhamed , Mazen al - Taer and Salam Ibrahim will train 30 participants from all over Iraq to become independent journalists. Canadian TV-maker Don North takes them through the details of TV-making and how to share this knowledge with the students that will join the training in Irbil . Media bo Khalk (Media for People) will be officially opened on August 1 in Irbil by a number of Kurdish and international officials.

Trainers for the Media bo Khalq project of IMCK were helped by their Dutch colleague Hans Maas to put together a curriculum for the post graduate training in journalism that starts on August 1, 2009. They worked on it for 3 days, from July 5 till July 7, 2009. Maas leads the Dutch equivalent of Media bo Khalq , a eight month course to teach graduates how to become a journalist. The Rotterdam Erasmus University has a training like that called for short PDOJ (Post Graduate Course in Journalism). Trainers for Media bo Khalq (Media for People) are Xdir Domle (lead trainer), Ako Muhammed (print), Salam Omer Ibrahim (TV) and Mazen al Taer (TV). Media bo Khalq is set up with financial aid from the Netherlands, the USA and the Kurdish prime minister. It will teach 30 students from all over Iraq. Participants still can apply, although the selection procedure has started.

A unique project for Iraq will start in Irbil in August 2009. IMCK starts a journalism training for post graduates which will last for 8 months. At 'Media bo Khalq' 30 graduates from universities in the whole of Iraq, both Kurdish and Arabic, will be trained in Irbil to become a journalist. That was the message of a press conference by IMCK on Thursday June 18, 2009, at the Safeer Hotel in Irbil. IMCK-director Judit Neurink introduced lead trainer Khidr Domle and trainers Ako Muhammed and Goran Lohan to the press, and informed those attending about the details of the post graduate training. Next to local trainers, teaching in Kurdish and Arabic, international trainers will be invited to do workshops from time to time. Participants are asked to come forward no later then July 5. The best 30 will be selected on talent, curiosity and abilities. Twenty of them will get board and lodgings in the Safeer Hotel in Irbil, where the training will also take place.