INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

International photographer Eddy van Wessel returned to Kurdistan. He offered twenty photographers from Iraq a masterclass in photography. The participants are both from the Kurdish region and from Iraq. The workshop takes place from August 26 -29, 2009, at the training hall of the IMCK in Sulaymaniya. Because of the size of the group, the class is split up in a Kurdish morning session and an Arabic afternoon session. Van Wessel has been training at IMCK two times before. His participants are mainly working for the main newspapers and websites in Sulaymaniya, and for media in Arabic Iraq. The workshop is co-sponsored by SIMI (Supporting Independent Media in Iraq) in Baghdad. On one of the training days he had help from co-trainer and AP-photographer Yahya Barzinji, who talked about the practical sides of working as a photographer.

Sixteen journalists and correspondents from different papers and press agencies in Iraq gathered in the Melia Mansour in Baghdad for an IMCK-training on making a news reportage. The workshop started on August 15, 2009. In four days the journalists will be taught what news is, how to use sources, how to conduct a succesful interview and how to make a news reportage. The short news feature is a form of journalism not often used in Iraq. For IMCK this is the first training in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Before now Iraqi journalists from the South came up to the Kurdish region to be trained, but IMCK wants to be able to reach more journalists. Senior trainer Judit Neurink is testing the waters to see if the situation in Baghdad has improved enough. She is working with co-trainer Kholoud al-Amiry, and translator Ahmed Jibouri who came with her from the IMCK office in Irbil. The training is a joint activity with Simi, the Iraqi Irex-daughter working for Independent Media in Iraq.