INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

Alumni from the IMCK postgraduate course Media bo Khalk (Media for People) visited the Mesopotamian marshes in the southern Iraqi province Basra in March 2012. The old students were on assignments for international and local media. During the late eighties and nineties draining of the marshes took place under the Saddam regime. Before 2003 the marshes shrunk to 10% of their original (20.000 km2) size. Nowadays they have partially recovered, but drought along with upstream dam construction and operation in Turkey, Syria and Iran have hindered the process. The alumni went to the city of Chibaish, the Central and Hammar Marsh to see how people were living there and the problems the area faces. After finishing their education about 70% of all students found work in print and broadcast journalism in Iraq and outside. Munaf Al Saidy (27) is a talented print journalist and photographer for the German news agency Deutsche Welle . See the photo-story Munaf Ghanim has made for DW about...

    In close cooperation with the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, IMCK has organized two workshops of a day to inform journalists about the Kurdish Iraqi heritage, and to stimulate them to think about the subject in a journalistic way. On the 4th of April, Director of the Suleymaniya Museum gave a lecture and IMCK trainer Khidher Domle gave a training on the importance of the historical heritage for journalists. How to report on the national heritage, how to find out what is still left and where, how to find out what the policy is of the authorities in Kurdistan, how to inform the public about the importance of their national heritage and about the ways to stop buildings from crumbling still more. For more pictures visit our Facebook .  

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.

Dutch lawyer Frank van Haren returned to Kurdistan for a transparency of government training in Duhok. From March 28 till April 5 he did two workshops, one for 15 journalists and one for 18 lawyers and politicians from KDP. IMCK is organising these workshops to increase the trust between press and politicians. He advised journalists to create a network with politicians they can contact to check facts, and he advised politicians to do the same with journalists they can contact to get their story out. Politicians should not be afraid of journalists. They should react to criticism; this is the way to inform the people, Van Haren said. ,,By reacting they can explain why a decision was made, or why criticism is not reasonable.'' Politicians should learn how they can also use journalists to get their message to the (potential) voters, also through independent media. Van Haren also had a meeting with judges, whom he advised to make a database of their verdicts. This should be open to ...

What is an responsible journalist and why is he/she important for the Kurdish media? More then twenty young people from all over Kurdistan wanted to know the answer to this question. IMCK-director and senior trainer Judit Neurink held a workshop for the group 'young leaders', during a week of workshops organized for them by the Kurdish ministry of Youth and Sport. Press freedom cannot be complete, Neurink told them. A responsible journalist tries to inform the people without causing damage to the subjects he writes about. He works inside the culture and has to always take into account the possible result of what he writes or reports. His role in a democracy is to act as a translator between people and politicians, and to report in an honest and independent way on the society and on politics.

The workshop on transparency of government, given by Dutch lawyer Frank van Haren, ended in Irbil on December 21 with certificates for 29 participants. Van Haren did two workshops of 4 days each, one for journalists and one for lawyers and politicians. He ended his stay in Irbil with an evening with Kurdish judges. All participants were very enthusiastic about the content of the workshop. Van Haren expects to come back to Kurdistan to give the same workshop in Duhok later in 2009.

'States should have taxes', says Frank van Haren, trainer on the Transparency of Government workshop in Erbil, 'so the people who pay them have a right and a reason to ask something in return. That makes them more eager to check what the government is doing with their money.' That is one of the central issues Van Haren brought up during the first days of his workshop in Erbil. He is informing 15 journalists from different media Erbil in 4 days about the background of good governance and transparency of government. His main point is what is democracy, and what else is needed but elections to make it work. Later in the week Van Haren will also lead a workshop on the same subject for lawyers and politicians in Erbil. The workshops are organiazed in cooperation with the Erbil Journalists' Syndicate and the Kurdistan Organization for Civil Development (KOCD), and take place at the premises of KOCD.

Thirteen Kurdish journalists started November 15 in Irbil on a three day training on text editing. The training was organised by IMCK together Kurdistan Journalist Syndicate in Irbil and the Kurdish Organisation for Civil Development. The training will teach experience journalists how to edit the texts of their colleagues, before they are printed. This should help to make Kurdish newspapers more attractive and stories and newsitems more reliable. The participants are from different print media in Irbil, both partymedia and (semi-) independent. The trainers are Judit Neurink (director IMCK and senior trainer) and Khidr Domle (freelance journalist and trainer for IMCK).

Speech by Judit Neurink, director of IMCK, after the death of Lveen-journalist Soran Mama Hama, in July 2008 Monday my good friend Yahya Basindji of Avene and AP was wounded when he was beaten up by a mob after a bombblast in Kirkuk. Last week my former student Soran Mama Hama of Lveen was assasinated in Kirkuk. Being a journalist in Iraq is a dangerous profession, we all know. And that is because so many people do not realize how important press freedom is for a nation. Without press freedom, no democracy. Those two are linked tightly. Because in a democracy, the media check on politicians and their actions, give civilians a voice and show what is happening in society. How long will we have to wait until Iraq is a democracy, and authorities will understand that they have to protect journalists, in stead of threatening them? That by letting these things happen, they do not show strength, but weakness, even fear? Fear for a press that is doing what it should be doing… Look at the murder...

The Independent Media Centre will bring experienced European journalists to Kurdistan, who want to share their knowledge with their Kurdish colleagues. Teaching will be done mostly in workshops, and part of the trainings will take place at the training hall of the Media Centre in Sulaymaniya. On the job training course will of course mainly take place at the media premises The Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan is working with a combination of Dutch (and international) and Kurdish trainers. These are the bridge between the European trainer and the Kurdish journalists. This way the Media Centre in the future will have formed its own supply of Kurdish trainers, who will also train new trainers. The centre will be working in co ordinance with Kurdish institutes on education of journalists.