INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

After two successful workshops in Sulaymaniya about the national heritage in Iraq, IMCK organized a third one in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan. The goal of the course was to inform a group of journalists about the necessity to raise awareness among the Iraqi population for the preservation of the national heritage. It is of great importance that journalists have a better understanding of the problems that historical sites in Iraq face and how institutions try to preserve artefacts. The participants visited the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage and attended a lecture by senior-trainer Khidher Domle in the IMCK training hall. National heritage Iraq has one of the oldest cultural histories in the world. Iraq is where the Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations were, whose legacy went on to influence and shape the civilizations of the Old World. Therefore Iraq has a very rich heritage. Ashur , Hatra , and the archaeological city of Samarra are three...

On 29 April 2012, IMCK started with the first day of the workshop for journalists, photographers and cameraman to become good trainers in their line of field. Belgium trainer Gie Meeuwis came to Sulaymaniya to share his knowledge on how to train students on topics related to journalism. Gie Meeuwis is an experienced journalist and has been working as trainer of journalists since 1995. Seven participants from different media attended the course. During the course the focus was on how to set up a training for adult students. Gie Meeuwis gave the participants guidelines in how to get their knowledge across, how to evaluate themselves and their future students, and steps in what is important in setting up a training. The training of trainers course will continue for the next two days. See our Facebook for more pictures of the first day.

Belgian trainer Gie Meeuwis started the first of three workshops on election reporting at the traininghall of the IMCK in Sulaymaniya. The first day, on February 15, 2010, was attended by eleven journalists from different media. Elections for a new Iraqi parliament will be held in the whole of Iraq on March 7. Meeuwis is a TV-maker and teaches at one of the academies of journalism in the Netherlands. He has conducted election trainings for journalists in a number of foreign countries. His co-trainer is Salam Omar Ibrahim, and translator is Ferman Fadhil. This workshop will be repeated twice, once more in Sulaymaniya and once in Irbil, on February 17. The workshops are made possible with funding from the American RRT in Irbil and the UNDP. The High Committee of the Elections (IHEC) is participating by giving the journalists information on the legal and technical sides of the election process.

Water is life, is the motto of three workshops for journalists IMCK senior trainers Judit Neurink and Xdir Domle are conducting in Erbil. In three afternoons they try to interest journalists to write about water problems, as Iraq is one of the countries in the world with the highest usuge of water in the world. They explain how to make water news. The workshops are the upbeat to a competition for the best story on water, which will be rewarded with a visit to the Waterweek in Stockholm in September 2010. They are part of an awareness campagne led by the Swedisch ngo Global Reporting in cooperation with the Kurdish authorities.

Journalists from Iraqi Wasit (Al-Kut) province returned to Sulaymaniya for the last phase of the 'press and politicians' project IMCK organised. They stayed for 4 days for a number of workshops, hosted by Al-Jazeera journalist Hassan Rachidi and IMCK senior trainer Xdir Domle, and visits to politicians and media in Sulaymaniya. The workshops started on October 12, 2009. The journalists came to Kurdistan to meet up with politicians from Wasit who were also trained in this project, for a final conference on how press and politicians can work together. But for technical reasons their counterparts did not make the trip North. In stead of the conference IMCK offered the journalists additional information on how to work responsibly, and arranged a press conference for them at the Head Office of the Change List in Sulaymaniya. Also visits to Kurdish media were organised.

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.

Nine young journalists joined Dutch radiomaker Fieneke Diamand at the IMCK for a 3 day workshop on background radio. The workshop started at July 26, 2009. Diamand has been working for most of her career in radio, and is specialized in background programs. She worked with the participants on formula's, idea's, how to keep a longer program interesting, etc. She also visited a number of radio stations in Sulaymaniya and Halabja to discuss ways to make background programs more interesting.

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.

Politicians and civil servants from Wassit (Al- Kut ) traveled to Irbil for workshops on the relation between politicians and the press. Four trainers from the Netherlands will brief them on how important a good relation is between press and politicians, and how to get their message across. During the week they are staying in Irbil this group of 17 people from the Iraqi province of Wassit will also be in contact with Kurdish colleagues. Trainers are Gerrit Valk and Rian van Dam, who are conducting two workshops on the importance of improving the relationship with the press to reach out to the voters. Valk is on his fourth visit to Iraq. Rommert Kruithof and Liesbeth Groenendijk are giving all the participants a media training of a day, in which they are taught how to get their message across. Kruithof is on his sixth visit to Iraq. Both have done these trainings extensively for politicians, CEO's and top managers in the Netherlands. The workshops are mirrored on a...

Six former students and trainers from outside joined IMCK-trainers Xdir Domle and Shwan Muhamed for 3 days to learn how to be a co-trainer for IMCK. They will be working in future trainings of the mediacentre, along side the international trainer leading the workshop. They are also asked to use their knowledge to help their own colleagues to improve their work. New trainers are Salam Omer Ibrahim, Sardasht Aziz Mahmud, Eron Omer Alias, Esmael Ebrahim, Muhamed Kazm and Muhammed Suleiman Kadir. They will be employed in future workshops on Info graphics, internet sites and on the Media bo Khalq post graduate training starting in August.

Liesbeth van War-merdam started a workshop on design for IMCK with PUK-newspaper Kurdistani Nwe. The workshop, which started at the offices of the newspaper in Sulaymaniya on Saturday June 20, will last 5 days. Van Warmerdam is a freelance designer, who worked with the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool. She will advise the designers of Kurdistani Nwe on modernising their design and rearranging the front page. The on-the-job training was made possible thanks to funding through the American reconstruction fund.

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.

Writing a scenario is the first step to a successful documentary. Seven TV-makers at Kurdsat started on May 12, 2009 on a workshop on scenario writing. Trainer is Nafiss Nia, a TV-maker from Holland. She will train them on choosing ideas for documentaries, writing and rewriting a scenario, what works for TV and what does not. The workshop runs till May 16.

Three Dutch parliamentary reporters came to Irbil to help their Kurdish colleagues to extend their knowledge on how to report on politics and on the parliament. Hans Otte, Milja de Zwart and Roel Geeraedts all worked in this field for years. Otte is leading the training, as he did a civil journalism training with IMCK last year. With the elections coming the three Dutch reporters also try to teach colleagues in Kurdistan how to inform people to help them cast their votes. In Irbil, at the building of Aras Publishing, on April 21 they started a workshop of 7 days with 3 groups of journalists: working in print, radio and TV. Co-trainers are Xdir Domle, Shwan Muhamed and Ako Mohammed. The project is part of a project IMCK has started to create more understanding between reporters and politicians, and is partly funded by the American reconstruction fund.

Environment is important, but does not get the attention it should in Kurdistan because the region has so many other problems, Kaka Ibrahim said, the director of the department of Planning at the Environment Ministry in Irbil. IMCK-trainer Andre van der Vlugt visited him before starting a workshop Environment for Journalists in the Kurdish capital. Ibrahim agreed that climate change is the main issue of the moment and the future, but indicated his ministry can only collect information and share it with the ministers and the public. 'And politicians do not listen.' Andre van der Vlugt is a former journalist who is now working for the international environmental organisation Greenpeace. On April 14 he started a 5 day workshop at the training of IWPR in Irbil for 15 journalists of print, radio and TV. Partner organisation is Media Development Organisation in Irbil.

Presentors, editor and journalists at Kurdsat TV in Sulaymaniya on April 9 finished a five day workshop on interviewing and presenting. Dutch TV-reporter and actor Paul Grijpma also practised with them how to make a reportage and a good voice-over. ,,You are lucky in Kurdistan, to have news on every street corner'', Grijpma told his students, ,,I wish we had that in Holland too!'' His workshop was very practical, with a lot of exercises and almost real life situations. All ten participants succesfully practised the 'stand-upper', inside and on the spot, always with the camera running and to be commented on afterwards.

Nine radio reporters from different stations in Sulaymaniya have started a five day workshop at the IMCK. Dutch trainer (and reporter for national Dutch radio) Joris van de Kerkhof is working with them on making reportages for radio. His main aim is to teach the participants how to use sound in their reports. His co-trainer is Mohsin Adib.

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.

IMCK has trained five new co-trainers for its workshops on basic journalism and civil journalism. Senior trainers Xdir Domle and Shwan Muhamed took three days (4-6 December 2008) to extend their knowledge on training to the new candidates. Abdullah Sabir, Nawzad Jamal, Shahnaz Zebary, Mohsin Adib and Ako Muhammed will be assistant trainers in the workshops IMCK is organizing in the coming months.