INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

Marc van Willeghagen started January 23 his second infographics training for journalists from all over Iraq. 15 TV-journalists are in Erbil to participate in the 5-day course. The co-trainer was trained in November by Gie Meeuwis in his training of trainers. Part of the course is payed by Irex and it takes place at Irex in Erbil.

Marc van Willeghagen started his 5-day infographics for TV training for Kurdish participants of different media outlets on January 16. Because infographics are hardly used the Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan and Irex Iraq work together in this workshop for editors who want to learn to make info graphics. The program will be set up as a workshop to teach on the basis of the work participants create.

On December 23 IMCK the last phase of the 'bringing press and politicians together' took place. . Journalists were be invited to tell the politicians how they would ideally like to see the relationship develop between themselves and politicians and vice-versa. Asos Shafeek, former employee of the ministry of youth and sport, moderated the one day during conference between politicians and journalists.

Alan Rawlinson, university teacher from the UK, started on December 15 his 4-day training for the students of Media bo Khalq. He will learn the students the basics of writing an analysis and putting their opinions in a column. The trainer will teach the students about the content of analysis and the difference between analysis and opinion pieces. Students will be trained in how they can build these specific kind of articles and how to make them attractive for the reader.

Ako Sirini, a Kurdish filmmaker who lived in Holland for several years, started on December 15 a documentary training for the students of Media bo Khalq. He will learn the students the basics of how to make a good and interesting documentary. Ako will assist the students in the process of making their own documentary.

All newspapers have problems with distribution. On the one hand they only have a number of shops where they are sold, and transport problems make it impossible to get them to the smaller, far away places on the same day. Job Muller and Frans Robert Buerman, arrived in Sulaymania on December 11, in order to be of help in making a plan for setting up a joint distribution system. They will have meetings with the editors-in-chief of four different newspapers.

After David van der Pluijm and Paul van Stigt finished their training at Media bo Khalq they went to Sulaymania to improve the skills of the editors of Kurdsat TV. The trainers will be at the television station and will teach the participants on the job. This means they will make little use of classical sessions, but there will be occasional meetings on different subjects with the people who are involved. They started their 5-day training on December 12.