INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

The Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan works to develop media and empower minorities and women in Iraq. IMCK offers training to journalists of all media, consultancy to editors and management, workshops for photographers, Internet courses for newspaper sites and Media training to politicians. In 2009 IMCK started his first postgraduate course, Media bo Khalk, for students from the whole of Iraq. (( المركز الاعلامي المستقل في كردستان منظمة تهتم بتطوير الاعلام وقضايا الاقليات والمرأة في العراق))

The Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan works to develop media and empower minorities and women in Iraq. IMCK offers training to journalists of all media, consultancy to editors and management, workshops for photographers, Internet courses for newspaper sites and Media training to politicians. In 2009 IMCK started his first postgraduate course, Media bo Khalk, for students from the whole of Iraq. (( المركز الاعلامي المستقل في كردستان منظمة تهتم بتطوير الاعلام وقضايا الاقليات والمرأة في العراق))

The training on Social media for Kurdish Journalists Sullaymaniya February 2015 In order to help Kurdish journalists IMCK organized training for journalists about “ Social media for Kurdish Journalists ”: Sullaymaniya 11, 12, 13 February. The content of the training: Before we beginning of the training I sent the email for 350 persons when they work on TV, Radio, websites, newspape.and there are 38 persons sent to us CV, after that we chose him. Who is they need and will be interesting about the training finely we selected 14 Journalists The Journalists from One in Erbil One in Darbandikhan One in Sharazwer, and eleven from Sulaimanyah . Trainer: Sardasht Aziz Days of the training: 3 days. In the first day of the training the trainer talked about Facebook and how you create own page and the list it will be easy for Journalists to put the subjects and the article on a page to see people in an easy way. In the second day , they continue facebook page till 12 ...

In order to raise awareness among journalists of the importance of minorities in Iraq and Kurdistan, IMCK has started its first (out of three) workshop(s) on minorities in Iraq. Journalist, writer and trainer Sa’ad Salloum opens the first session by introducing the journalists to the different topics that are related to the rich diversity that can be found in Iraq's ethnic, cultural and religious landscape.  Most of the participant are, besides journalist, belonging to a minority group themselves. At this first day, Sa'ad  has lectured on, inter alia, the complexities and problems of  minorities in Iraq, minorities rights in Iraqi law and the possible implications of the International Human Rights Declaration. >IMCK likes to thank the British Foreign & Common Wealth Office and the British Embassy in Iraq for funding this workshop<

The first part of IMCK workshop on Knowledge Awareness of Oil and Gas finishes in Kalar Ali Ghazi from Nature Iraq explains how oil and gas impact on the environment and IMCK journalism trainer Khaled Suleiman helps the journalists develop story ideas.   Part 2 of the workshop is in Sulaymaniya in December.  Experts on  oil and gas will give information to help journalists become more specialized on the topic. 

Journalists specializing in reporting on oil and gas begin a four day training workshop in Kalar. Each day an expert gives a presentation on   the topic, and journalists work to develop story ideas . Journalists are from the main TV Radio   Newspapers and Internet websites in the Garmiyan Region, Sulaymaniya and Erbil. Today they learn how oil fields are developed and oil is taken from the ground. The workshop   is supported by Western Zagross.

Journalists from (Baghdad, Thi- Qar, Basrah, Wasit, Karballa, Diwanyah, Diyalla, Anbar, Najaf, Kirkuk and Mosul) meet together to form the final storymaker group in Iraq. The group have learn how to report on their smart phones and are already preparing sto ries for the Storymaker and social media platforms. During this next month they will work with IMCK  trainers to improve their journalism.

The second group of  17 journalists from all over Iraq completed their training today with IMCK. Trainers Khalid  Suleiman, Munaf Ghanim and Ahmed Jobori worked with the journalists for the past five days helping film and edit reports, make photo stories and audio reports on the Storymaker App. Mustafa Al Ani coordinated the workshop and joined the trainers to instruct on filming and editing techniques. The App was developed by IMCK’s Dutch partners Free Press Unlimited with a Californian  group of software programmers and is a response to the Arab Spring of 2011.  With the smart phone App journalists can report from their mobile phones and securely upload their stories.  This gives great flexibility to  report in areas of conflict, in difficult situations and also in everyday news gathering. Photographer Kamaran Najim, Head of Metrography, Iraq’s first photo agency,  inspired the journalists to take  creative photos and ma...

IMCK and Statt run a series of workshops on Illegal migration from Iraq   and the effects on the families left behind. 50 thousand Iraqis have been refused asylum in Europe with nearly 13 thousand Iraqis applying for asylum in 2012   in the EU   (UNHCR data) . IMCK trains journalists to practice responsible, ethical journalism and to broaden their news agenda to write about a broader range of topics.    There will be a prizes for the best stories produced from the workshops. In the first series of workshops,   ended today,   participants came from Sulaymaniya, Chomchomal, Ranyia, Qaladzia, Arbat and Saed Sardq.   The workshops are supported by Statt   Consulting who provides an expert trainer to give information about illegal migration.   IMCK social media trainer teaches the participants how to use the internet and social media for   news sources and IMCK lead journalist trainer Khallid Suleiman works ...

IMCK's latest training in social media comes to an end today. 15 participants from all over Iraq - Anbar, Babylon, Karballa, Kirkuk, Wasit, Mosul, and Baghdad traveled to Sulaymaniya to learn how to use the internet and social media for serious journalism.   Security is a big feature of the workshop - how to use facebook and twitter safely and professionally to gather news and to broadcast news.  The training is supported by Hivos, the Dutch humanist international development organisation.   Participants came from print and online media, civilian journalists civil society organisations.  Mustafa Al-Ani co-ordinated the training and the two trainers - Bahar Jassim and Mustafa Saad both trained by IMCK supported by Hivos, led the three day workshops. The partipants presented  IMCK with a plaque of appreciation. IMCK Director Julia Shaw closed the workshop and presented the certificates.

IMCK storymaker particpants are invited to  Metography - Iraq's first photo agency founded three years ago by photo journalist  Kameran  Najm. The  participants had a lively debate with Metography's photo journalists and were inspired with ideas and  information from Kameran on how they can improve their photo stories.   

A new group of 17 participants came to IMCK today to learn about the StoryMaker application. This application enables participants to make items (video and audio) with their mobile phones and upload them to a secure platform. The participants are being trained for 5 days by Khaled Sulaiman, Munaf Ghanim and Ahmed Eljbori. Ahmed was one of the best participants in an earlier StoryMaker group. He joined the IMCK training team after he followed two days Training of Trainers lead by Khidher Domle. IMCK runs the StoryMaker project together with Dutch NGO Free Press Unlimited. StoryMaker has also been launched in Morocco and Egypt and Tunisia. After this training is finished, the 17 participants will go home to practice with StoryMaker. They will come back after one month to discuss their material. IMCK wishes all the new StoryMakers the best.

The Independent Media Center in Kurdistan is training television and radio journalists in Kifri in broadcast journalism. The training is led by a team of journalists and trainers; Abdullah Sabir, Khaled Sulaiman and IMCK director Julia Shaw. The participants, who all work with the main television and radio channels, are trained in the practical skills of filming and recording audio. For this training IMCK partnered with the House of Culture for Children in Kifri.

What can people do to protect the environment? That is a big question in the 3 day environment awareness training that started in IMCK’s office in Sulaymaniyah. The training was opened on Sunday by IMCK director Julia Shaw. The Director of the Environment Department of Sulaymaniyah, Mr Hama Saeed, and Mr. Khaled Ibrahim, the Spokesman of the Environmental Protection and Improvement Board. The main subjects of the training were desertification, biodiversity and water management. Various experts (Amanj Omer from Green Kurdistan and Dr. Dairy, the head of Geology Department of the College of Science, Sulaymaniyah University) informed the participants about the subjects and IMCK lead trainer Khaled Sulaiman taught the trainees how to translate these topics into journalistic reports. 'Reduce, reuse, recycle and repair' is a slogan, and a message, that fits the training, because working towards a better environment starts with yourself. Everyone could and should be a guar...

Cake at the closing of the StoryMaker training on Monday. For two reasons; to celibrate a successful training and to say goodbye to trainer Khaled Sulaiman who has worked with IMCK for 3 years. We congratulate Khaled with his new job and wish him all the best. Saying goodbye is never easy, but IMCK is thankful for all the good times we had together!

After training them in the use of the StoryMaker application, our first group of StoryMaker students returned to IMCK for a 4 day follow-up. StoryMaker enables you to make a journalistic report with a mobile phone and to upload this report in a safe way. Using StoryMaker, you have got your journalistic equipment with you all the time and can report whenever you come across a story or event. The best StoryMaker reports will be published on our website as well, so keep posted! More pictures of this training are to be found on facebook .

See how your friends are doing, letting people know what you are up to, posting some pictures ... what do you use Social Media for? IMCK runs a 3 day training in Sulaymaniyah on Social Media to show journalists how many more possibilities there are. Social Media can be very important to journalists, to find sources, connect to people, build a network, spread news and find news. In this training, lead by trainers Sardasht Aziz, Baheer and Mustafa, the use of Facebook and Twitter for journalists is explained. The trainers also pay attention to online safety. More pictures of this training are to be found on the IMCK Facebook page.

The IMCK training space in Erbil has been filled with active print and online journalists for the past two days. They joined in on a workshop about illegal emigration and investigative journalism. After the training was opened by IMCK Director Julia Shaw, a representative from STATT – Goran Sabah – gave a presentation on illegal emigration. Then, the attention of the participants went to international trainer Delwyn Swingewood. Swingewood is a course leader in newspaper journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. The trainer took the participants through case studies and suggested areas for investigation. Some of the subjects discussed were setting up investigative stories, the definition of an investigative story, using the subject illegal emigration, how to use and in some cases protect sources, how to check facts and journalistic ethics. After two days IMCK could hand out 17 certificates to the involved participants. More pictures of this training can be fo...

IMCK Director Julia Shaw flew off to Turkey last week, to join a conference initiated by Free Press Unlimited; the main partner of IMCK. From the 12th - 14th June Free Press Unlimited partners from over 40 countries around the world gathered in Istanbul. All those attending are working on projects carrying out Free Press Unlimited's message: 'People deserve to Know'.