INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRE KURDISTAN

,,We need a credible media'', said the Kurdish prime minister Nerchirvan Barzani at the opening of the new Kurdish newsagency AK. ,,Independent media have to strenghten democracy.'' It was for the first time the Kurdish PM showed his strong support for independent media in the north of Iraq. He criticized the role of media that let themselves be manipulated to deform information. Kurdistan needs an independent newsagency to inform the people, and to show the world what is happening there, was his message. In the past Kurds have suffered from media that distorted the facts. ,,That's why it took so long in the 80's for news on the genocide in Kurdistan to reach the world.'' AK is an independent Kurdish newsagency, that operates in Kurdish, Arabic and English from Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq. The IMCK has helped AK by offering training to the staff since June 2008.

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).

Pictures from Najaf were shown on November 11 in Irbil. The exhibition will be in Sulaymaniya from November 15. IMCK made this first personal exhibition of Alaa al-Marjani 's possible. After attending the photo journalism course of Eddy van Wessel, his exhibition was opened of pictures from daily life in Najaf, of displaced Iraqi's and of mass graves in the South of Iraq. Al-Marjani publishes for AP.

Eddy van Wessel, the international photographer from Holland, is back in Kurdistan. He will be doing a workshop for his Kurdish colleagues in Irbil on telling a story in a picture. The best pictures from the last workshop he did in Sulaymaniya (in June 2008) can still be seen in the training hall of the IMCK. The workshop in Irbil (from November 6-10) has been organised by IMCK in coordination with Media Work Development Organization.

Training media in Kurdistan ( by Henk van Setten) It's obvious, that people in Iraqi Kurdistan have long been derived from influences of the West. Although internet is now accepted here as an instrument of information and entertainment, marketing still is something very foreign. In four 3 day courses I try to teach three newspapers and a TV-station the basics of thinking in a structured and commercial way. Both the readers market and the market for advertisement have to be developed. The interest and eagerness to learn of the people are enormous. Whether the theory is going to be used for real, the future will lean.

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.