"18th Term of War Journalism Training Program" Started with Contributions from TİKA

The "18th Term of War Correspondent Training" for 22 Azerbaijani media members, organized in cooperation with Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), Anadolu Agency (AA) and the Police Academy has started. This training is aimed to train operational reporters who will serve in war, disaster, and emergencies.

At the opening ceremony held at the Anıttepe Campus of the Police Academy, Deputy Head of the Police Academy Fatih İnal made a speech. Stating that the "War Journalism Training Program", which has been carried out with 277 participants from 38 countries, is an internationally important project of the Police Academy, İnal noted that they would be also "trained for the difficult conditions". İnal said: "We will share our knowledge and experience, focusing on how press members working in media organizations should perform this job, how to ensure their safety, and how to convey accurate and quality news to the world."

AA Deputy Director General Oğuz Enis stated that the training was held in Peru for the first time in 2012, and 18th term is being held this year. Peru stated that AA, which is a 101-year-old institution, had a lot of experiences and it is very valuable in terms of education, and continued as follows: "Again with the Karabakh war, we saw that Turkey had been the voice of Azerbaijan. Turkey tried to reflect what was really happening there to the whole world. And we want to share this information with our Azerbaijani friends. We also want to enable them to make their voices heard clearly in the world. We will continue to do similar work. We, as the agency, will try to fulfill all our duties together with our partners."

AA News Academy Director Bora Bayraktar noted that through training, media members will learn how to ensure their safety in war zones as well as crisis and disaster areas, forest fires and floods. Stating that the trainees will focus on security through Police Academy and journalism through the AA during training, Bayraktar said, "We will talk about how we should convey the news, how we should stand against manipulation and propaganda, and how we should broadcast responsibly."

TİKA’s Education Projects Coordinator Mustafa Haşim Polat pointed out that TİKA gives priority to cognate communities in its activities, "Because people firstly share something with their relatives. Therefore, Azerbaijan is a country with which we always cooperate with priority."

Polat said that under TİKA's Journalism Training Program, nearly a thousand media members have been trained so far, and that War Journalism Training Program, which includes training on diplomacy, energy and economy reporting, is especially important.

After the opening speeches, the training started with the "War Journalism Course" given by Bora Bayraktar, Director of AA News Academy.

The War Journalism Training, supported by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority with its trainer staff, is unique as it is the only training in this field in Turkey. The training program was prepared considering how to deal with difficulties and threats that journalists working in crisis, disaster and war zones may face. The program also includes important information for journalists going to risky places. Participants who complete the training successfully will receive the "War Journalism Certificate", which has international validity.

The training will be given on 26 different topics including journalism, personal safety, law of war, first aid, advanced driving techniques, surviving in water, chemical and biological attacks, media management in extraordinary situations. It will last 12 days and will consist of 108 hours of lessons, 62 of which are practice sessions. Training is given by academicians who are experts in their fields, professional security forces and experienced journalists. During the training, trainees will learn through experiencing all settings where extraordinary situations can occur.