"15th Term War Journalism Training" Begins

The "15th Term War Journalism Training," which will be held in Arabic for the first time in cooperation with TİKA, AA (Anadolu Agency), and the Police Academy with the aim of training international operational correspondents to serve in times of war, disaster, and state of emergency, has begun.

TİKA Training Projects Coordinator Mustafa Haşim Polat emphasized the importance of war journalism training in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Police Academy in the Anıttepe campus.

Polat stated that journalists who received training in the past within the scope of the program are able to save their lives and the lives of others in conflicts, and added, "A news story or a photo taken by a journalist may sometimes trigger a war or end a war."

"The global media is concerned with how the news should be perceived."

Cihangir İşbilir, the head of Anadolu Agency News Academy, expressed that they were pleased to host 21 journalists from 11 countries during this training program while expressing that approximately 350 people from 32 countries have received these training courses so far.

İşbilir emphasized that they would enhance the quality of war journalism training courses and said: "Wars and conflicts transform. Therefore, these training courses should also be transformed and adapted according to new types of conflicts, disasters, social events, and wars."

İşbilir stated that these training courses aimed to strengthen the local media capacity in the region and focused on peace journalism and conscience journalism, and he said: "More than 60 percent of the conflicts in the world take place in our region. We are faced with global media outlets that are not concerned with how the news should be reported, but how it should be perceived."

İşbilir also underlined that practical training in the 12-day program, as well as the training courses that will be provided by the experts on new terror and war, will be included, and he added that they would provide support with the trained staff of the General Directorate of Security, Turkish Armed Forces, and Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.

Leman Kayalar, Acting Branch Manager of the Police Academy In-Service Training Department, remarked that the topics covered in the courses would lay an important foundation in the careers of journalists.

Emphasizing that the training program was prepared intensively for effectiveness, Kayalar wished the participants success in their training.

Training courses will be carried out in different fields

The training, which aims to train operational journalists who will serve in times of war, disaster, and similar extraordinary situations, will continue until August 2.

The training courses will cover a variety of fields, including journalism, personal security, war law, first aid, advanced driving techniques, survival in water, routing and reading maps, media management in extraordinary situations, social events, close defense, technology and information transmission security, and asylum camps.

During the training courses given by expert academics, professional security forces, and experienced journalists, real ammunition will be used, and a variety of extraordinary situations will be simulated for participants to learn through “real-life scenarios”.

The training, which will be provided in Arabic for the first time, will last for 12 days, and during the program which consists of 26 different courses, 108 hours of training, 62 hours of which will be for practice, will be provided.

At the end of the training, the participants will receive an internationally recognized certificate.