IFJ strengthens its Media Safety Programme in the Arab World by graduating eight new trainers in Cairo

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said on 12 October  that the media safety program in the Middle East and the Arab world reached a new stage by graduating eight participants in the new round of train the trainers sessions organised by the IFJ in collaboration with the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate.   Participants in the training held at the headquarters of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate were journalists from Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq and Mauritania. The IFJ pointed out that this session forms part of its "Building a culture of safety for journalists in the Middle East and Arab World" programme  launched in 2011. This program included Safety Training of Trainers of 13 participants from eight countries. In the past years trainers were able to provide training to more than 1,500 media workers in the entire region. Gamal Abdel-Rahim, General Secretary of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, who handed certificates at the end of the training said: “Today Egypt and the Arab countries have 8 new highly qualified trainers who can train journalists on safety in various countries from the Middle East and Arab World". The new graduates, including 3 women journalists, will collaborate in the upcoming days with journalists' unions in their countries to organise training and awareness workshops on media safety for journalists and other media workers. The training program includes issues such as Media Planning, Awareness of Riot and Public Disorders, personal security, women journalists’ safety, safety of investigative reporters and ballistic threats. Jim Boumelha, IFJ President, said, "Arab journalists are today in the eye of the storm engulfing their region as, not a day passes by, without a colleague being targeted, killed, injured, or kidnapped. This training session has been one of the many attempts by the IFJ to give confidence to its unions in the region to cope with the crisis by training journalists to take care of themselves and of each other.”