Successful Human Rights Training for Media Professionals in Middle East & Arab World

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has completed a high level training workshop for senior journalists and editors from across the Middle East and Arab World on human rights reporting. Hosted in Amman by the Jordanian Press Association (JPA), the IFJ’s ten-day ‘Training of Trainers’ workshop gave ten leading journalists from the region the knowledge, training and guidance to become IFJ trainers on human rights reporting. The training was the first activity run through the IFJ’s new ‘Journalism and Human Rights programme’ funded by the Norwegian government. The participants were all senior journalists specialising in a range of issues including gender, children, security and crime. They have won prizes for their investigative reporting and led journalists’ rights campaigns. The course equipped participants with the skills to deliver two-day workshops on human rights reporting supported by the national journalists’ unions. The programme also supports a dialogue between journalists’ unions, media and national human rights centers to co-operate on promoting a culture of human rights based journalism. “This training is extremely important for journalists in the Middle East and Arab World given the change and transition icurrently taking place in a number of countries across the region,” said IFJ President Jim Boumelha. “The IFJ’s Journalism and Human Rights programme will support the involvement of union’s in debates on human rights and democracy in the region, while also equipping journalists with the skills and tools to produce journalism in the public interest.” Commenting on the success of the training, Tariq al Moumani, president of the JPA, said: “We are very pleased with this cooperative action between the IFJ and the JPA that is providing journalists within Jordan and across the region with the necessary skills to improve their capacity and skills on human rights reporting. "The JPA looks forward to continuing the cooperation between the two organisations.” The IFJ is grateful for the support of the Jordanian Press Association, the Norwegian Journalists Union and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their support for the programme. IFJ also sends its thanks to Kevin Burden, who led the training. For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 17 The IFJ represents more than 600 000 journalists in 134 countries