Anadolu Agency begins health journalism training

ANKARA

Anadolu Agency started Tuesday a health journalism training program in collaboration with Ankara-based Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), which is a subsidiary organ of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Health reporters from Albania, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Somalia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, and Turkey will take part in the training program in Ankara which will last till Aug.18.

The training will be held by representatives from the OIC, experts on health journalism, and academics as well as Anadolu Agency's experienced journalists with a view to improving health journalism in the OIC member states.

The program plans to provide cooperation among the OIC members and establish networks between journalists. Participants will be awarded certificates at the end of the training which will be given in English. Simultaneous interpreting will be provided.

Speaking at the opening event, Anadolu Agency's News Academy Coordinator, Hayri Cetinkus said that the goal of the program was to contribute to the relations among the Islamic countries.

"We aim to establish a network for the health reporters in Islamic countries," Cetinkus said.

Mehmet Fatih Serenli, director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department at the SESRIC, said that health reporters would contribute to eliminating the lack of health research and information exchange among the OIC countries.

Founded in 1969, the OIC, with a current membership of 57 states, is the second-largest intergovernmental organization after the UN and describes itself as “the collective voice of the Muslim world". Turkey has been a member since 1969.

Anadolu Agency has 35 offices worldwide and produces news stories in 13 languages.

It currently posts news in Turkish, English, Arabic, French, Kurdish, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS), Russian, Albanian, Persian, Macedonian and Indonesian languages.

The agency, which has over 1,500 subscribers both in Turkey and abroad, also plans to launch a Spanish service soon.

Reporting by Zehra Aydin; Writing by Handan Kazanci