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Anadolu Agency trains journalists to survive in crises

Turkish leading news agency offers 'comprehensive, highly qualified' war journalism training, says deputy director general

Berk Ozkan and Zuhal Demirci  | 18.07.2019 - Update : 20.07.2019
Anadolu Agency trains journalists to survive in crises

ISTANBUL

Anadolu Agency's war journalism training aims to ensure that journalists can survive when they are required to dive into a crisis or a war territory, the agency’s deputy director general said Thursday. 

“The program has gained a local and international dimension. Comprehensive and highly qualified trainings are offered [to the participants],'' Metin Mutanoglu, who is also the editor-in-chief, said in an interview ahead of the 15th edition of the training program that will start on Monday.

Launched in 2012, this year’s training will be held between July 22 and August 2 in the capital Ankara.

The training -- organized by the News Academy of Anadolu Agency -- hosts personnel from the Turkish Police Academy, the Disaster Management Agency (AFAD), the Turkish Armed Forces, and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

The 12-day program will host correspondents from 12 different countries with courses of journalism under pressure, personal security, the laws of war, first aid, advanced driving techniques, water survival techniques, chemical and biological attacks and media management in hostile environments.

Arabic as training language 1st time

Mutanoglu stressed that the Arab Spring, referring to the wave of popular uprisings that convulsed the Arab world in 2011, led to crises in the region where Turkey is also located.

He said: “There were conflicts, serious crises and chaos especially in Syria, Palestine, Iraq and many countries around, as well as Crimea.

“It is important for us that not only our own journalists but also journalists working in these regions can survive the dangers. Therefore, we offer this training opportunity to them.”

Mutanoglu said the program will also include Arab correspondents. “They also work in these regions and they will be provided with the program. The training language will be Arabic for the first time.”

‘War journalism program is a crisis management’

“We actually call the war journalism training program a crisis management training,” Mutanoglu said. “Because there are wars in some regions and big crises in some places, as well as protests and street demonstrations.

“We pay the most attention to the survival of the correspondents, who enter these areas unarmed, only with their cameras, and that nothing happens to them.”

Anadolu Agency provides the most inclusive and intensive on-site training, Mutanoglu said, adding: “We want the war journalism training program to be widespread all over the world. Turkey is an important region as there are many serious crises around.”

Maintaining security, performing duty

Cihangir Isbilir, the head of Anadolu Agency’s News Academy, said the training is provided both in theory and practice.

“We create scenarios for all the possible events that a journalist may experience in the region and train them,” Isbilir said. “We try to ensure that journalists perform their duties with the highest efficiency by taking these trainings under the conditions almost the same with the actual ones.”

Isbilir said most of the conflicts take place in the Middle East, and added: “Journalists here need to be well educated in order for news from these regions to flow correctly and for correspondence of photos and images correctly.”

*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur

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