23rd War Journalism training program commences in Ankara

ANKARA

The 23rd course of the War Journalism Training Program, organized by a premium Turkish news agency and a police academy, began on Monday.

The 12-day course, organized jointly by Anadolu and the Turkish National Police Academy (TNPA), aims to train journalists to better cover news during war, disasters, and emergencies while also keeping themselves safe.

The training program, which runs until Oct. 13 and includes theoretical and practical classes, is being attended by eight journalists from Anadolu and 17 correspondents from the Turkish national broadcaster TRT.

Yahya Bostan, the coordinator of Anadolu Academy and Broadcasting, said at the program's opening ceremony at Anadolu Headquarters in Ankara that 22 training programs have been conducted since its inception in 2012, with 488 war correspondents have so far received training.

"We live in a region rife with conflicts and tensions. There was the Iraq War, the civil war in Syria continues, a sudden outbreak of war in Ukraine, events in Karabakh are known, counter-terrorism operations are ongoing, and now we have news from Kosovo. We don't know where these developments will lead or how they will unfold," he said.

"All of these are developments and events that directly affect Türkiye and, by extension, the Turkish public. Turkish media, rightfully, wants to cover these wars and conflicts on the ground," he added.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul