Press Now conducts second successful journalism training course in Iran!

From 9 until 16 December 2006 Press Now conducted a training course on civil journalism in the Iranian capital of Tehran. The course was the second workshop after the first training event that Press Now organised in Iran in August 2006.

Eighteen journalists attended the course, out of which sixteen received a certificate. Participants came from a variety of Iranian newspapers, with both reformist as well conservative backgrounds.

The training course aimed at making the participating journalists aware that journalism is a part of society and therefore needs to be conducted from the perspective of the citizens. The training promoted basic journalistic principles such as the separation of facts from opinions, respect for truth and for the right of the public to truth and the right of fair comment and criticism. Participants were trained in basic journalism skills, such as writing news items and feature stories and conducting interviews.

The training was conducted in partnership with the Association of Iranian Journalists and was held in their premises.

The trainers were Judit Neurink, editor of the Dutch Daily Trouw and Nafiss Nia, an Iranian-Dutch film maker and journalist.

During the final session participants expressed their great satisfaction with the course and requested Press Now to continue the training program through (1) repeating the same training course for other groups of journalists, (2) conducting train-the-trainer programs for a selected group of participants from the August and December workshops and (3) conducting on-the-job training within some of their newspapers. In response, Press Now has expressed its interest and readiness to continue the training program during the next year.

For further information:
Wilco de Jonge, director of Press Now (dejonge@pressnow.nl