"From the Classroom to the Newsroom" in the Starting Blocks

The IPS Communication Foundation will organize its training program "From the Classroom to the Newsroom" for the fourth time this year. The course will be held in Istanbul from 10-17 July.

The training program is open for this year's graduates from journalism, radio and television departments of communication faculties in Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Applications can be submitted till 15 June. After an evaluation by the foundation, one graduate from each faculty will be accepted to the program.

Participants of the program will be "prepared to the media" by meeting journalists from different sections of the mass media, academics from the field of communication and representatives of rights organizations. Additionally, the graduates will have the chance to get an insight into the IPS Communication Foundation's pursuit of "how to create a different kind of journalism" and into the principles of "rights-based journalism" as promoted by www.bianet.org on a daily basis.

Main topics of the program

The program will be structured under the following headings: "Pursuits of a new reporting", "Personal rights and responsibilities of journalists", "News ethics and the necessity of rights journalism", "Rights organizations and the media" and "Where is the news?"

Meeting journalists, academics, lawyers and rights defenders

Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Berat Günçıkan, Ali Öz, Işın Eliçin, Devrim Sevimay,Efnan Atmaca, Murat Çelikkan, İrfan Bozan, Gunnar Kohne ve Ahmet Tulgar and Murat Nişancıoğlu will share their experiences with the young journalists and challenge them in their workshops.

Furthermore, communication academics Prof. Dr Özden Çankaya, Prof. Dr Sevda Alankuş, Prof. Dr Gülgün Erdoğan Tosun, Prof. Dr Nurçay Türkoğlu, Assoc. Prof. Dr. İncilay Cangöz, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sevilay Çelenk, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nilüfer Timisi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Esra Arsan and Füsun Özbilgen will contribute to the program. Lawyer Fikret İlkiz, specialized on communications, and human rights defender Emel Kruma will be among the instructors as well.

Participants of the program will meet journalism organizations and institutions working in the field of children's and human rights. They can also expect visits to radio, newspaper and television newsrooms and, as usual, lots of fun.

Last but not least, the journalist candidates will create their own cover page of a newspaper in cooperation with experienced journalists. Participants will obtain a certificate at the end of the program.

The program is supported by the Swedish International Development Agency SİDA which covers the cost for the participants' transportation, accommodation and catering. (BB)

* Interested candidates can download the application form form www.bianet.org and send it to [email protected] by 15 June. All training units will be held in Turkish.