Covering political news: Jordanian journalists in training
Related project
EU JDIDA series of training courses in political journalism was launched in February 2018.
Three five-day sessions were organised in Amman at the premises of the
Jordan Media Institute: from 4 to 8 March, 18 to 22 March and 8 to 12 April 2018.
In total, these three sessions were attended by 23 journalists, of whom 56% were women and 48% were under the age of 30.
The training programme goes back to the fundamentals of journalism, dealing with professional ethics, the role of the journalist in the dissemination of information, and journalistic writing. In-depth work is then undertaken with regard to how to communicate information of crucial importance to the public and how to interview a politician.
The training sessions are led by
Randa Habib, the former director of the Agence France Presse bureau and former Jordan correspondent for Radio Monte-Carlo Douliya.
A renowned journalist, Randa communicates her experience to participants by way of debates, role plays and practical writing exercises.
The participants were able to practise political interviewing under real-life conditions with individuals invited to conferences organised by the Jordan Media Institute, in particular Mr Mohammad Al-Momani, the Jordanian Minister for Information and Communications, and Mrs Lorena Castillo, the First Lady of Panama.
The journalists' passion for their profession and for politics was evident from their desire to learn and their keen interest in the exercises offered.
They all emphasised the challenges faced by the profession of political journalism in Jordan. Despite the political climate and the constraints, the participants learned to fight "
battles" without necessarily "going to war".
Some of them said that this week of training had given them more confidence in themselves.
“This training provides us with experience beyond that which we learned at [journalism] school, and we are fortunate to be able to benefit from it so as to help us to grow in our profession".
Five more sessions will be organised in 2018 and the series will be repeated in 2019 and 2020.
