Radio Rouh Journalists Training at the Syrian Media Incubator
The development of independent radio stations in Syria and the setting-up of citizen media outlets are two of the key objectives of the Syrian Media Incubator, which was opened by CFI in the Turkish city of Gaziantep and is funded by the European Union.
To gain a better understanding of CFI's work near the Turkish-Syrian border, we interviewed Heitham Kabbani, the Director of Radio Rouh.
"Like many other Syrian media outlets, Radio Rouh was created following the Syrian Revolution. There were just five of us at the beginning, all from different backgrounds but all driven by the same desire to do something positive for our country. The thing that makes Radio Rouh stand out is that it's aimed at a young audience, people aged from 15 to 25. We play a lot of music and also talk about the concepts of citizen involvement, human rights and any positive initiatives taking place in Syria. There are now 25 people working at our radio station, each having their own, very different opinions and coming from different communities. We're anxious to keep that diversity.
When we first started out, many of us had absolutely no experience, but some of us have been able to develop our skills thanks to the training courses organised by CFI. One journalist received training in February, and another two members of the team will be attending a course on producing radio programmes in April 2015. These training courses help us to improve both our content and our techniques: we now regularly report from the scene, and have been trained in elocution and radio presentation techniques. Some of the reports that we've recorded were broadcast as part of the campaign launched by the Association of Female Syrian Journalists to mark International Women's Day.
CFI has provided us with recording devices and computers. We've just recorded our first-ever broadcast in a studio, and you can really hear the difference in sound quality! The trainer, Mohammed Al Hani, is a Tunisian radio journalist and is also helping us to refine our editorial policy and structure our programming schedule. We want to develop further and improve our content, and these different forms of support given to us by the Syrian Media Incubator are vital to us."
