Freedom Foundation concludes training on journalists' safety

Freedom Foundation for media freedom, rights and development concluded on Thursday a training course on (safety of journalists). The four-day training course targeted 25 trainees from various media outlets, including correspondents from international media. It was carried out in collaboration with the European Union (EU) mission in Yemen. The training on safety of journalists was conducted by Finnish international expert trainer Susanna Inkinen from International Media Support (IMS) and trainer Nabil al-Sharafi from Safer Yemen Company, who is a security and safety expert. The course comes within the framework of the project of (media freedom: monitoring and advocacy), which is one of the important projects implemented by Freedom Foundation during the two years (2013 - 2014), in partnership with the EU mission in Yemen. Director General of the Yemen General Corporation for Radio and Television (YGRTC) Iskandar al-Asbahi praised the efforts of Freedom Foundation in the training field, saying that the Foundation is a good model in training and media freedoms defense. Freedom Foundation's president Khaled al-Hammadi said the project of (media freedom: monitoring and advocacy) lasts two years, through which the foundation is keen to bring international trainers on various media majors. "We are keen to come out with professional, qualitative and valuable outcomes from all the Freedom Foundation-organized courses," al-Hammadi said. He added that the Foundation is interested in creating a lasting relationship among journalists participating in the training courses and between them and the Foundation, clarifying "we are keen to be in constant touch with you and to cooperate in monitoring violations that you or one of your colleagues may be exposed to." IMS trainer Susanna Inkinen stressed that journalists are responsible for the safety, saying "threats are everywhere and journalists have to take measures to ensure their safety. This is why such training is important." The safety of journalists training course considered to be the 8th course implemented by Freedom Foundation since its establishment in January and the 2nd under the EU-funded project of (media freedom: monitoring and advocacy), which aims to promote awareness of journalists' safety and its importance to their work in hostile environment and how to assess risks facing journalists and to take precautionary measures to prevent being at risk, in addition to the security information in the media work field.