AMMAN – ARIJ concluded a four day online workshop as part of the “Strengthening Media Independence in Jordan” project. The four day workshop conducted between January 25-31, took place for 30 Jordanian journalists working in different media organisations.

Strengthening Media Independence in Jordan (Who takes the responsibility) project was launched last year by ARIJ and this is the second round for the project which is supported  by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). The project aims at training jordanian journalists on producing in-depth reports to address vital societal issues in Jordan.

The training program focuses on developing journalists’ skills: finding interesting angles, developing journalists’ interviewing skills and techniques, and improving their storytelling technique, to produce in-depth reports on accountability and governance. The journalists will be given editorial and legal support throughout the production of their in-depth reports to later publish them on different independent media platforms.

The first day of the training was delivered by ARIJ editor in chief, Munir Al khatib who emphasised the importance of accountability in journalistic work and its role in addressing vital societal issues. Al Khatib discussed the Code of Press ethics and the importance of adhering to it, he also talked about national and international editorial standards which journalists should abide to ensure accurate and objective reporting. In “Ask the expert” special session hosted ARIJ Executive Director, Rawan Al Damen who explained the secrets of good storytelling and the different types of journalistic writing.

On the second day of the training, ARIJ trainer and coach, Safaa’ al Ramahi trained the journalists on effective interview techniques and gave them tips to follow when conducting sensitive or critical interviews. AL Ramahi guided the journalists on how to approach human rights stories, accountability, and how to protect the sources. She also stressed on keeping the fine line between our role as journalists to expose corruption yet exercising free speech without inciting stereotypes or assassinating characters.

The third day of the workshop was co-trained by Journalist Firas Al Taweel and Editor Abeer Foa’ad, who encouraged the journalists to discuss different ideas that can be used in their in-depth reports. The journalists were given two days to go through their ideas and do initial research on their different topics and on the last day of the workshop, the trainers worked along with the journalists to thoroughly review their proposals to ensure turning them into ideas ready to be implemented, developed and published stories.