Amman — Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), in partnership with Free Press Unlimited, is launching its third ever online training course, and its first related to mental health, titled “Psycho emotional Health and Well-being” on Edraak’s training platform. The 4-week long training course provides journalists with practical information on how to address and deal with mental health and trauma-related issues that could be triggered by living under constant threat, especially in conflict-struck countries like Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Palestine. These resources will help journalists and social workers identify and detect anxiety, stress and trauma-related symptoms, provide information on psychological and mental health first aid, as well as improve resilience and positive coping mechanisms. 

Course participants will conduct assessments at the end of each week, to measure the impact of the training and the ARIJ Team will answer any questions and inquiries participants may have on the course platform.

“MENA countries rank among the world’s least free countries on Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index. Where in some countries governments pressure the media through restrictive legistation and censorship, in others, violent conflict, civil war and terrorism contribute to the suppression of freedom of speech. Journalists and media professionals can only do their work if they are able to deal with the physical, digital, legal and psychosocial threats they are faced with. Free Press Unlimited has therefore supported ARIJ in the development of an online training course, to enhance access to resources for journalists in Arabic, and to increase the capacity of Arab media professionals to identify and cope with trauma.” — Amy Vis, Free Press Unlimited

ARIJ’s first online training course “Introduction to Investigative Journalism”, launched in January 2018, was a huge success as more than 16,000 participants enrolled and over 5,000 participants successfully completed the course. On the course, Edraak’s Deputy Executive Director commented that “It was a joyful and rich experience to work with ARIJ on this project, the investigative journalism training course was a great success”. He also added that “Our social media insights and the active engagement of the participants have shown us the big need for high quality content when it comes to investigative journalism”.

ARIJ’s second online training course, “Digital Storytelling”, launched in January 2019, was even more successful than the first and broke new records, as more than 20,000 participants enrolled —  half of whom successfully completed the course.

To enroll in the Arabic training course, please click here.

For more details about the course, please click here.

Since being founded in 2006, ARIJ has trained over 2,800  journalists, professors and students, and has supervised the broadcast or publication of over 600 investigative reports via Arab and international satellite channels, including BBC, Aljazeera English, Alaraby Aljadeed and Deutsche Welle Arabic. Additionally, ARIJ’s Investigative Journalism teaching curriculum is taught in several universities and colleges across the region.