UPDATE - Anadolu Agency’s News Academy holds forum for international journalists

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; OTHER EDITS THROUGHOUT; NEW DECK

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Anadolu Agency’s News Academy on Thursday organized a forum for international journalists at its headquarters in Ankara, the Turkish capital.

The War Journalism and Reporting in Crisis Zones forum was held with support of the Turkish Presidency's Communications Directorate.

Speaking at the opening session of the forum, Anadolu Agency Director General Serdar Karagoz said the agency has provided war journalism training to nearly 500 participants, including many local and foreign journalists.

Nearly one-third of the participants are foreign journalists, Karagoz said, adding that this demonstrates the uniqueness of the training program provided by Anadolu Agency.

Over the last decade, said Karagoz, 22 such training opportunities have been offered by Anadolu Agency with the support of leading Turkish institutions such as the Security General Directorate, Turkish Armed Forces, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), and Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

“We provided both practical and theoretical courses during war journalism training, from journalism in emergency situations to personal security, from chemical and biological attacks to media management,” Karagoz noted.

Underlining that war correspondents should be able to withstand harsh conditions on the ground, Karagoz said: “With this training, we prepare reporters for all the challenges they may face on the battlefield.”

- Unparalleled forum with seasoned hands

A total of 15 international journalists who were trained earlier by the agency – from Georgia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Nigeria, Algeria, Chad, Kenya, Sarajevo, and Kyrgyzstan – took part in the forum.

The forum aims to boost the interest of the international media in Türkiye and to help promote the country by providing interaction between foreign and Turkish war correspondents.

During the forum, war correspondents shared their experience in the field, exchanged ideas on the difficulties of the profession, the dangers they faced, and new technologies as well as rules that need updating.

A range of issues were discussed at the forum, including sessions on Changing Conflict Conditions and War Correspondence, War Correspondents in Türkiye, and Global Communications in Wartime.

Speakers with significant success in war journalism stressed the importance of the war journalism training offered by Anadolu Agency.

Senior journalist Coskun Aral said that during his professional life he had reported from various war zones. He said he had his first foreign war correspondence experience in Iraq during the 1980s, reporting on the Iraq-Iran war.

Praising Anadolu Agency’s war journalism training, Aral said: "If I had gotten such training, I would have been able to go to the war zones better prepared and equipped."

Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Fedchenko, for her part, touched on the war in her country, saying: “Russia is bombing electrical systems and critical infrastructure in Ukraine.”

Underlining her deep concern about recent developments, Fedchenko said it is very difficult for a journalist to describe the war in her country.

"Ukrainian journalists are not only reporters but also civilians. I lost many people I know in this war," she said.

Telling how she had recently lost a friend, Fedchenko fought to hold back tears.

War journalism training, a discipline available from only a few institutions in the world, has been offered by Türkiye since 2012.