TIKA, Anadola Ajansi (AA) and the Turkish Polis Academy have organised a safety training for war journalists across the world.
More than 178 journalists have so far lost their lives while covering the Ukraine and Russia war.
The two-week training mainly focuses on giving journalists survival and safety tips while in the war zone areas.
They are based on practical and theoretical realities of what goes on on the ground during wars.
On September 23, 2024, a group of 25 journalists from across the world were recruited for the training and to get skills on how to report from conflict zones of war, terror among other disasters safely and ethically.
The journalists are trained by experienced and professional personnel in terror and war zones, first aid, information security, psychology of war, media management in extraordinary situations, and survival methods during disasters.
Speaking during an interview the AA news academy president Zeynep Ostrick Bayramoglu stated that so far 558 journalists have gone through the war journalism training and most of them have already used the skills they got to cover war in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza, among other countries where there is conflict.
“This training has assisted most journalists who have been sent to cover news in areas like Gaza, Lebanon, and Palestine among others and most of them apply the skills given to them and they survive in war areas. We are glad that so far were have given such skills to 558 journalists across the world,” she said.
She noted that journalists have a role to be at the scene of incidents like the war zones to give the truth of what is going on hence as an organisation they felt the need to have such training that will assist them when they are in war zones.
TIKA’s vice president Rahman Nurdun noted that the training is life-saving and is important to journalists.
He said that they saw they need to partner with other institutions and assist journalists in having such training as most journalists lose their lives in war zones due to lack of skills.
“The bombs and the shootings you heard during the training sounds worse but they are the reality of what happens during wars and always remember to serve the truth when you are out there,”’ he insisted.
Fatih Inal deputy director Turkish Police Academy also added that the training is very important to journalists as wars in the world do not end and it is the journalists responsibility to be there to give the truth.
‘’Currently, the war in the Middle East especially Palestine and Israel has started and most victims of wars are children and women so be there to to give the story, we p[ray that you don’t go to these areas of war but when you have to please use what we trained you about war zones,”’ he said.
Nurdun also stated that they are targeting more and more journalists from all over the globe to be trained in war-covering skills.
“’ Journalists are very important people they are the watchdog of the society and the skills that will be given to them through this training are very important hence we will recruit more and more of them for the training,’’ he said.
