Submitted by Administrator on Mon, 2013/08/26 – 13:08
Role of Media in Cross-Border Peace and Reconciliation
The first phase of the Fourth Summer Academy has successfully come into a conclusion on Thursday, 22nd of August of 2013.
Kabul, 22nd of August of 2013
Summer Academy is a regular annual educational program of Mediothek Afghanistan, focusing on educating journalists on crucial journalistic topics and the role that media has on issues. This program has been implemented for the last three years with the professional assistance of experts from all over the country. Following the successful implementation of the training program in past three years, Mediothek Afghanistan has successfully completed the first phase of its fourth Summer Academy on Thursday 22nd of August 2013; Participants of this round of trainings were mainly young Afghan journalists and their Pakistani counterparts, working on the border regions.
The program financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of German is conducted in two phases: a theoretical phase and a practical phase, lasting for 10 days in which 30 journalists from different provinces, as well as from the Khyber PakhtoonKhowa participate. The first phase of the program was concluded with a cultural evening gathering in which representatives of different media institutions, representatives of civil society organizations, and distinguished international guests including the Mr.Oliver Owcza Deputy Head of Mission of German Embassy and Mr. Fabian Otten the second secretary of the German embassy in Kabul and senior international representatives participated in the cultural evening.
From a structural point of view, Medoithek’s Summer Academy is a special program. Depending on the topic, for instance this year; journalists from different provinces of Afghanistan and tribal and border areas of Pakistan were invited to discuss the “Role of Media in Cross-Border Peace and Reconciliation”.
National and internal experts and analysts were invited to discuss the issue with the participants. University professors, international respected experts, government representatives and independent researchers provided in-depth analysis about the role of media in bringing peace and reconciliation in border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Additionally, the program entails a second round of training and education which is a practical phase of the training. Each participant, either as a whole or as a group, is given an assignment to do, date is set for the completion of the assignment, each assignment which varies widely is then individually analyzed and critiqued by analysts and the journalists is provided with feedback. And, the assignment is published in national and local media organizations.
Why is it important?
The programs implemented in the past three years have proven the importance of the summer academy trainings, it attracted tremendous attention to some of the most pressing issues facing people in both sides of the insure border regions.
It has also highlighted the role of media in bringing peace and stability in the border areas and eliminating existing challenges and misconceptions. The program has particularly been effective in bringing Afghan and Pakistani journalists together to work for peace and prosperity in their communities and the border region areas. It is important because media has the potential and outreach to get the message across.
