Alexandria, January 21-22, 2012
Cairo, January 23-24, 2012
Critical, inclusive, and responsible journalism will be the key element of activities led by the London-based Media Diversity Institute in Egypt this month to aid universities and further education groups who are building a culture of independent reporting across the country. Two workshops for Egyptian academics will be organised in Alexandria (January 21-22) and Cairo (January 23-24) where the central themes will be the core concepts of media professionalism and pluralism.
The two-day workshops will highlight the importance of media in helping to strengthen civil society as well as intercultural understanding and dialogue as the country edges towards full democracy only a year after a popular uprising swept away the autocratic regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
“The country is at a critical moment and these workshops will identify how journalism by focusing on key issues can strengthen the movement towards genuine democracy,” said MDI Director Milica Pesic.
The workshops will target journalism covering ethnicity, religion, gender/women’s issues, age, people with disabilities, as well as human and civil rights.
The first will be hosted in cooperation with PHAROS University with the programme tailored to the needs of journalism/ communication academics from Alexandria, Minya, Sohag, and Tanta. The second workshop will be held with the support of the Communication Research Centre with participation of academics from Cairo, Assuit, Helwan.
Leading British, Egyptian and American scholars and experts in the field of media and diversity, including Dr Naomi Sakr, Westminster University (UK), Dr Verica Rupar, Cardiff University (UK), John Owen, City University London, Dr Rasha Abdullah, AUC (Egypt) will demonstrate their own modules and lead the discussions.
The activities will help Egyptian academics to develop their own Reporting Diversity/Inclusive Journalism courses. They will get futher backing from MDI which plans to offer support to a minimum of five academics who wish to develop and teach their own modules on the workshop topics.
For more information or for details on how to participate in these events contact MDI country director Lydia El Khouri: lydia.elkhouri@media-diversity.org
With the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)
