The End of the Training Sessions in “An Nahar”

Within the project “Young Active Journalists for an Inter-religious Dialogue”, organized by “Nahar Achabab”, with the cooperation of “Assafadi Foundation”, “An Nahar Training and Research Center” held on the 8th of May 2008 the 4th training session in which participated 16 media students as well as number of journalists. The seminar revolved around four issues, namely “Inter-religious Dialogue”, “Press Investigation”, “Writing an Article”, “The Story and the Coverage”.

                                            
                                             During the training session

The first issue was tackled by the general director of the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences in Saint-Joseph University, Father Fadi Daou who considered that any “sane intellectual religious dialogue does not aim at convincing rather knowing the other, bringing the religion back to its essence and dispelling the prejudices”. Then, the director of “Al-Maaref Al-Hekmieh” Institute in Haret Hreik, Cheikh Chafic Jaradi, questioned about the “Inter-religious Dialogue”, underlining that “in Lebanon the solution to the religious problems starts from the basis, provided that the State is governed by religious values under a civil system that respects these values”.

As for the copy editor of “L’Orient-le-Jour”, Mr. Fadi Noun, he explained the different forms the dialogue can take, and stressed the importance of “knowing and respecting the other, and of not generalizing an idea based on an individual experience”.

The practical part of the training session was given by eminent journalists, such as An Nahar investigation page editor, Walid Abboud, who explained the techniques and skills of writing a press investigation. Then, Dr. Georges Kallas went into the scientific and methodological principles of writing an article. As for Ghassan Hajjar, he talked about the methodology of writing a story and about press coverage.

At the end of the session, the director of “An Nahar Training and Research Center”, Dr. Jean Karam, stressed the importance of the participation in the establishment of the foundation of “dialogue meetings in each region and the role of the youth in the workshops carried out within the project in all the Lebanese regions”.