“Young Active Journalists for a Dialogue between Religions”
Ends the Third Training Session in “An Nahar” Center
“An Nahar Training and Research Center” ended the third training session on journalistic skills, under the project “Young Active Journalists for a Dialogue between Religions”, financed by the European Union and managed by the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform.
20 media students from 6 universities and institutes ended three days of seminars and practical training on journalistic skills and techniques.
The training session, which was organized by “Nahar Achabab”, with the participation of “Assafadi Foundation”, was divided into two parts: “The first part consisted of reviving among the new generation the principles of dialogue between religions. As for the second part, it aimed at training the budding journalists on the practical journalistic skills”.
In the first part of the session, Judge Abbas Al-Halabi talked about the principles of enhancing the ties between Islam and Christianity, stressing the role the media play in filling the gap between the religions. He urged in this regard the Lebanese citizens to pledge their allegiance to their country rather to a confessional community.
Father Dr. Samir Khalil criticized the Arab mentality with regard to the religious concepts as well as the Western’s perspective to the Middle East and to Islam. As for Dr. Mahmoud Torbay, he underscored the importance of open-mindedness and of the acceptance of the other. He also stressed the importance for the journalist to abide by the code of ethics and to analyze with objectivity the essence of the religions.
In the second part of the session, Dr. Georges Kallas focused on the skills and techniques of writing an article. Mr. Ghassan Hajjar, An Nahar Youth and Education Pages editor tackled the issue of press coverage. As for Mr. Walid Abboud, An Nahar Reportage’s Page editor, he trained the journalists on the skills of writing press reports.
At the end of the session, the trainers presented the projects that the media students should carry out before moving to work in the field. The projects aim at giving the trainee journalists the chance of continuing training on different types of writings and to contributing in the same time to the dissemination of the culture of dialogue and entente between religions. According to the director of “Annahar Training Center”, the session gave the trainees the opportunity to meet high-level experts who generously transmitted to the young journalists their expertise and progressive ideas about the existing common ground between the religions. It also created a platform for a dialogue between the participants, coming from different regions and of different religions, in a bid to help them build a united and independent country”.