CAIRO - The “Investing in The Future (ITF)” programme, funded by El-Sout el-Hurr (Free Sound) organisation, supports journalists and their organisations in six Arab countries in the Middle East: Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Yemen. The programme recently held a course entitled ‘The freedom of media in international treaties' at Egypt's Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo. Tareq Beltagi and Tawheed Ramzy, legal experts working for IFT, ran the sessions during the three-day course. “Legal protection of the journalists is very important for us,” said Abeer Saadi, the head of the training department in the Press Syndicate. “Journalists are often exposed to legal problems because of what they write, so our syndicate has held this legal course to help protect them. “Mubarak limited the freedom of journalists. If they wrote against the Government, they went to prison,” Abeer added sadly. “Journalists need to know their rights in international treaties. “The recent Egyptian revolution has led to freedom in all fields, including the media. Journalists should learn how to respect the law in their writings.” The instructors explained that, before the recent revolutions in many Arab countries, there was little press freedom in most Arab states, while professional journalists received little media training, but now things have changed and there is more freedom. The ITF programme focuses on empowering journalists in the region through intensive training, some of it practical. Over the past decade, Egyptian judges didn't apply the international treaties to trials. “Such treaties are very important for the journalists, so the ITF programme tells the journalists about them," said Beltagi. “We try to show journalists what mistakes to avoid, so they don't end up in prison,” Ramzi explained. The journalists benefit from what they have gained during the programme, because of the ongoing communication and co-operation in the field of training with media organisations in the Arab region, specifically in the six above-mentioned countries, in an effort to make the press more efficient and innovative. El-Sout el-Hurr is happy to run this course for any press organisation. For more information, please contact the organisation's website: www.itfnetwork.org
