“Safety for Journalists” Training School

“Safety for Journalists”
Training School
May 8-12, 2023
Kilkis, Greece

The International Training Centre for the Safety of Journalists and Media Professionals, the Peace Journalism Lab, the School of Journalism and Mass Communications of Aristotle University Thessaloniki, the Jean Monnet Chair for European Public Diplomacy, and the Hellenic Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Center organize the third "Safety for Journalists” Training School, with the support of Secretariat General of Communication and Information, Digital Communication Network Global, Journalistic Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers and Friedrich Newman foundation.

ΤHE SAFETY FOR JOURNALISTS TRAINING SCHOOL IS A DYNAMIC, WEEK-LONG EXPERIENCE THAT BRINGS TOGETHER PRACTITIONERS AND EXPERTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

IN OUR INCREASINGLY FRAGMENTED WORLD, THE WORK OF JOURNALISTS IS ARGUABLY MORE DANGEROUS THAN EVER. TRAINING OBJECTIVES FOCUS ON THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND INTELLECTUAL PREPARATION OF REPORTERS HEADING INTO WAR ZONES OR COMPLEX ASSIGNMENTS.

THE CURRICULUM HAS BEEN DEVELOPED BY GLOBAL LEADERS IN SAFETY TRAINING AND COMPLEMENTS THE ACTIVITIES OF THE NEW INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE FOR THE SAFETY OF JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA PROFESSIONALS IN THESSALONIKI, GREECE.

BOTH THE SAFETY FOR JOURNALISTS TRAINING SCHOOL AND THE NEW INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE ARE SUPPORTED BY THE PEACE JOURNALISM LABORATORY AT ARTISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI, WHERE RESEARCH INCLUDES WORK ON INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM, PEACE JOURNALISM AND REPORTING ON UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

Description

War reporters today face a significant number of unprecedented challenges on the field. They find themselves strangling to satisfy basic physical needs and personal security, while at the same time they have to deal with an extremely complicated information environment. The unexpected development of Russian invasion in Ukraine has brought the profession of war correspondent in the foreground once more.

Story
Peace Journalism Lab committed to its values and in the framework of UNAI, has taken the initiative, three years ago, to create an innovative training program for professional and young reporters that are interested in visiting war zones, that has been proven to be really helpful for practitioners. The program, has been suspended due to Covid19 restrictions, but has made a very successful comeback last year. As per our committed and responding to the high demand, it will be available on an annual basis, aiming to provide professionals and young students with all the necessary knowledge to cope with the challenges they are going to face in the contemporary field of conflict.

Curriculum

The curriculum includes two basic parts, those of theoretical and intensive field training. A number of issues will be presented to the participants, including:

Introduction to the environment
Challenges & evolutions in reporting war and crises
Law of armed conflict
Field safety
Dealing with fixers
Hostile Environment Awareness training (HEAT)
Data security
Health, epidemics and stress management
Administrative paperwork basics
Dealing with trauma

“Safety for Journalists”
Training School 2022

Trainers

Learn more about the trainers of the
“Safety for Journalists” Training School

Nikos S. Panagiotou
Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Dr. Nikos S. Panagiotou is Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has been a DAAD Scholar at Deutsche Welle, Chevening Scholar of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK, RCAP Scholar from APU University Japan, Scholar to Beijing Foreign Studies University, Scholar at Sabanci University (Turkey), Scholar of the State of Luxembourg. He has an extensive research work which has been funded from Google (DNI Initiative fund). He is the initiator and organizer of Thessaloniki International Media Summer Academy and in charge of Digital Communication Network Global and Director of Peace Journalism Lab School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication, Aristotle University. He has a track record research and project work regarding disinformation, Fake News Hunters, Refugees against disinformation etc.
Christos Frangonikolopoulos
Professor of International Relations at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University and Holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on European Integration Journalism
Christos Frangonikolopoulos is Professor of International Relations at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on European Integration Journalism. He is also the Director of the English-taught Master of Arts (MA) in Digital Media, Communication and Journalism at the University of Aristotle is the first of its kind among Greek public Universities. He studied Politics and Government (BA Honors) and International Relations (PhD) at the University of Kent at Canterbury (England).
Ilias D. Nikezis
Public Affairs and Strategic Communications practitioner
Dr. Ilias D. Nikezis is a Public Affairs and Strategic Communications practitioner. He
graduated from the Hellenic Military Academy. He has taken part in peace operations in
Kosovo and Afghanistan and has also served as United Nations Military Observer in
South Sudan. Additionally, to relevant military training in Public Affairs and Strategic
Communications, he holds a Master of Arts in Digital Media, Communication and
Journalism, specialized in risk communication and crisis journalism, by the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication of AUTH, and Ph.D. in the field of media, war and conflict. He is a senior member of the International and Peace Journalism Laboratory and project coordinator of DCN Global. His field of research interest lies in
interdisciplinary themes such as Strategic Communication and Public Relations, War
Reporting, Tackling Disinformation, Informational Resilience, Peace Journalism, Media
Role in Crisis Management, Media Literacy and Media Diversity.

Aphrodite Salas
Assistant Professor at Concordia University
Aphrodite Salas is a veteran journalist with decades of experience in news and feature reporting. The majority of her on-air career was with Canada's largest privately owned network, CTV, where she was a national correspondent, anchor, video journalist and assignment editor in small, medium, large and national markets. Her industry honours include two regional and two national awards for excellence in news reporting.

Aphrodite is now the Graduate Journalism Diploma Program Director at Concordia University, where she continues to produce multimedia projects and documentaries with partners including Indigenous Clean Energy, Journalists for Human Rights and CTV Montreal. Her most recent work is called: “Arctic Shift to Clean Energy,” and shares a story of Inuit climate leadership. The documentary, “Innavik: Leading the way to a clean energy future,” was screened at COP 27, the UN Climate Conference in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, as well as COP 15, the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada.
Yannis Kotsifos
Director, Journalists Union of Macedonia and Thrace/President, ECPMF
Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1969, he has studied Greek Literature (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). He lives and works in the city and is the director general of the Journalists’ Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers (ESIEMTH) and its Cultural Foundation. Having worked as a journalist in both newspapers and radio, he has also edited numerous books and collaborated with various magazines, either as a contributing editor or as an editor-at-large, or as both. Since 2013 he is a member of the Steering Committee of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ). As ESIEMTH director he has coordinated numerous projects regarding journalists’ training, media literacy, diversity reporting and ethics.
Christos Smilianis
Training projects manager in the Greek Army
Christos Smilianis is a training projects manager in the Greek Army with specialisation and experience in Strategic Communications and Military Public Affairs. He is a PhD candidate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Strategic Communications and PhD Fellow in the Doctoral school of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC).

Serves in the Hellenic MPSOTC and has planned, organised and conducted dozens of international training courses, seminars and other events. He represents his Unit in media engagements and in parallel is a media trainer who has instructed in several courses of training institutes from around the world.

He holds a Bachelor in Science from the Hellenic Military Academy and a Master of Arts in “Digital media, Communication and Journalism" from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Additionally he is a PhD Fellow in the European Doctoral school on CSDP at European Security & Defence College.

Andreas Veglis
Head of Media Informatics Lab, School of Journalism & MC, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Greece
Andreas Veglis is a Professor of media technology, and head of the Media Informatics Lab at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has served as and editor, member of scientific board and reviewer in various academic journals. Prof Veglis has more than 150 peer-reviewed papers on media technology and journalism. Specifically, he is the author or co-author of 12 books, he has published 74 papers on scientific journals and he has presented 125 papers in international and national Conferences. Prof Veglis has been involved in 30 national and international research projects. His research interests include information technology in journalism, new media, data journalism, big data, social media, open data and fake news - verification.

This training school is a unique opportunity to benefit from the Organizers outstanding experience in war journalism/risk communication combined with the expertise of military professionals. The program is structured around keynote presentations by distinguished experts, roundtable discussions and intensive field training. The course will be run with a mix-method teaching style and includes lectures, discussion, field training, policy lab, and hands-on practicum. Sessions will be led by experts from across communication and military fields.

Who can apply to the “Safety for Journalists” Training Program?

The “Safety for Journalists” Training School aims to select a total number of 35 participants, who have the following background:

Professionals from media and other related organisations, who need a deeper understanding of the issues to be addressed
Ph.D/ Master/ Bachelor students of Journalism, International relations, etc

Participation: 800 euros

( The participation fee includes administrative costs and accommodation (half-board))

Express interest

News

Organizers

Our Partners

Be the first to know our news!

Once a month you will hear about our latest news.