“Safety for Journalists” Training School

“Safety for Journalists”
Training School
May 8-13, 2023
Kilkis, Greece

Responding to the latest developments, Peace Journalism Lab, School of Journalism and Mass Communications of Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Jean Monnet Chair for European Public Diplomacy, Hellenic Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Center with the support of Secretariat General of Communication and Information, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom,

Digital Communication Network Global, European Federation of Journalists, Journalistic Union of Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers, Free Press unlimited, organise the second "Safety forJournalists” Training School.

“Safety for Journalists” Training School aims to the renter and consolidates its status as one of the world’s most significant schools on the specific subject, as it is supported by an impressive background, combined by credible, the world’stop news organisations and experts.

Taking into consideration the significant role of coverage of the contemporary conflicts and being a member of the UN Academic Impact Network, the PJL also intergrades the promotion of peace journalism principles and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the training’s objectives.

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, two 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, that has been suspended due to Covid19 restrictions, will be available again from this year on, 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

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.

Tom Keunen
Head of Security, Free Press Unlimited
Originally from Belgium, but based in The Netherlands, Tom has worked for journalistic, environmental, development and humanitarian organisations worldwide.
Tom is a result-oriented safety and security professional with an integrated approach to security management, integrating safety and security in both online and offline environments. He has worked for and with numerous organisations across a wide range of cultural contexts, different organisational structure models and differing risk appetites, all of which has given him the depth and breadth of experience to assess and advise on security management.
Tom is currently working for Free Press Unlimited, an international press freedom organization working from the Netherlands, as Head of Security.
Adrien Collin
Projects Officer, European Federation of Journalists
Adrien Collin works for the European Federation of Journalists as a project officer. He manages the EFJ's safety programme in EU, candidate and Former Soviet Union countries for the organisation. He has 15 years of extensive experience in working on safety of journalists with journalists unions, civil society, media development, media organisations and academic institutions. He contributed or edited a series of publications including:

Supporting Journalism in Conflict Societies (Contributor, 2016)
Media Under Attack (Editor, 2014)
Killing the Messenger, A Global Inquiry into the protection of journalists (Researcher and Contributor, 2007)
Women Reporting War (Researcher and Contributor, 2007)
Live News Africa, a survival guide for journalists (Contributor, 2007)

He worked previously for the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and the the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) where he managed IFJ’s safety programmes in Africa, the Middle East and The Former Soviet Union. He holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism.
Alexandros A. Toumpelis
Training Director at Meducation – International Medical Training Institute

Alexandros is a registered paramedic and nurse with a license to teach as an adult trainer in the medical field. In his early life, he understood his passion for emergency prehospital care and he followed a pathway in order to become an emergency care practitioner. He studied Paramedicine and Operating Theater Nursing in Greece and gained a scholarship for Paramedic Studies at West Midland Ambulance Services (WMAS) NHS Trust in the UK. He specialized in emergency rescue in a variety of fields such as offshore medicine, CBRNe, mountains, hostile areas, telemedicine, VIP medical protection, and disasters. He has been a guest instructor in the Hellenic MPSOTC (Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Center), which is a NATO-UN-OSCE approved training center in medical modules, since 2014, and he has also taught in Hellenic Police Special Forces Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Courses since 2015. He has thousands of teaching hours in the medical field, and he is a writer of medical handbooks.

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.
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.
Stavros Ioannidis
Multimedia journalist reporting for Greek and foreign media
Stavros Ioannidis is currently working as a Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs accredited journalist in the Greek leading News TV station "SKAI TV" & "SKAI 100,3" radio, delivering general focused, defense, international relations and scientific stories and videos as well as live broadcasts.

Since 2005 he has worked as a journalist and contributor for the Hellenic Public TV & Radio (ERT) and foreign media. Flexible and self motivated he has been traveling in Greece, Europe and the Balkans reporting for current affairs, business and human stories.
Since 2009 he has reported extensively on the Greek financial crisis.

Since February he has covered the war in Ukraine, delivering stories from the war zones of Kyiv and Mariupol.

Stavros Ioannidis holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Media from the Aristotles' University of Thessaloniki and is fluent in English.

Christos Nikolaidis
Journalist, War Correspondent

Γεννήθηκε το 1970 στη Θεσσαλονίκη, όπου κατοικεί και εργάζεται ως δημοσιογράφος. Είναι πτυχιούχος Δημοσιογραφίας του ιδιωτικού κολεγίου «ΕΚΕΣ – Pigier» και κάτοχος μεταπτυχιακού τίτλου (Master Of Arts in Journalism) από το Πανεπιστήμιο Middlesex του Λονδίνου.

Από τον Ιούνιο είναι Διευθυντής του Γραφείου Βόρειας Ελλάδας του Τηλεοπτικού Σταθμού ΣΚΑΙ ενώ από το 2014 είναι πολιτικός ρεπόρτερ στο Ραδιοσταθμό «Ράδιο Θεσσαλονίκη».

Το διάστημα 2018- 2022 εργάστηκε ως Ρεπόρτερ στο Γραφείο Θεσσαλονίκης του πανελλήνιας εμβέλειας Τηλεοπτικού

Σταθμού Open TV, για λογαριασμό του οποίου κάλυψε ως Πολεμικός Ανταποκριτής τις πρώτες 35 μέρες την ρωσική εισβολή στην Ουκρανία.
Διετέλεσε Ειδικός Σύμβουλος Οργάνωσης και Προγράμματος, Διευθυντής Ειδήσεων και Ενημέρωσης και Προϊστάμενος του Τμήματος Ειδήσεων της ΕΡΤ-3, Αρχισυντάκτης της εφημερίδας «Μακεδονία», συντάκτης στις εφημερίδες «Αγγελιοφόρος» και «ΤΑ ΝΕΑ», καθώς για λογαριασμό της τελευταίας κάλυψα, ως Πολεμικός Ανταποκριτής την κρίση ΝΑΤΟ- Γιουγκοσλαβίας το 1999.

Εργάστηκε επίσης ως ρεπόρτερ στα Γραφεία Θεσσαλονίκης των τηλεοπτικών δικτύων «Αντέννα», «Άλφα» και «TV-100», ως υπεύθυνος του Γραφείου Τύπου της Περιφερειακής Ένωσης Δήμων

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

Apply now

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