Saeed Al-Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The American embassy started Monday a training workshop for Saudi journalist in collaboration with both Prince Ahmed Bin Salman Academy for Applied Media and the Saudi Journalist Association. Between 25 to 30 journalists from major Saudi newspapers, publications and TV stations started the three-days training course on standards of international editing and the forms of journalism writing and performance skills. The training is conducted by the Saudi trainer and journalism expert, Dr. Sultan Al-Hamzi, holder of Ph.D in Journalism Leadership Skills from Laurence University in the US. Dr. Al-Hamzi just started training workshop in the Kingdom after spending many years training in journalism abroad. “The workshop is part of a long-standing partnership between the US embassy's Information Office and the Saudi Journalists Association whose goal is to help the new crop of Saudi practicing journalists acquire the necessary skills and other tools they need to help them do their jobs better,” Mofid Deak, the US Embassy Press Attache told Saudi Gazette. “Focusing on International Editing Standards aims to familiarize Saudi journalists with the internationally-accepted editing standards in the industry in writing news stories professionally. “There are rules and standards in the industry that journalists need to be familiar with in order to do their jobs professionally,” he added. Deak pointed out that as part of this collaboration with the SJA, and with the help of Prince Ahmed Bin Salman Academy for Applied Media, “we will be offering similar media training workshops in both Dhahran and Jeddah in February and March respectively.” “Each of these sessions would train between 25-30 Saudi journalists, men and women alike. The US Embassy is proud to be a partner with SJA to provide this professional training to Saudi journalists to help them become more innovative in an increasingly competitive media environment in the Kingdom,” he said. Dr. Abdullah Al-Jahlan, Secretary General of the SJA, also told Saudi Gazette that this training workshop is the first in the new season of the association. “The topics of this workshop and other workshops organized by the SJA come in response to the needs expressed by Saudi journalists or their publications in order to enhance the skills of these journalist for better performance,” he said.
