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AFP Foundation in tie-up to train journalists in Gulf

Tailor-made courses will be run by Arab scribes

The AFP Foundation on Sunday signed a partnership agreement with Abu Dhabi-based information and entertainment centre, twofour54, for training journalists in the Gulf region. The training courses will be run by Arabic mother-tongue journalists employed by AFP in the Middle East or North Africa and will focus on enhancing a wide range of professional media skills.

The agreement was signed in Abu Dhabi by twofour54 chief executive Noura Al Kaabi and Emmanuel Hoog, CEO of Agence France-Presse and president of the AFP Foundation. “The AFP Foundation’s partnership with twofour54 tadreeb is very exciting. The media industry in the UAE and the wider Arab world is growing rapidly,” said Hoog. “It’s very satisfying for AFP Foundation to work in partnership with twofour54 tadreeb to contribute to this growth and we look forward to developing courses especially tailored for journalists here,” he added.

Kaabi also welcomed the agreement, which she said “helps us to reach our objective of developing and enhancing the skills of media professionals in this region.”

“The programmes will upskill established journalists and introduce new journalists to the profession, helping to create a sustainable media industry for the region and ultimately adding value to the news that the general public consumes,” she said.

Founded in 2008, twofour54 is the commercial arm of the Media Zone Authority – Abu Dhabi. Its mission is to enable the development of world-class Arab media and entertainment content, including film, broadcast, music, digital media, events, and publishing. AFP is a leading international news agency delivering in-depth coverage of international news in video, text, photo, multimedia and graphics, with 200 bureaux in 150 countries with 2,260 members of staff covering the world in six languages.

The AFP Foundation is a non-profit organisation established in July 2007 to promote the ethical and professional values of AFP and to defend press freedom by training journalists in emerging countries.

It has so far trained about 1,800 reporters, editors and press photographers from 60 countries.