Speak Out Tunisia: Training Citizen Journalists For A Free And Fair Press

Remember Anne Medley, a photojournalist and videographer based in the United States, who taught multimedia journalism to empower Congolese students?

She also helped out Le PaCTE Tunisien (Pacte des Compétences Tunisiennes Engagées), a Tunisian association to start the Speak Out Tunisia, a citizen journalism training project. After the Tunisian revolution Le PaCTE worked to bring together Tunisians and its supporters to help build a better Tunisia.

LePacteTunisiaIn an interview to the NewsMeBack blog Khalil Ghorbal, a Telecommunications engineer and co-founder of the Tunisian PaCTE, presents ‘Speak Out Tunisia':

Speak Out Tunisia is a citizen journalism training project that aims to teach a diverse group of Tunisian citizens about digital media and online journalism. After 23 years of oppression without a free press under Dictator Ben Ali, Speak Out Tunisia seeks to return the power of a free and fair press to the Tunisian people.

Read the interview for more info.

Anne Medley taught the beginners group of citizen journalists in the southern town of Kebili in March. The participants were chosen from 90 applicants. Anne writes in Speak Out Tunisia blog:

On March 19, the Speak Out Tunisia citizen journalism training session for beginners began in Kebili. Since then, my students have impressed me daily with their questions about journalism ethics, issues of bias in the Tunisian press and photojournalism skills.

This is their forum to post their photos, videos and writings. Check them out often!

Click on the image to play video

The second phase of training with the advanced students took place in Tunis. Here in Kickstarter site this update was posted:

The students spent two weeks shooting photo and video stories, learning about journalism ethics, and producing final video projects. The PaCTE team ended the Speak Out Tunisia project on Saturday, April 21 with a closing conference in Tunis on citizen journalism featuring renowned journalists and citizen journalism experts from France and Tunisia.

Students from both the beginner and advanced sessions continue to post their work to www.speakoutunisia.com, so please check often to see their latest photo and video reports.

This video featuring Anne Medley talks about the project.

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