All Roads Lead to Al Jazeera Mounir Daymi | Director of Al Jazeera Media Institute
If you happen to flip through Al Jazeera Media Institute’s archive, you will find myriad images of media and journalism trainees from all corners of the globe. They all came seeking knowledge and expertise at an organisation, which has – since its inception – moved heaven and earth. I recall that during one of the graduation ceremonies, two Chinese apprentices performed a song in Arabic, as a token of appreciation to their trainer. Their performance was impressive. However, what amazed me more was the enthusiasm they demonstrated; as they, like other trainees, had travelled a long distance and endured many challenges to take part in the training programme. The two later got jobs as presenters in an Arabic-language Chinese media outlet. I can claim that you may hardly find a media outlet in the region whose journalists, presenters or even technicians have not been trained at Al Jazeera Media Institute. They all come with one goal: to improve their professional skills in order to benefit their respective organisations. They all come with high hopes and big professional dreams. The Institute offers scholarships and reduced fees to those lacking the means, but armed with a passion for learning.
Following the Arab Spring revolutions, the youth of the region became more interested in the news business. They realised that state media had been failing them and, therefore, sought a credible source of news, that expressed their concerns and spoke their minds. They found nothing better than Al Jazeera. It was a must for us to cope with the new tide by introducing innovative youth-oriented programmes. But the question was: How could we reach out to the largest number of eager youth, while their freedoms were in shackles? We left no stone unturned: we devised new initiatives and employed novel means. I was assisted in this endeavour by a team of journalists who believe in Al Jazeera’s mission and are willing to pass on their knowledge and expertise to others. As a result, Al Jazeera Ambassadors non-profit initiative was launched in 2012 to provide training to young media students and professionals in developing countries. It aims to reinforce the values of free and professional journalism and to transfer the skills and expertise of Al Jazeera professionals through free training courses. We also launched the e-learning platform and modernised the ‘Learning Arabic’ platform developed by Al Jazeera Net.
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