Ramallah – 18 December 2025 The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) concluded last Thursday a three-day training course entitled “Modern Journalism Skills: From Free Expression to Interviewing and Media Production”, targeting young journalists.
The Course was held at the City Inn Hotel in Ramallah and brought together twenty-five (25) male and female students from the Faculty of Media at Al-Quds Open University. It was implemented as part of the project “We Heard It on the Radio: Amplifying Young Journalists’ Voices to Advocate for Freedom of Expression and Human Rights”, carried out by MADA in partnership with Oxfam.
The training opened on its first day with remarks by the project coordinator, MS. HADEEL MUBARAK, who welcomed the participants and thanked them for their attendance. She highlighted the vital role of youth in Palestinian society and explained why they were specifically targeted as emerging media professionals. She also underscored the importance of journalism as the fourth authority, the relevance of the course’s themes, and the centrality of human rights in media work.
For his part, DR. IMAD AL-HOUDALI, Dean of the Faculty of Media at Al-Quds Open University, welcomed the students and spoke about the selection mechanism for participation in the training. He emphasized the significance of the strategic partnership between MADA and Al-Quds Open University, expressing the University’s pride in this collaboration.
The training aimed to empower young journalists with modern journalism skills related to freedom of expression and human rights, while enhancing their capacities in journalistic storytelling and the preparation and conduct of professional interviews. It also focused on developing participants’ skills in using contemporary media production tools, enabling them to produce professional and responsible media content that effectively addresses societal issues.
On the first day, DR. MOATH KARAJAH addressed several key themes, including developing a comprehensive understanding of freedom of opinion and expression, identifying the main obstacles to this freedom, particularly societal constraints, and distinguishing between legitimate legal limitations on freedom of expression, such as refraining from mocking the ideas and beliefs of others, and negative constraints that suppress free expression.
The session also introduced key areas of human rights that journalists are obliged to protect within their local communities and explored how media can address issues affecting the rights of various social groups in a sound and lawful manner. This approach ultimately enables journalists to build compelling media stories, particularly radio features, centered on human rights issues.
The training included a practical exercise in its final session, during which the trainer presented a news item related to a human rights issue and asked participants, working in groups, to develop it into a full journalistic story. Participants were also tasked with envisioning how the story could be transformed into a matter of public opinion, by identifying the parties that violated the law, determining the victim whose rights were infringed and the causes of the violation, and selecting the most appropriate media formats and guests to cover the story effectively.
Over the course of two days, journalist trainer AKRAM AL-JARIRI focused on journalistic storytelling, its definition, importance, and core elements, as one of the fundamental pillars of journalistic practice and the essence of modern media work. He also addressed interview techniques, noting that storytelling helps expand news content and makes it more enduring in public memory by relying on condensed and accumulated observations that enable journalists to produce exceptional work.
On the second day, the trainer discussed the preparation of journalistic interviews and their various techniques, which include in-depth research, goal setting, and question design, as well as the importance of psychological readiness for journalists and selecting appropriate locations for conducting interviews. He emphasized that building trust, active listening, attentiveness to the interviewee’s responses, sensitivity to body language and dialogue dynamics, and the diplomatic handling of difficult questions, while avoiding emotional reactions, are among the most critical interview skills.
The session also addressed new forms of storytelling in the digital age, particularly interactive, multimedia storytelling that combines text, images, video, and sound effects, as well as micro-storytelling on social media platforms and virtual reality techniques, which offer unprecedented opportunities to present stories that enhance emotional engagement. In addition, the trainer stressed the need to avoid common mistakes such as failing to verify facts, neglecting prior preparation, interrupting sources, or asking leading questions.
The third day was dedicated entirely to practical training, assessing participants’ ability to design and conduct journalistic interviews, their familiarity with technical software used in radio production, and their capacity to prepare professional interview question lists. The day also covered additional techniques, such as applying the “rule of thirds” in visual composition, using different camera angles to create psychological impact, and selecting appropriate lighting.
At the conclusion of the training, participants emphasized the importance of the course’s subject matter and the centrality of human rights, independent of political interference or partisan considerations. They also stressed the need for further in-depth engagement through additional training courses focusing on related topics, including filming techniques and writing compelling journalistic headlines.
