The «Journalist Protection in Conflict Areas Course», organised by the Greek General Staff on behalf of the UN, is a major initiative undertaken by Greece for the protection of journalists in conflict Areas.
The Course was held between the 14th – 18th November 2016, at the Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Centre (MPSOTC), in Kilkis and was attended by Onalert.gr journalist Ioanna Iliadi.
The participants were mainly journalists and Armed forces press officers of which 21 were from Nigeria, 13 from Greece and 2 from China. The individuals has the opportunity to receive basic academic and legal knowledge as well as practical training in self-defense (krav maga),first aid, and how to deal with explosive devices.
Finally they were informed on the risks they might face in conflict areas, how to behave and tackle difficult or dangerous situations as well as how to deal with a possible hostage situation.
It is essentially a pilot project, which will continue in the coming months and is expected to be enriched.
Among the lecturers were Aristotle University Assistant Professor Nicos Panayiotou, UN Expert Andrea Chmieliński Bigazzi, Italian journalist and war correspondent Sonia Mancini and the Hellenic Police Force Officer Achilles Basioukas specializing in hostage-taking and abduction issues.
MPSOTC is a Greek Training centre certified by NATO and the UN, whose mission is to provide academic and practical field training at a national and multinational level. In its 18 years of operation, it has trained more than 3400 Greek and foreigner members of the military as well as civilians always fulfilling the internationally recognised education levels as defined by the UN, NATO, the EU and the OSCE.
The training provided achieves the upgrade of the level of the Greek Armed Forces, the provision of certified knowledge to military and civilians while at the same time enhancing relations, friendship and cooperation with countries around the globe.