Press ReleasesInternews Network to Build Community Radio Station, Opens Office in Amman
(October 1, 2007) Internews Network is launching a new radio station in Jordan that will focus on women and youth. The station, to be operated in cooperation with the Princess Basma Youth Center, will broadcast to all of Jordan. To support this project and its other media development activities in Jordan, Internews opened an office in Amman this month. “Internews Network is pleased to support Jordan’s efforts in media and civil society development,” said Nadia Al Alami, Internews Network’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “We are very excited that the new station will provide opportunities for Jordanian youth to use media as a tool for access to information and community development.” Through a grant from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), Internews will train and support young people to operate a radio station to be built at the Princess Basma Youth Center in Amman. The young journalists will learn the technical and journalistic skills needed to operate a community radio station, producing radio programming with a particular emphasis on issues of concern to youth and women. This project builds on Internews’ project establishing Autostrad, a youth radio production unit, at Princess Basma Youth Center last summer. Young trainees have gained real-life experience producing programming at the Autostrad studio, and their programs have aired on Jordanian radio stations. Last year Internews also launched Yarmouk FM, Jordan’s first community-based radio station, in partnership with Western Kentucky University. YFM, based at Yarmouk University in Irbid, enables students to gain hands-on experience running a real radio station. YFM now broadcasts 24 hours a day to one million listeners throughout northern Jordan and the surrounding region. The Autostrad and YFM projects are also funded under the grant to Internews from DRL. Zena Nasereddin, the former Global Outreach Manager for the Office of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, will head up Internews’ new Amman office as Country Representative. Prior to her position at Her Majesty’s office, Nasereddin worked at the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Jordan. Internews Network is an international NGO based in California that works to improve access to information for people around the world by fostering independent media and promoting open communications policies in the public interest. Founded in 1982, Internews has worked in 70 countries and trains some 10,000 media professionals each year. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Internews also currently has media development projects in Egypt and the West Bank and Gaza. For more information on Internews’ work in the MENA region, see the Internews MENA web site (in Arabic). Internews Network’s office in Amman can be contacted at: Regus Building, office number 315 Telephone: +962-65007266 |
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