Simon Kelner on Tunisia's 'mini explosion' in new media outlets

It was just over a year ago when a drive for change began to spread across the Arab world, with the chain of events now known as the Arab Spring starting in Tunisia in December 2010.

A month later Tunisian president Ben Ali had stepped down and in the months since, as reported by Reporters Without Borders in their annual index last month, Tunisia has given "birth to a democratic regime", although this "has not yet fully accepted a free and independent press".

The newly-established Journalism Foundation, launched late last year by former Independent editor Simon Kelner with the support of the Lebedev family, owners of the Independent, has itself reported that "freedom of expression in Tunisia is still a distant goal", with one journalist telling the non-profit that "the transition to a free press is going to be a long, slow process".

But steps are being taken, and this week the Foundation itself began a string of workshops with journalists in the country in a bid to further this process.

Today will be the third day of workshops in Tunis, which over four days will see more than 40 journalists from the country trained by journalism professors from City University on 'Reporting in a Democracy'.

According to the Foundation attendees include "journalists who worked in the mainstream media under the former regime and bloggers whose voices were heard around the world during the Arab Spring". Topics being covered include how to deal with politicians, carrying out financial journalism, the value of citizen journalism and how to avoid being deceived.

A taste of the freedom that is available for journalists operating within a democracySimon Kelner

In an interview with Journalism.co.uk Kelner said there has still been a "mini-explosion" in new media outlets in the country, with more than 20 new newspapers set up and "about half a dozen licences for TV stations" applied for.

"It is a very exciting time for the media but obviously journalists out there haven't had any experience of working in a democratic environment. What we're trying to do is take advantage of the new interest in the media in Tunisia and help to give journalists there a sense of the practicalities of working in a democracy."

He added that Tunisia seemed to be "an appropriate place for us to begin this training programme", saying the aim is to "give people a taste of the freedom that is available for journalists operating within a democracy, something sadly journalists in Tunisia have not had the benefit of for some time."

The workshops will conclude tomorrow with a lecture from the Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, and Kelner says expansion of the training scheme into other countries may be considered.

"We are a very young foundation, we only launched at the beginning of December and this is our first hands-on project. We do have other projects up and running in Tanzania. This is the first one that has got off the ground, we're learning every day and hope to learn from the experience in Tunisia and then maybe expand to other countries.

"We won't make a full assessment of that until after these workshops have finished."

He added that there is "a limit to what information you can pass on" in just a handful of days, but that the Foundation has worked with City University "in tailor-making these workshops to cover as much ground as we possibly can in that time and to give as much practical help as we can".

"We will assess the success of them, look at what we can do better, talk to the people who did the courses and find out what they got from them. Then we decide where we go next really. We will not make that decision until we've seen the success or otherwise of what we're doing."

The Journalism Foundation has also been supported by "other branches of the media industry" he said, adding that the volume of organisations seeking funding is also "extremely encouraging".

"It has given us a proper taste of some of the great projects being undertaken all around the world that have journalism at their heart.

"I was editor of a national newspaper for 13 years and what these last few months have taught me is that journalism is changing very, very rapidly ... but it's open to everyone and there's some incredible projects being undertaken around the world."

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