SKOPJE, 30.11.2017 – Association of Journalists of Macedonia in cooperation with the US Embassy in Macedonia started the training cycle for young journalists, researchers and civic activists. The theme of the training will be: “Improving research techniques and creative presentation.”
Interactive lectures will be conducted by Zoran Dimitrovski (editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper “Focus”), Zoran Ricliev (journalist and consultant for digital media), and once a month an online lecture will be held by experts in the field of journalistic research from the MuckRock Research Center from the United States.
“This training is part of a new and innovative approach of education which is supported by the State Department. This is the first time we support this kind of project, and if it proves to be successful, we will continue to implement it in Macedonia, but also in other countries. According to the information we received, students studying journalism in Macedonia do not have practical classes at their universities, therefore we decided to organize trainings that will enable them practical knowledge,” said Ben Lingeman, who works as an Assistant Public Relations Officer at the US Embassy in Skopje. 
President of AJM Nasser Selmani thanked the US Embassy, which always supports the AJM in the fight for freedom of speech and media. He noted that this type of training is of great importance for young journalists and researchers. “It’s very important in journalism to know how to get to the news. Very often to get to the important news you need to research and analyze a lot of data. This is exactly what this training aims at. To learn to recognize the news, and then place it in a way that is understandable to the public,” he said.
Trainer Zoran Richliev also spoke to the participants, he said that he expects this training to produce the new stars of the Macedonian investigative journalism. 
The journalistic products that will come out from the trainings will be published on the AJM’s website and they will be promoted and made available to the public along with the authors.
Participants that will finish this training cycle successfully will receive certificates, on a proper event organized by AJM and the American Embassy in Skopje.