Following the second “OZ in Morocco” edition held at the end of 2019, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Australia in partnership with the Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR), Deakin University and the Advanced Institute of Communication in Rabat (ISIC), four students-journalists from Morocco are participating in the first ever “Morocco in OZ” held currently in Australia.
In this regard, the Ambassador of His Majesty the King to Australia, Mr. Karim Medrek attended a “Morocco in OZ” showcase event held in Melbourne on the 30th of January 2020 to exchange with the Moroccan delegates and to share some thoughts about the current and past editions of this interesting exchange program in the field of journalism.
Mr. Medrek considers that such initiatives go in line with the ascending trends in terms of bilateral cooperation between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Commonwealth of Australia in recent years, highlighting that the role of the delegates taking part in this exchange program will be vital when it comes to enlightening the public opinion in both countries about ties between Rabat and Canberra.
The four Moroccan delegates taking part to this edition of “Morocco in OZ 2020”, Chaïmae Ouriarhli Fikri, Manal Ben El Hantati, Hanane Daali and Khadija Boufous, aim to contribute to the reinforcement of cross-cultural understanding by fostering better informed journalism.
In this sense, they proceeded to a series of interviews in the framework of this exchange program which would surely help in deepening a Moroccan audience’s understanding of Australia. Besides, students-journalists are having an active interaction with media institutions as shown through their recent visit to Star News Group, based in the south-east of Melbourne and which publishes local news for local audiences under many mastheads online and in print.
Delegates have been equally excited to visit the Melbourne headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), one of the renowned media institutions in Australia. During this visit, the Moroccan young journalists paid a tour of the television and radio newsrooms and studios, before having a discussion with Alan Weedon from the Asia Pacific Newsroom.
This visit and discussions allowed the students journalists delegates to understand the ABC’s large and structured news operation, and the broader place that it occupies in the Australian media landscape.
In the framework of this program, the Moroccan delegates visited the Bunjilaka exhibition at Melbourne Museum for an important introduction to Australia’s First Nations people and the continent’s pre-European history.
It is worth recalling that this “Morocco in OZ 2020” comes some months after the holding of the second edition of “OZ in Morocco” in November 2019, held at the initiative of this Embassy alongside the same previously mentioned partners to foster the cross-cultural exchange between Morocco and Australia. During that edition, Aussie Students-Journalists have visited a number of institutions, press organs and cultural monuments in the Kingdom.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Embassy of Morocco in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific States.
Source: Apo-Opa
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