Media Development Center “MDC” at Birzeit University, with collaboration of Heinrch Boll Foundation held the closing day ceremony of “Villages Voices” Project on the 6th of November, 2012. This project was implemented in partnership with twelve local radio stations in West Bank  which are  following:
Palestinian Public Broadcasting Corporation- Ramallah, Al-Balad Radio station- Jenin., Kol-Alnas Radio Station- Tulkarem, Bethlehem 2000 Radio station- Bethlehem, Tarek Al-Mahabeh Radio Station- Nablus, Radio Amwaj- Ramallah, Radio Al-Qamar- Jericho, Radio Marah-Hebron, Radio Al-Horiya- Hebron, Radio Al-najah voice- Nablus, Birziet University Radio station- Birziet, Radio Mazaj Ramallah

The goal of the project is to increase the theoretical and practical capacities of Palestinian media professionals (PMPs) on producing Radio feature story, by conducting four  training courses on Research and script writing for feature story telling, Interviewing Techniques, Sound for Radio and Feature Story Editing
During these training courses,  the participants were  provided  technical inputs down to produce a radio program of 19 episodes about the situation of  different Palestinian villages,  within the field visits the participants found out that for example, one family in  Burin in Nablus has music professional skills and are very talented on what they produce .As well a village called  Burqin in Jenin   that has one of the oldest church in the world according to the Church in charge
Through the project, the participants has studied the oral history of these villages, and discovered that the history of them  will be lost forever, and this is the cause it was interested to get more information about the villages and published  them so they won't be forgotten over time. Also, the participants  detected the threats and difficulties which these villages are facing  because the Israeli  occupation policies like the settlements, the apartheid wall and Israeli assaults policies which prevent the Palestinian from building  or improving  their villages.
At the end of the ceremony, three episodes of the radio program were selected as winners and get a prize for meeting the Professional criterias by the evaluation's team at MDC. The winner episodes and participants are the following :

BOREN STORY- BY HAYA QASEAH- NABLUS
BEIT ESKAKA STORY- BETHLAHIM- AHMAD TANOH
BROQEEN STORY- SKON SHA’BAN- JENIN.

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Media Development Center “MDC” at Birzeit University, with collaboration with Ramallah Office of the United Nations Organization for Education, Culture and Science 'UNESCO', held a training workshop for two days on the 16 and 17 of October 2012,  the workshop aimed to discuss the  “Media Development Indicators (MDIs)" to assess Palestine’s national media landscape.
This workshop came within the framework of preparations for a national Media strategy in the Palestinian territories, Which will discuss the reality of Palestinian Media with aim to develop it and organize its work in partnership with the official authorities and institutions.
The workshop was held at the headquarters of the Continuing Education Center of the University of Birzeit in Ramallah, and in partnership with the Al-Aqsa University in Gaza.
In addition tens of Palestinian journalists from West Bank and Gaza Strip, attend the workshop also numbers of government officials who work in the field of Media and communication such as, Sabri Saydam, the President’s Consulate for Communication Affairs also, Mahmud Khalifa, Deputy of Ministry of Information.
The discussion was open between the attendance via video conferencing system linking the West Bank with Gaza.
From the other hand, the Executive Director of Centre for Law and Democracy , Toby Mendel said, that this workshop will contribute to put the first step in order to diagnose and development the reality of freedom of expression in the Palestinian territories. “through the assessment of the reality of the Palestinian media and know their problems, we can then begin to address” Mendel added.
Mr. Mendel focused also on “UNESCO” document on media development indicators, which focuses on the strengthen freedom of expression, pluralistic media, development the Social Media also development the Human resources.
In the same context, the Director of “MDC”, Nibal Thawabteh, said that this workshop is an introduction to research project will continue for eight months, which will be working on the development of standard study on the reality of the Palestinian Media and journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “thus will upgrading the Palestinian Media and strengthen the principle of freedom of expression.” Nibal added.
Mrs. Thawabteh stressed in the same time on the importance of applying the correct media regulation, especially in media curricula in Palestinian universities and training courses. “the MDC seeks during its sessions which held regularly  stabilization the correct media regulation which ensure greater freedom of expression” Mrs. Thawabteh said.
On the other side, the professor of journalism in the Islamic University of Gaza, Mohsen Franji, stressed on the need for the participate of the journalists in national projects, as well as make efforts to unite journalists Syndicate.
Also, the Palestinian female journalist, Rula Elian streesd on the need to unite the Journalism body through practical steps in preparation to put final solutions to end all of problems which impede the development of the Palestinian media sector.

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The Media Development Center held a writing course for multimedia. The information and programs discussed in the workshop will be incorporated into the Media Development Center's online, multimedia website. The workshop was led by international expert and journalist Rafael Kraft, who has worked in the Middle East.

An extended 60-hour educational session included theoretical and practical material on writing for the web, as well as audio production and editing for news. The course took place from Oct. 15 to  Oct. 22.
12 journalists that work in online multimedia news attended the course.

The participants completed two news stories with writing and audio and
published them online.

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The Media Development Center held a course on visuals and infographics for television and film. The workshop was led by Dia Al-Azzah.
The session lasted 30 hours and included theoretical and practical material on:

1. Principles and theories of digital photography.

2. Principles and theories of film and animation.

3. Instruction for the following programs: Photoshop, Final Cut Pro,
Flash, Ilustrator, Aftereffects.

4. Assembly and production of final projects.

The course was from Oct. 17 to Oct. 22. 11 graphic designers with experience in public and private media attended the event.
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