JMI Celebrates Graduation of Sixth Batch of Students and Honors the late Jennifer Hamarneh

13 October 2015<br /> <br /> The Jordan Media Institute (JMI) celebrated the graduation of its sixth batch of students in the Master&rsquo;s Program in Journalism and New Media, Comprehensive Track which included 20 students from Jordan, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen. The ceremony was held on Tuesday, 13 October under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Rym Ali, founder of the institute.<br /> <br /> Dean Basim Tweissi addressed the ceremony, highlighting the role of media in the battle for reform and change and called for reforming educational systems including media education and introducing media literacy into schools and universities. He stressed JMI&rsquo;s commitment to providing generations of journalists with the knowledge and arming them with the principles of independence and integrity.<br /> <br /> Princess Rym had earlier unveiled a plaque dedicating the main newsroom at the institute to the late Jennifer Hamarneh who passed away earlier this year. Hamarneh was a JMI board member and former chief editor of the Jordan Times and had been a staunch supporter of the independence and freedom of media in Jordan. Her Royal Highness said Hamarneh was involved in the establishment phase of JMI and had contributed a great deal of time and effort to the development of the institute.<br /> <br /> Al Ghad Arabic daily Editor-in-Chief Jumana Ghunaimat gave the commencement speech and told the graduates that freedom of thinking, belief, expression and knowledge was their most valued treasure and urged them to never allow any attempt to undermine their rights and freedoms. Ghunaimat added that there were no impartial journalists, but rather objective ones who follow professional principles in order to prevent their personal convictions from overcoming their objectivity. &ldquo;Our success and excellence is measured by the level of our professionalism&rdquo;, she added.<br /> <br /> Frode Rekve from the Norwegian Institute of Journalism (IJ) and friend of JMI delivered brief remarks in which he commended the strong ties between both institutes, spanning four years ago and covering a variety of joint programs, workshops, academic trips and conferences. He said JMI topped the Norwegian institute&rsquo;s list of partners in the world, and thanked Her Royal Highness Princess Rym for her relentless efforts and JMI&rsquo;s team for making the relationship such a success. &nbsp;<br /> <br /> The event had opened with a speech by Valedictorian Aya Al Khawaldeh who briefed the guests on the experience she and her fellow graduates gained during the year which provided them with skills and knowledge to work at distinguished media organizations. She noted the institute&rsquo;s efforts to provide them with quality journalism education that is focused on digital media, practical work, numerous training sessions on data journalism, as well as academic trips. Al Khawaldeh said she was inspired by her mother who studied journalism and encouraged her to enter the profession.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Following the speeches, Princess Rym handed out the certificates to the graduates wishing them well as they embark on their professional careers. She was accompanied by President of the University of Jordan Dr. Ekhleif Tarawneh and Dean Tweissi.<br /> One hundred and twenty two students have so far graduated from the MA program with more than 60% of them working at prestigious local, regional and international media organizations.<br /> &nbsp;