SECTOR 4 4.9 Media professionals have access to training facilitates offering formal qualification programmes as well as opportunities to upgrade skills. Algeria started a school of journalism in French at the University of Algiers in 1964 and then in Arabic a year later. Currently, only a third of practicing journalists effectively received pre-service training. It appears that the decision of public authorities to put special emphasis on mass training was taken at the expense of quality training. The adverse effects of this policy were especially evident the past couple of years with the undeniable lowering of standards and the number of excesses of the media. It shall be noted that since the early 80s, pre-service training of journalists is offered exclusively in Arabic. This is a real threat to the development of the French-speaking media. Meanwhile, certain publications such as El Watan and El Khabar – the public broadcasting service also – offer in-service training for members of their editorial staff. These training sessions are sometimes open to journalists from other media outlets. There are also the theme-based training sessions proposed by various institutions (the parliament in particular) and nongovernmental organizations. These sessions are often too short (1 to 2 days) and infrequent to produce long-term effects. The University of Blida, however, solicited support, 3 years ago, from university lecturers specializing in this field and from experienced journalists to set up a Masters programme in scientific journalism. As of the start of the 2009 academic year, a national school of journalism and communications will open its doors at the University of Algiers to offer Masters Degree programmes to professionals and third-year undergraduate students, who wish to practice journalism. Classes will be taught in Arabic and in French and the school should be open to international students, especially to those from other African countries. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ALGERIA 2009 59