* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Last week, twelve Egyptian journalists took part in an intensive three-day training course in Cairo on security and safety of journalists while working in hostile environments.
The training, which was held April 19-21, included journalists from leading media organisations in Egypt including staff from Thomson Reuters Foundation's Aswat Masriya (www.aswaymasriya.com), a news portal which provides Egyptians with essential news and information on elections and politics.
The participants took the opportunity to share the problems they experienced in the field and discussed what challenges and violence they may face while reporting, especially during their coverage of the upcoming presidential elections (23 and 24 May).
The training, delivered by instructor Abeer Saady, covered fourteen topics in addition to practical scenarios. Participants also learned about first aid; causality assessment, CPR, bleeding, fractions, burns, and car accidents.
As for safety, they studied planning, personal safety, travel safety, building safety, ballistic threat, air strikes, abduction and kidnapping, riot and public disorder.