Outgoing upstart editor Erdem Koc, incoming editor Tom Cowie and upstart writer Kelly Theobald are on a sponsored journalism student delegation to Kuwait, co-organised by the Kuwaiti Government and the Institute for Design, Entertainment, Design and the Arts.

Here’s the piece from yesterday’s Arab Times:

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): An Australian student delegation, representing the Departments of Journalism and Media at La Trobe University and Swinburne University of Technology, is currently visiting Kuwait at an invitation extended by the Ministry of Information.

Director of the Department of Media in Foreign States at the Information Ministry’s External Media Department, Abdullah Al-Khaldi, told KUNA on Tuesday that the visit was aimed at allowing the students to get a first-hand look at the economic, political and cultural issues in Kuwait and to bring the peoples of the two countries closer.

Al-Khaldi underscored the importance of constant contact between Kuwait’s media institutions and their foreign counterparts, including those in Australia “because this offers strong support to our just causes from the one side, and emphasizes the cultural role that the Kuwaiti society plays on the other.”

The delegation’s visit falls within the media strategy that the ministry is employing, and which seeks to host media and political delegations and figures in order to boost relations and exchange views on many matters.

As for the Australian delegation that is currently in the country, Al-Khaldi said that they would be visiting the National Assembly, Kuwait Stock Exchange, the Grande Mosque and Kuwait Journalists Association, and would be taking part in a seminar at the College of Social Sciences at Kuwait University.

They will also be meeting with Information Undersecretary Sheikh Faisal Al-Malek Al-Sabah and top parliamentarians and politicians.