Representatives of the mass media from the U.S. and the Association for Development and Cooperation of Moldova Wednesday signed a cooperation agreement to create a Media and Communication Academy in Chisinau, IPN reports.

“The Academy will bring new professional programs for journalists, bloggers, experts in communication and other persons who want to specialize in journalism,” Lee Bernard Becker, director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, told a news conference. He underlined that after the training, the journalists will be able to work with other countries.

Owen Ullmann, editor-in-chief of the paper USA Today, said the freedom of journalism is an essential factor for a healthy society and the foreign specialists who will work at the Media and Communication Academy will promote this thing. “I hope these training programs will bring benefits to the Moldovan citizens and journalists,” he stated.

U.S. university lecturer Tudor Vlad said that he has worked on this project for two years, while the Cox Center already prepped a training program. “In cooperation with our colleagues from Moldova, we will provide packages of program, depending on the needs that they will identify,” he stated, adding that those who will pass the training programs will receive Cox Center certificates.

The Academy will be opened officially in the second half of 2013. The candidates will be taught by international professors, while the training programs will last for three days to three months. According to the executive director of the Association for Development and Cooperation George Saghin, there will be offered international scholarship and, possibly, work contracts abroad.