JMIC trains 45 Ugandan journalism students in safety and security – Unsafe journalists cannot tell good stories.

By Gerald Walulya, JMIC coordinator – Uganda

Digital and physical security was put on the agenda when 45 final year journalism students and early career journalists participated in safety training in Uganda in early April.

Department of Journalism and Communication, Makerere University, Uganda, in cooperation with JMIC, conducted a four-day workshop on safety and security of journalists 3 rd- to 6 th April, 2023.

While speaking at the beginning of the training, Dr. Nakiwala Aisha Sembatya, the Head of Department of Journalism and Communication highlighted the importance of the workshop noting that such training is crucial for young journalists, because it enables them to know what to do when they are faced with safety and security threats. She commended JMIC for its continued support towards the Department that has enabled them to prepare their students well.

Journalists in Uganda face serious threats that range from intimidation, physical and psychosocial harassment, arrest and detention on a nearly daily basis. Journalists are regularly targeted by state actors such as security services, who include the army and the police and non-state actors such as mobs, politicians and powerful business people whose enterprises may be threatened by the journalists’ critical reporting.

The workshop was facilitated by local and international facilitators. Local facilitators included, Dr. Sara Namusoga, a Lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Communication, Culton Scovia Nakamya, a local Television journalist and Dr. Aisha Nakiwala. The local trainers were supported by Abeer Saady, a recognised safety trainer associated with Journalism & Media International Center.

Dr. Sara Namusoga told participants that journalists should be aware of their safety digitally and physically, because unsafe journalists cannot tell good stories.

Namusoga advised participants to always backup their data, avoid opening emails from untrusted sources, distancing themselves from usage of public Wi-Fi, noting that doing so exposes their accounts to hackers.

Abeer Saady took participants through a number of issues related to safety and security including, risk management and safety planning while working in hostile environments, situational awareness and ethical dilemmas related to safety and security.

Dorcus Nzayisenga, one of the participants applauded the trainers for making the sessions engaging. “The sessions were very educative and above all interactive which gives us students a chance to express our views. The facilitators were audible and made use of their personal experience, for proper understanding.”

Another participant, Moreen Atwiine said that she has learnt a lot from the training. “As a journalist l have become more aware about the threats l can face while doing my work and also the mechanisms to manage these threats.” She pledged to share the knowledge she has
acquired with fellow journalists. “ I will educate fellow journalist who didn’t get the chance to attend the workshop about their safety. I will also start practicing the tips about my safety and security as a journalist that I have learnt.”

Investigative journalism techniques for Arab journalists

By: Lamis Issa

A physical training workshop was held in Tunis for seven journalists – four of them women – from Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon 28 – 30 June 2022. 

The workshop was part of the project “Support the right to information and investigative journalism on environmental issues in the MENA region» in cooperation with the local partner the Institute of Press and Information Sciences (IPSI ) at Manouba University in Tunisia. 

Hanene Zbiss, Trainer and Coach (Photo: Article 19 MENA).

The workshop comes within the framework of cooperation between Article 19 MENA and JMIC running for several years. The participants have also had digital lectures in access to information, the legal framework of investigative journalism and safety and security for journalists.   

During this workshop seven journalists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were able to deepen their knowledge on investigative journalism on the following main topics: Investigative methodology, sources of information and writing an investigative report. 

From the right to the left, Joudy Asmar; Lebanese participant, and Hanene Zbiss; Trainer and Coach  (Photo: Article 19 MENA).

In addition, the training workshop allowed participants to better understand the methods for constructing the hypotheses of their investigative journalistic work, and to obtain more technical advice from the trainers and coachers, Hanene Zbiss from Tunisia and Anass Bendrif from Morocco. 

The training was also an opportunity to recall and discuss the ethical rules in journalism, and especially the exceptions allowed in matters of investigation. In addition, advice was given to them regarding their professional security and the protection of their sources. 

Anass Bendrif and Hanene Zbiss, Trainers and Coaches (Photo: Article 19 MENA).

The last day of the training workshop was devoted to discussing their future subjects for investigation. The participants will work on their individual stories with coaching until the end of the year, when they will hopefully meet for a closing  ceremony.   

Workshop on Climate Journalism Education 

By Syed M. Saqib Saleem   

The Faculty of Humanities, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), in collaboration with JMIC, hosted a one-day workshop on Climate Journalism Education 1st June 2022.  

The workshop was attended by academicians, postgraduate students and journalists joining in from all over Pakistan and abroad.  

Group photo of the climate journalism education workshop (Photo: Media Center, FCCU).

It discussed ways of teaching climate journalism and helped provide ideas for training journalism students through the collective effort of academicians and journalists who have worked in the field and are aware of the climate crisis.  

Dr. Altaf Ullah Khan, Dean of Humanities at FCCU, inaugurated the workshop and gave a keynote speech in which he stated, “If we, as academicians, have a good understanding of climate crisis, only then we will be able to train our students in the best possible way on its journalistic perspective as well. Since climate change is both our present and our future.” 

Dr Altaf Ullah Khan delivers his keynote speech at the workshop inauguration ceremony (Photo: Media Center, FCCU).

The workshop was moderated by Rachel Hasan, Chairperson Department of Mass Communication. Dr Elisabeth Eide, Co-Director Media Climate Network and Professor of Journalism from OsloMet, gave a brief introduction of the workshop and gave the floor to Dr Derk Bakker, Associate Professor and Chairperson of Department of Environmental Sciences, FCCU. He highlighted the impacts and solutions for climate change.  

Dr Derk Bakker pinpoints impacts and solutions of climate change (Photo: Media Center, FCCU).

Dr Elisabeth Eide later built up on his speech and shared why climate change is a concern for journalists and journalism students. She shared the models for education on climate journalism and stated: “It is crucial to combine studies with field visits for students as well and help them learn from local experts and indigenous people.” 

Moreover, Hannah Bernstein, science journalist and project manager at Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, along with Syed Abubakar, Environment journalist and media trainer, and Syed M. Saqib, Assistant Professor of Mass Communication, FCCU, further discussed ways to train students to cover climate stories and what can be included in the courses to enhance future journalists’ capacity to report on climate. They were of the view that it is high time, climate journalism was integrated into the curriculum for journalism students in Pakistan. 

Finally, Muhammad Daud Khan and Stella Paul, the two famous climate journalists working in the field and setting a precedent for others to follow, joined the workshop and shared that: “As journalists, we are storytellers and are also the mediators between people at the frontline of climate crisis and masses. So, we have to be the ones to tell the missing stories to the world.” 

The workshop was concluded with some final remarks by Dr Elisabeth Eide and Oona Solberg. Dr Douglas Trimble, Vice-Rector, FCCU, was also present at the occasion and gave his concluding speech. After that, certificates were distributed among the participants.  

Overall, the training was informative and valuable for participants and encouraged them to become change makers within their institutions and support the efforts to introduce climate journalism education courses for journalism students in Pakistan.  

Online International Storytelling Workshop 2022 

By: Jon Petter Evensen 

6 students from PhotoCircle in Kathmandu, 6 students from Pathshala in Dhaka and 9 students from OsloMet have started the International Storytelling project 2022: 

An online start-up workshop lead by the Indian photo editor, curator and writer Tanvi Mishra together with the Bangladeshi photographer, tutor and curator Sarker Protick. 

From 15thto 20thFebruary the students worked on the story pitches, research, further development and preparation of the coming project and field work inspired and tutored by Tanvi Mishra and Sarker Protick. 

In the coming weeks the students will work on their individual projects and will meet again for the online editing workshop on the 28thMars. 

One of the regular meetings between Jon, Ashraf, and Sagar. The three are coordinating the workshop on behalf of their respective institutions – OsloMet, Pathshala, and photo.circle.

More information:  

https://www.photocircle.com.np/workshops/international-storytelling-workshop-2022/

https://pathshalainstitute.org

https://www.worldpressphoto.org/person/detail/39137/tanvi-mishra

https://sarkerprotick.com/Bio