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The Centre for Conflict Resolution Journalism is active around the world training journalists, propagating ethical media reporting, exposing political corruption and human rights abuse, and assisting international democratic reform as part of the organisation's overall strategy for conflict resolution.
In the past year the CCRJ has been active in numerous countries around the world.
Scroll down for articles, case studies, and reports detailing the CCRJ's activities in the following countries.
CAMEROON
SARAWAK
SAUDI ARABIA
LEBANON
AZERBAIJAN
PALESTINE
AFGHANISTAN
The material published here in The Ethical Media Review, in this special issue on Political Reporting, forms the basis for a book currently in development by CCRJ Executive Director Barry Lowe examining political reporting around the world. For a full description of the project click here:
http://www.tvu.ac.uk/newsevents/1news_files/August_2005_news/aug05_news3.jsp
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Activity 6 Outcome A1 The Critical Role of Journalists in Cameroon’s Political Future Outline
This article is based on a fact-finding mission to Cameroon in 2004 to assess the situation of journalists according to a range of criteria but particularly their freedom to report objectively on government, politics and the ruling party. The conclusion of that mission was that Cameroon journalists were tightly controlled by the ruling regime, which used intimidation and other methods to prevent any critical reporting on its activities. The heavily muzzled Cameroon news media was therefore prevented from actively contributing to nation building, the promotion of good governance and the development of democratic institutions.
The Paul Biya Regime
Paul Biya came to power in 1982 and is now one of the world’s longest reigning dictators. His regime is notorious for corruption – it has frequently been placed on the top of Transparency International’s Most Corrupt Nations list – cronyism and the brutal repression of opposition forces. Cameroon also gets consistently low marks for human rights compliance and is ranked on a level with Zimbabwe by the Washington-based civil liberties monitor Freedom House. While a token opposition is tolerated, the ruling party maintains a stranglehold on power through a system of patronage in which all official appointments, right down to village level, are vetted by the ruling party, the RDPC (Rassemblement Democratique du Peuple Camerounais).
Political factors threatening Cameroon’s future stability
Paul Biya announced a general election would be held in October 2004, claiming the poll was to be the latest step on Cameroon’s path to multi-party democracy. However his regime had such a poor record of honouring democratic processes that his victory was regarded as a foregone conclusion, with most of the electorate convinced that he would use his usual tactics of voter intimidation and voter manipulation to secure another seven-year term as president. In fact, the electorate had become so cynical about Cameroon’s political system that even if Paul Biya had won the election fairly few people would accept that the result had not been rigged.
This factor made the election a source of national, with the inevitable Paul Biya victory in the poll providing a focus for opposition to the regime. Without an organised opposition to provide leadership there was no immediate threat of a popular uprising. However dissent generated by the outcome of the poll could eventually open opportunities for regional separatist movements and dissident military factions to gain mass support for disparate objections, threatening to submerge the country into civil war.
The major focus of separatist aspirations is the Anglophone community, comprising about 20% of the population, mainly based in the south west of the country. This community derives its identity not from membership of any ethnic or linguistic group but from its origins as a British protectorate that joined the Republic of Cameroon in a federated state when colonial rule ended in 1961. Anglophone disaffection dates back to 1972 when the Anglophone region’s federal status and regional autonomy was abolished by a constitutional amendment. The Anglophone community’s main political organisation is the Southern Cameroon National Council, which has recently become factionalised with the emergence of a militant tendency. Although this hard-line faction is yet to develop a capacity for armed insurrection, several of its leaders are calling for a full-scale rebellion.
Another threat to stability comes from a rebel army led by a dissident Cameroon army officer, Captain Guerandi Mall, who fell out with the military hierarchy after a dispute about promotion. Captain Mall has about 300 armed followers based outside the country. During the past year the men have been training at a camp in Burkina Faso. But Captain Mall has reportedly moved at least part of his force to Chad, close to Cameroon’s northern border, from where he is threatening an invasion.
Restrictions on journalists’ freedom
Journalists in Cameroon face significant and sustained constraints on their ability to function as free and independent observers of their society and its institutions. The Biya regime uses two main strategies to restrict media freedom: the concentration of mass media outlets in government hands and the continual harassment and intimidation of journalists, particularly those who work for independent media outlets.
Cameroon’s dominant media outlets – Cameroon Radio and TV (CRTV) and the Cameroon Tribune - are government owned and operate like civil service departments. They are financed by the state treasury and do not have to rely income from advertising. Because there is no real separation of the state from the ruling party, CRTV and the Tribune operate as propaganda outlets for the Biya regime (CRTV’s chairman is also the Minister for Information). A large proportion of programming on CRTV is devoted to ministerial speeches.
CRTV and the Tribune’s circulation and audience are greater than all the independent newspapers and broadcasters combined. The instability of the independent media sector makes jobs with CRTV or the Tribune highly desirably, in terms of salary, security of tenure and benefits. But journalists who work for CRTV or the Tribune are controlled by a number of punitive measures aimed at keeping them loyal to the core mission of their outlets, which is to promote the government and its leadership. Journalists who report critically on government policy or the actions of government officials are likely to find themselves transferred to bureaux in remote parts of the country, passed up for promotion or assigned trivial tasks that keep them away from mainstream news production.
Journalists in the private sector who are consistently critical of government policies and officials may find themselves the subjects of active monitoring by the police special branch. This can often lead to arrest and a brief spell of detention in one of the country’s notorious political prisons, such as Kondengui in Yaounde. The normal practice is to hold journalist for 24 hours as a taste of what lies in store for them if they continue to transgress. Those that do not take heed of this warning may find themselves arrested on trumped up criminal charges – usually the embezzlement of company funds. Another weapon used against “uncooperative” journalists is the law of criminal libel. Journalists who report critically on government ministers or officials often find themselves facing criminal libel charges. With little prospect of a successful defence before a compliant judiciary, they face stiff financial penalties. However long term incarceration of dissident journalists is relatively rare. The regime generally prefers to manage journalists by using threats and intimidation to encourage them to practice self-censorship.
Cameroon’s Independent Media Sector
Private media outlets in Cameroon are plentiful but precarious. Most private newspapers are published weekly or less frequently. Many appear irregularly, whenever the proprietor can raise enough money to pay for a new edition. Many news titles are short-lived. There is only one independent daily newspaper, the French language Mutation. Private newspapers have limited access to revenue from advertising and are dependent on income from sales. Their weak financial base forces them to keep overheads as low as possible, including salaries and allowances for journalists. Some newspapers only pay small retainers to their journalists; some do not provide any salary at all. These journalists are meant to by self-sustaining, which means they have to engage in “brown-enveloping”, soliciting payment for printing stories. Some journalists also supplement their salaries by working as media advisers for politicians.
The private broadcasting sector consists of three independent television stations with small transmission footprints and a number of small community radio stations that mostly broadcast in indigenous regional languages. Few of these private broadcasters attempt to provide a news service.
Cameroon’s media is divided into Francophone and Anglophone sectors. The official newspaper, the Tribune, declares itself a bilingual organ but this amounts to a few randomly selected articles printed in English with the majority in French. Because of their much smaller readership base the Anglophone newspapers are financially less stable than their Francophone counterparts.
Professional standards in Cameroon Journalism
Cameroon journalists have limited access to vocational education and professional training, a factor that is reflected in their professional standards and in their awareness of professional codes of ethics. Formal training in journalism is provided by two tertiary education institutes: the University of Buea and the Advanced School of Mass Communication in Yaounde. Both institutions deliver diploma-level (sub-degree) courses in mass media. Neither of these courses focuses on journalism practice. Instead they provide a more general introduction to mass media industries. Graduates complain they are too general and do not provide adequate training in basic journalism skills, such as news writing, research, interviewing techniques and application of news values. Both institutions are poorly resourced in terms of facilities for media teaching: computer labs, broadcasting equipment, etc. They also suffer from a lack of adequately trained and appropriately experienced teaching staff. The Advanced School of Mass Communication initially benefited from Canadian overseas aid support but this had since dried up and the institution has been unable to maintain an adequate teaching resource base. There are a number of small private educational institutions, mainly based in Yaounde, that have in recent years introduced short certificate courses in media subjects. But none of these courses appear to provide vocational training in journalism.
Cameroon journalists occasionally have access to training delivered by foreign NGO’s. In recent years short courses in journalism have been provided by, among others, the World Bank Institute (investigative reporting) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (business reporting).
The majority of Cameroon’s journalists have not received any formal professional training and regard themselves as being self-taught. A resulting feature of the news discourse in Cameroon is a lack of hard news, news that provides useful information about events and processes affecting a significant proportion of the society. Newspaper content in the independent press is largely political commentary that makes scanty use of factual material. In simple terms, many Cameroonian journalists do not seem to know what news is; or they have a very narrow view of the role of news outlets.
Problems of the news agenda The Cameroon news media has a narrow focus on politics. News outlets report and comment voluminously on statements, pronouncements and public speeches of political figures, with little critical analysis or contextualising information on the content of these messages. This reportage is personality-driven and often shows tabloid characteristics by exploring the personal lives of its subjects. Cameroon journalists appear reluctant or unable to develop other news agenda and seem narrowly confined in their reporting output to the political genre. They seem unaware of other news genres, apart from sport. Cameroonian newspapers rarely devote space to lifestyle issues or to themes such as the environment, health and science. Business reporting is rudimentary and usually driven by press releases. In fact very little news reporting in Cameroon originates from journalists being proactive and taking initiatives … finding their own stories. Most news comes from press conferences and press releases.
This lack of proactive reporting and the narrowness of the news agenda largely derive from three factors:
1. The prevailing atmosphere – sustained by the ruling regime - of oppression and intimidation that has made journalists reluctant to step beyond established boundaries of what they can safely report on;
2. The lack of professional and vocational journalism training – Cameroon journalists are mostly untrained or, at best, semi-trained – and the subsequent lack of awareness about news genres;
3. The isolation of Cameroon journalists and their lack of knowledge about news reporting practice and contemporary reporting trends in other parts of the world.
Accreditation
One of the problems Cameroon journalists face is the lack of a regulated accreditation system that provides them with recognition as professional media practitioners and privileged access to media events and sources. Industry sources estimate the number of full time journalists working throughout Cameroon at about 500. However there is a larger cohort of part-time, casual or freelance journalists who work on the fringes of the industry. Their presence in the mass media landscape tends to impede the establishment of self-regulatory mechanisms to establish and maintain professional standards. Part-time journalists are less likely to adhere to professional standards such as a code of ethics because their engagement with the news industry is not central to their careers. Similarly they may be less likely to support the profession in campaigns for better working conditions. In fact in many developing countries “irregular” (part-time, casual, freelance) journalists are used by employers, and sometimes by governments, to undermine efforts by full-time journalists to improve working conditions and professional standards.
Veteran Cameroon journalists complain that these “irregulars”, by their willingness to engage in promotion activities for politicians and corporations, are frustrating efforts by the profession to build public credibility and social respectability. The veteran journalists say “irregulars” are often prepared to work for little or no money to gain access to situations of influence. Press conferences in Cameroon sometimes attract more freelance journalists than full-timers. Police spies are also known to adopt the guise of freelance journalists to infiltrate events hosted by opposition politicians.
The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union has called for the introduction of a professional accreditation scheme under which bona fide journalists will be issued with press cards as proof of identity. These cards could then be used to control and restrict access to media events. The Cameroon government recently announced it was introducing its own journalist’s accreditation scheme. However under the government plan, accreditation would only be given to journalists who could produce employment contracts with news media outlets and evidence that they had paid national insurance contributions as full-time journalists. Many full-time journalists, especially those working for the Anglophone media, are unable to satisfy these requirements because their employers are reluctant to award them contracts.
Training needs for Cameroon journalists
Participants in this study (see appendix) agreed there was an urgent need for training in the basic skills of journalism and in knowledge of news values and professional codes of practice. This included IT skills (many Cameroon journalists have never used computers and produce hand-written copy that has to be processed by typists); basic news writing (including grammar and collocation) and research skills.
As mentioned above, Cameroon journalists are restricted by a very narrow politically-oriented news agenda and generally have a poor understanding of the range of genres available to reporters. So they also want training in specialist areas of reporting. These specialist areas include financial journalism (which would enable them to better explain to their audiences aspects of the Biya regime’s management of the economy), environmental journalism (enabling them to promote community participation in the debate over the logging of Cameroon’s rainforests) and development issues. An immediate need for training is in election reporting, so that journalists will be better equipped to report on the poll scheduled for October this year.
A third area of need for training is in ethics for journalists. Cameroon journalists have had little exposure to ideas about professional ethics. The endemic corruption present in their society and the pressures they face from the ruling regime have prevented the development of a shared code of professional practice.
The Cameroon Media and the October Election
Paul Biya’s determination to stay in power and to attempt to legitimise his regime by winning the presidential election was the political reality facing Cameroon in late 2004. There was mass disillusionment with the government over its unwillingness to confront rampant corruption and cronyism, the poor performance of the economy and a general lack of freedom. However the mass media was largely prevented from promoting alternatives to the Biya regime – alternatives based on democratic principles, transparent governance and respect for human rights – because of its marginal role in Cameroon society. This marginality is the result of intense state intervention in news production and a system of harassment and intimidation of journalists who express viewpoints critical of the government.
Cameroon journalists, and their products, have little influence and a lowly status in Cameroon society. The official media, which dominate the industry, are little more than government propaganda outlets; while the independent media have too few resources – financial and human – to sustain more than a marginal relationship with the Cameroon public. Both the official and independent news outlets lack credibility and authority. Opposition forces with viable alternatives to the Biya regime are therefore severely restricted in their ability to reach a mass audience for their message. This increases the possibility that the long-awaited transition from the authoritarian regime of Paul Biya to democracy will be chaotic and violent.
Apppendix 1 - Cameroon Journalists
Most of the following Cameroon journalists, who participated in this study, have faced official sanctions for attempting to critically engage with the Biya regime in their reporting:
Christopher Ezieh, 29, started out in news 8 years ago after graduating in journalism from Nigeria’s Jos University. He worked as a reporter for the Herald for six years before leaving to launch his own newspaper, the weekly Heron. His coverage of politics in the Heron quickly earned him the attention of the authorities who labelled his newspaper anti-government. He has been arrested three times, each time for publishing articles the regime found objectionable. After his first arrest he was detained in police custody for four days. For each of the subsequent arrests he spent two days in detention. On another occasion he was beaten by police after being accused of causing “embarrassment to the government”
Jean-Marc Soboth, 40, is editor-in-chief of the French language Nouvelle L’Expression. A law graduate from the University of Yaounde, he started in journalism 13 years ago. He is secretary-general of the Cameroon Journalists Union and he also reports for an independent radio station, Radio Equinox. Two years ago he was arrested by police after writing an article based on a leaked message from a provincial governor asking for military help to put down a riot. He was freed the following day after protests from fellow journalists and the intervention of his newspaper’s lawyers.
Kini Nsom, 35, is a journalist with 10 years experience currently writing for the Post. Recently he was stopped by police while on his way to report on a secret meeting of the Southern Cameroon separatist movement, being held near the city of Bameda. The police had been tipped off that the meeting was taking place but they did not know the exact location. When Nsom refused to divulge this information he was stripped of his clothing and thrown into the back of a police van where his captors took turns to trample on him with their heavy military boots. He was then driven to a nearby police station and, after again refusing to reveal the site of the clandestine meeting, was repeatedly kicked then beaten on the soles of his feet with wooden poles. His ordeal continued for several hours, until he was released on the orders of the district governor. His arrest and torture were widely reported by Cameroon newspapers the following day.
Kwi Bangsi, a 39-year-old graduate of the University of Yaounde’s law school currently employed as a reporter with the Herald, said he has been arrested “many times” during his 12-years in journalism. Two of those arrests resulted in short spells in prison. A news article he wrote in 1997 about the involvement of a police commissioner in the ritual murder of two children earned him death threats from the police and forced him to go into hiding for several weeks.
Arrey Mbongaga, 30, a law graduate from Beua University, has spent most of his four years in journalism working for a newspaper, Eden which is run by an NGO that promotes sustainable development. A report he wrote about an impoverished village provoked a string of threatening letters from local officials, warning him of physical harm if he continued writing on that topic.
Alex Azebaze, 39, has worked in journalism for the past 12 years. He graduated in law at the University of Yaounde but chose a media career instead and began working for a French language daily, Le Messanger. A story he wrote about the Bar Council accepting bribes to admit applicants resulted in a summons from the Justice Minister. He believes he avoided painful consequences by refusing to heed that summons. He similarly avoided repercussions from a story he wrote that angered the chief of military security. He said he has also been threatened by opposition leaders who are known to use bullying tactics against journalists who criticise them.
Patricia Oben, 38, disproves the belief that employees of Cameroon’s state run media are immune from official intimidation. She joined the government-owned Cameroon Radio and Television after a completing a postgraduate degree in mass communication at Leicester and working briefly for BBC radio in Belfast. After she returned to Cameroon from the UK she was hired by the BBC as their local stringer. Two years ago she produced a story that was broadcast by the BBC World Service about alleged police involvement in the disappearance and apparent execution of several young men in Yaounde. The next day she was arrested by police at her office and taken away for interrogation. She was ordered to reveal her sources and to publicly recant her story. She was released that evening but arrested again the following day and interrogated for another eight hours. This pattern of arrest and release continued for more than a month. She was suspended without pay from her job with CRTV and warned that she faced dismissal. Her suspension was finally lifted 15 months later. Meanwhile police have charged her with “propagating false information”. He case has yet to reach court.
Philomena Metuge, 46, has worked for the government-owned Cameroon radio and television for the past 19 years. She obtained a postgraduate certificate in journalism at the Advanced Institute of Mass Communication in Yaounde. She is based in the city of Buea where she scripts stories for radio and TV bulletins and produces regular women’s programmes. One of her recent reports on police activity lead to her being summonsed to the local police station and held for several hours. She was released after being warned she would be jailed if she reported on the police again without official permission.
Frederick Vubem, 25, who studied English at the University of Yaounde before gaining a postgraduate qualification at the Advanced Institute of Mass Communication, has worked as a journalist for the past five years. He is currently chief sub-editor at the Guardian Post. On a recent reporting assignment he was the first reporter at the scene of a police helicopter crash. His presence at the crash site angered the police in attendance who accused him of being a spy. They seized his camera and handcuffed him, pushing him down into the mud. They then threatened to kill him, saying: “just wait until nightfall”. He was eventually released after eight hours of physical abuse.
Manyo Besong, 24, graduated in journalism from Beua University and now works as a reporter for Radio Ocean City in Limbe. When he reported that a local official was accused of seizing land earmarked for resettled villagers, the official in question offered him CFA3 million (about £3,000) to bury the issue. When Besong turned down the bribe the official threatened to have him killed.
Appendix 2 - Organisations consulted
Cameroon Union of Journalists
Cameroon Union of Free JournalistsCameroon Journalists Trade Union
Cameroon Association of Commonwealth Journalists
Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists
Women Communicators of Cameroon
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Activity 7 Outcome A1 Case Study – Sarawakby Barry Lowe
For journalists in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, the new bridge linking the state capital Kuching with the resort town of Damai was almost a bridge too far. Days after the new bridge was opened a local TV journalist was driving across in the early hours of morning. There was no other traffic around so he took his time, admiring the view of the sun rising over the distant mountains. Looking down at the tarmac he saw a flash of sunlight reflecting off the water below. He stopped his car, reversed and got out. There was a three-inch gap between two sections of the pavement. He drove back off the bridge, parked his car and walked down a service track that took him underneath the span. Looking up he could see blue sky through the gap. The cement work adjoining the break appeared damaged or incomplete. He headed back to the TV station and phoned his boss, the network news editor, describing what he’d seen and asking for permission to take a camera crew out to the bridge to shoot a story for the evening news bulletin. But the news editor was reluctant to approve his request and told him to wait. The journalists then called a reporter with one of the local dailies and told her about the defective bridge. A little later the TV journalist’s news editor called back. Forget it, he told him, there would no story about the bridge on the TV news that night. To do so would embarrass the government, which was ultimately responsible for building the bridge. What if the bridge fell down, asked the reporter, and took several carloads of people with it? The problem had been reported to the authorities, said the editor. Let them deal with it. The newspaper reporter got the same response from her editor. The next day the bridge was closed for a “maintenance inspection”. A few days later it was reopened, the defective span apparently put right.
Journalists in Sarawak are used to being told not to report on a particular issue because “it would embarrass the government”. On this occasion there was a clear duty by the media to warn the public of the possible danger posed by the bridge’s defect. But even that imperative was not enough to overcome the fear that the government’s embarrassment over news that the new bridge was somewhat less than perfect would result in some form of sanctions against the media.
Another bridge in Sarawak further illustrates the problems journalists face in fulfilling their role as public watchdogs. In this case the bridge, which is meant to cross a river on the road to the coastal town of Sematan, hasn’t yet been built. The river in question is hardly a challenge for modern engineering. It is barely 200 metres wide at the crossing point. But the new bridge has been inching forward at snail’s pace. Although construction began more than a year ago not even the approach ramps have been completed yet. The explanation is common knowledge. In the absence of a bridge, traffic has to cross the river using a ferry, which adds at least an extra hour onto the journey time to and from Sematan. The concession to operate the ferry service, a lucrative monopoly, is owned by the same highly placed business interests who were awarded the contract to build the new bridge. By delaying completion of the bridge they are maximising their profit from the ferry operation. But this none too subtle case of corruption has never been reported by Sarawak’s media. Again the mantra of “it would embarrass the government” has effectively gagged any public reference to the issue.
Sarawak journalists do not work in a violently oppressive environment. They are not regularly beaten by police, arrested, jailed or have their premises firebombed. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at their product: Sarawak newspapers are little more than government propaganda sheets. Almost every story is pegged to a ministerial press release or a senior official making a speech somewhere. About the only exception is the occasional police story; even then there’s little reporting beyond the official police statement (except in the Chinese press, which takes a luridly tabloid approach to reporting crime). Sarawak journalism is shackled not by brutality but a culture of compliance with a political system that expects and receives near total submission. The state’s deputy chief minister George Chan spelt this out at a 2004 speech to journalists attended by this author. “Journalists must report the truth,” he urged his audience. “That is their true role”. But a few sentences later he added a codicil. “But do not criticise the government,” he warned them. “You should never criticise the government.”
During the long years of prime minister Mahatir Mohamed’s regime in Malaysia media freedom was randomly curtailed, but not without the stubborn and often courageous resistance by journalists. But Mahatir’s retirement has meant a relaxation of restrictions of the media, at least in peninsular Malaysia. Not, however, in the unhappy sate of Sarawak.
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Activity 9 Outcome A1
Case Study - Saudi Arabia
By Barry Lowe
The first election held in Saudi Arabia for almost 80 years was a problem not only for local journalists but also for the political candidates they were meant to be reporting on. Neither journalists nor candidates really knew what they were meant to do. They didn't know what the rules of the game were, and they only had a vague theoretical idea of what their respective roles were. The poll held in February 2005, for a limited number of seats on the Riyadh City council, was the first small and tentative step towards democratic reform in the kingdom, until then one of the world's most traditional and politically authoritarian countries. Political parties were banned so there was no simple model from other countries they could adapt to suit their own circumstances. In fact Saudi Arabia is a country where it is forbidden to discuss politics, so the fundamentals of campaigning were off limits. Public interest in the election was lukewarm so the journalists didn't have a mass audience hungry and clamouring for information about the poll and its contestants.
The journalists were further handicapped by severe restrictions on how they practised their craft. For example public officials usually only agreed to an interview if a list of questions was faxed or emailed to them in advance. The idea of a face-to-face confrontation with a journalist was an affront to the dignity of their position. When ministers and other high officials gave press conferences they read a prepared statement then left, providing no opportunity for journalists to interrogate their announcement. In terms of the subjects they could report on there are numerous no-go areas for Saudi journalists; criticising government policy is just one of them. Many of the “red lines” for journalists were put there by the religious establishment. The editor of a prominent daily recently lost his job for allowing his newspaper to publish an article suggesting that Saudi women should be allowed to attend football matches. The mullahs made sure he was sacked for this affront to Islamic values.
So how did the Saudi journalists cover the election? Part of what they perceived as their role in reporting the election was to sell the event to a sceptical public. So some of them wrote about the purpose of the election and its place in a programme of gradual reforms aimed at modernising the kingdom. Others wrote about the more interesting candidates, focusing on why they'd decided to run rather than on their platforms. They few journalists who tried to write about campaign issues did so tangentially, discussing Riyadh's civic problems with cautious restraint.
The Saudi's media's coverage of the campaign rarely reached Page One intensity. The story ran as a relatively minor news theme during the weeks leading up to the poll, ranking in importance well below fluctuations in oil prices and news from the national football league. Polling day itself and the outcome of the election were hardly more newsworthy events. The slow pace of the vote count meant that the public's interest, which was never very high, had almost evaporated by the time the result was announced. As when it was announced it was no surprise: most seats had been won by so-called Islamicist candidates: candidates who were backed by the mullahs.
Although the local journalists felt they had been very much on the sidelines of the event – rather than being key players as journalists in Western democracies are during elections – they did manage to colonise some new reporting territory. For example, some reporters exposed a vote-selling racket among university students, others described the lavish spending on “hospitality ” by some of the candidates. And for most journalists there was a realisation that the goal posts had been even-so-slightly shifted; that a new era was dawning for their country and that they would were to be at the forefront of the changes it brought. For most of them the importance of the election was not that an election had taken place but that their roles had begun to change, that they could now start to observe and describe and analyse political processes that had been set in motion in Saudi Arabia, rather than continue their old role as propagandists for the regime.
Activity 9 Outcomes A1 & B1
Post-training report
Reporting on Local Government Elections – a Training Programme for Journalists from Saudi Arabia
This programme, held prior to the first round of path-breaking municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, with participants being selected and mobilized on very short notice, was considered a success by participants, others involved in the programme and by its organizers.
Aims and objectives
The broad aims of the programme were to help prepare a representative group of Saudi journalists to be able to report effectively on municipal elections in Riyadh on 10 February and in other locales in the Kingdom over two successive months; and to familiarise those journalists with the workings of British local government assemblies and how those assemblies interact with the media.
The specific objectives of the programme were:
To familiarise trainees with Western approaches to reporting local government elections;
To explain how the media can support a newly democratising society by the balanced reporting of elections and political processes;
To warn of the dangers of bias and how to avoid it;
To develop an election campaign reporting agenda;
To develop an understanding of the importance of the relationship between election candidates and the news media;
To understand how local government assemblies function and how they generate news relevant to the national news agenda
All the objectives were dealt with in the learning activities, although adjustments were made in the priority given to particular content in order to meet the participants’ expressed needs and concerns. For example, the participants expressed interest in how election candidates presented themselves to voters and how the media played a role in this process, so more time was devoted to this topic than had been planned. In the post-course evaluation (see below) participants indicated that the programme had met their expectations. The participants
Of the 12 selected Saudi journalists invited to the programme, nine attended. Considering that they were only had a few days’ notice of the programme, this turnout was better than might have been expected and surpassed the minimum requirement which had been agreed with the FCO of six participants. The nine participants represented most of the main Saudi print news outlets, including Al Madina, Al Riyadh, Al Watan, Arab News, Al Sharq Al Awsat, and Al Magalla. One of the participants worked for Saudi Arabia’s main Internet news service, Elaph.
Six participants came from Jeddah, two from Riyadh and one from Abha.
Most of the participants could be described as mid-career journalists working in senior reporting roles. Their experience in journalism ranged from one year to more than ten and their ages from mid-20s to mid 40s. Although most were university graduates, only three had completed formal qualifications in journalism.
Participants’ expectations
At the start of the programme participants were questioned about their expectations of the course. There were asked to “write down three things you hope to learn from this workshop”. Their responses, included as Appendix A, were a chose match with the objectives of the programme and implied that the participants were motivated to acquire knowledge on both the methods of local election reporting and the role of the media in democracies. Their expectations included the following:
How to cover municipal elections
How the media operateThe relationships between the media and power circles
How media coverage can effect elections
How media coverage can increase public awareness of the importance of voting
How media coverage can motivate people to vote
How to find the right sources
The role and tasks of the journalist
Information about English newspapers
How elections are held in the UK
How democracy works
The latest trends in media techniques
The policy procedures and structures of elections
The media’s role in making sure election regulations are followed
Exposure to journalistic environments
How to do interviews
Only one participant’s expectations did not fit the remit of the programme: to learn about human rights. Two other participants expressed attitudes that contradicted the objectives of the programme, hence had to be addressed within a learning framework. They indicated they wanted to learn how to explain to the people how to choose the right man and how to find and support the right candidate.
The programme
The programme consisted of a mix of workshop sessions and activities designed to illustrate and reinforce the key learning points. The workshops provided focused discussions on relevant issues, combined with instruction in practical reporting skills. The activities included a visit to Bush House for a presentation on how the BBC reports elections; attendance at a press conference given by London mayor Ken Livingstone; observing a plenary session of the Greater London Assembly; and attendance at a reception given by the leader of Tower Hamlets council, Councillor Helal Abbas. Each of these activities was linked to a classroom exercise. For example, the participants used their encounter with Councillor Abbas, only the second Muslim to become head of a local government authority in Britain, as an opportunity to practise interviewing techniques and political profile writing strategies. Attendance at all sessions and activities was 100%; participants remained actively engaged with the content throughout the programme.
Course content
The topics covered by the seminar sessions included:
The role of the media in transitions to democracy
The three elements of an election
The conditions required for an election to work
The role of the media as a source of information voters
Voter education
The watchdog role of the media in elections
What journalists need to do to prepare for an election
Reporting the campaign
Covering campaign speeches
Finding the issues
Interviewing candidates/politicians
Opinion polls
Election monitoring
Journalists’ safety
Protection for media outlets during elections
Restriction on the media’s freedom to report on elections
Issues of access to the media in elections
Government media outlets and elections
Common faults on election coverage
Guidelines to ensure balance and fairness
Programme location and facilities
The programme was delivered from a base in one of the University of London buildings--the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, which houses the Commonwealth Journalists Association, one of the partners in this project. This building is located n Russell Square, a few hundred metres from the hotel where the participants stayed. Seminars were held in the spacious Menzies Room and use was also made of an adjoining lounge. Frequent use was made of the Menzies Room’s data projector so that lesson points could be reinforced with Powerpoint slides. All but one of the participants indicated satisfaction with the facilities.
Delivery/language
Of the nine participants, four were fluent in English, two others were able to follow English conversations and speak confident, if sometimes grammatically flawed English, while the remaining three spoke and understood little English. A qualified interpreter, Hanifa Dobson, was engaged for the duration of the programme. During some of the seminar sessions she interpreted in sequence with the presenter while in other sessions she sat close to those with the weaker English skills and assisted them to understand the content. She accompanied the group on all field trips and provided interpretation and translation when needed.
Reactions – participants’ evaluation
At the end of the programme participants were asked to complete, anonymously, an evaluation form that asked eight questions about their satisfaction with the course (Appendix B). Eight of the nine participants indicated a high level of satisfaction, stating they agreed or strongly agreed with all eight favourable statements about the programme and its delivery. The one negative response seems almost certainly to have resulted from the respondent failing to understand the grading system used on the evaluation sheet as his/her additional comments suggested a high rate of satisfaction with the programme.
Participants were also asked to respond to two open questions: “anything you would recommend to improve the course and “what further training would you like to participate in”. Their responses to the first question – suggestions for improving the programme - included the following:
The course should be longer (7 respondents)
There should be follow-up courses on related subjects after the election (4 respondents)
Longer breaks between sessions
The course was too congested – too many lectures
There should be more field activities
More visits to UK media institutions
Visits to electoral bodies
Better access for participants to Internet facilities (2 respondents)
Increased per diem payments
When asked about what further courses they would like to be offered, the participants asked for training in:
English language
Practical reporting skills (2)
Managerial skills (2)
Reporting on environmental issues (2)
Feature writing
Conflict reporting
Sub-editing
Reporting law
Basic journalism for women
Business reporting
Broadcast journalism
Follow-up activities
The following post-training activities have been initiated or are planned:
Some participants asked for additional teaching materials – these are being acquired and will be sent to the participants when the are ready.
Certificates of attendance will be prepared and sent out to the participants.
Participants were asked to provide the programme organizers with copies of any articles they wrote for their publications about the programme or any activities related to the programme. Some articles have been received already.
Reporting in Saudi Arabia on the Riyadh municipal election will be monitored and articles written by the programme participants will be obtained directly from them and/ or through this monitoring. Those articles will be evaluated from the perspective of how they might reflect the transfer of knowledge from the programme to journalistic output.
Problems
Lack of a training needs analysis study. This activity, to generate a profile of the trainee that outlines their prior education and training, their professional experience and other relevant attributes, is generally regarded as an essential preliminary to a training programme. Because of the problems faced in recruiting participants and because of the exceptionally short preparation time for this project, this was not done. The lack of this data prevented the training content from being directly attuned to the needs of the participants.
Lack of sufficient lead-in time to develop a programme of activities. Although the field trips and other non-classroom activities for this programme were regarded as appropriate and successful by both the coordinators and the participants, more preparation time would have enabled the inclusion of other relevant activities.
Lack of access to facilities. Access to a computer lab was not available. A lab with computers loaded with Arabic script word processing software, available for at least some of the class sessions, would have enabled practical writing exercises to reinforce some of the key learning objectives.
Limited attendance. The programme was structured for 12 participants but only nine attended. This was almost certainly because of the invitees were only given a few days’ notice of the programme.
Non-inclusion of broadcast journalists. Only print journalists attended. The selection process, which was hasty and inadequately coordinated, failed to include journalists working for the state owned TV and radio networks.
Certificates were not awarded at the end of the programme. Some participants asked for certificates of attendance. This was an oversight by the organizers, a consequence of the pressure they were under to launch and prepare this programme on time.
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Activity 10 Outcomes A1 & B1
Interim Post-training report
Reporting Elections – a Training Programme for Lebanese Journalists
Aims and objectives
The broad aims of the programme were to help prepare a representative group of Lebanese journalists to be able to report effectively on legislative elections scheduled in Lebanon for late May, 2005; and to familiarise those journalists with the workings of British parliamentary, electoral and media institutions and how those institutions interacted with the national news agenda.
The specific objectives of the programme were:
· To familiarize participants with Western approaches to reporting parliamentary elections;
· To explain how the media can support a transitional society by the balanced reporting of elections and political processes;
· To warn of the dangers of bias and how to avoid it;
· To develop a voter-oriented election campaign reporting agenda;
· To develop an understanding of the importance of the relationship between election candidates and the news media.
All the objectives were dealt with in the learning activities, although adjustments were made in the priority given to particular issues, and additional content was included to meet the participants’ expressed needs. For example, some participants expressed interest in learning about how media coverage is monitored by international organizations and about the outcome of recent monitoring exercises. So an extra guest speaker who had worked on EU election media monitoring programmes was engaged to present an explanation of how the media was monitored during the recent Iraqi election campaign. In the post-course evaluation (see attached) participants indicated that the programme had broadly met their expectations. The participants
Of the 15 selected Lebanese journalists invited to the programme, 12 attended. Of the three who missed the programme one lost her passport and was unable to obtain a replacement in time, and two were denied permission to attend by their line managers because their absence would create a critical staff shortage.
The 12 participants represented a cross section of Lebanon’s news media outlets. Seven participants came from the following newspapers: As-Safir, Al-Moutaqbal, An-Nahar, and the English-language Daily Star; four participants came from the following TV stations: Future TV, Al-Manar and Tele Liban and one participant came from the government-owned radio network Voice of Lebanon. These media outlets are also representative of the main political orientations and confessions. Al-Manar TV, for example, is operated by the militant Islamic organisation Hezbollah, while As-Safir newspaper is generally pro-Syrian in its editorial stance and Greek Orthodox owned al-Nahar is associated with the “opposition” camp .
Special attention was given to recruiting a diverse group of participants so that appropriate representation of the different confessional communities was achieved. The group included Shia and Sunni Muslims, Druze, Maronite and Orthodox Christians. Shia Muslims were the largest group among the participants, reflecting the comparative size of that confession within the Lebanese population.
Participants were also selected for their level of experience and their particular roles within their respective media outlets. With three exceptions participants had more than five years experience in journalism and held upper level positions within their organisations.
A further selection criterion was that the participants had been assigned to report on the forthcoming legislative elections in Lebanon by writing articles or preparing broadcasts for their respective news outlets on the preparation of the election law, the election campaign, polling itself and/or the results of that poll. Subsequent communication has revealed that all participants are currently active in reporting on the political/legal election preliminaries.
Participants’ expectations
At the start of the programme participants were questioned about their expectations of the course. There were asked to “write down three things you hope to learn from this workshop”. Their responses, included the following:
How to report on the election campaign
Knowing about British politics and British elections
Understanding the British media
Writing about politics
Advanced reporting
Better reporting techniques
Interviewing skills
Being better able to understand how the political system of Britain works and how the British media reports on politics
A can be seen from the above the participants’ expectations were diverse and not strictly confined to the general goals of the programme. However the participants were briefed before the programme commenced and their responses reflect that they were motivated to attend the programme by a desire to enhance their election reporting skills by receiving training on the subject and by being able to better understand how British democratic and media institutions functioned.
The programme
The programme consisted of a mix of workshop sessions and activities designed to illustrate and reinforce the key learning points. The workshops provided focused discussions on relevant issues, combined with instruction in practical reporting skills. The activities included a visit to UK Electoral Commission headquarters for a presentation on the Commission’s role and responsibilities, a visit to the Strangers’ Gallery in the House of Commons to observe a parliamentary debate, a briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Britain’s policy on Lebanon, and attendance at symposium held by the English Speaking Union on the topic “Lebanon: Internal Politics and External Pressures”.
Other themes and issues were introduced to the programme by guest speakers and presenters. These included a briefing on the BBC’s election reporting guidelines, a talk on media relations by one of the candidates in Britain’s 2005 general election, and a discussion on reporting elections in a post-conflict environment by a veteran journalist from Northern Ireland.
The programme also included social activities such as a meeting with British based journalists, a social gathering at the Lebanese ambassador’s residence and a dinner hosted by Sheikh Mohammad Bin Issa.
Attendance at all sessions and activities was 100%; participants remained actively engaged with the content throughout the programme.
Course content
The topics covered by the seminar sessions included:
The role of the media in transitions to democracy
The main elements of an election
The conditions required for an election to work
The role of the media as a source of information voters
Voter education
The watchdog role of the media in elections
What journalists need to do to prepare for an election
Reporting the campaign
Covering campaign speeches
Finding the issues
Interviewing candidates/politicians
Opinion polls
Election monitoring
Journalists’ safety
Protection for media outlets during elections
Restriction on the media’s freedom to report on elections
Issues of access to the media in elections
Government media outlets and elections
Common faults on election coverage
Guidelines to ensure balance and fairness
Programme location and facilities
The programme was delivered from a base at the Foreign Press Association. Most of the instruction sessions were held in a seminar room in the basement of the association’s building, in Carlton House Terrace, St James. This room was small but adequate and suitably equipped by audio-visual aides. Participants were accommodated in the Imperial hotel on Russell Square, a short taxi ride from the training room.
Delivery/language
Of the 12 participants, all but four were fluent in English. A native Arabic speaker facilitator – Ahmed Seif – was engaged for the duration of the programme to assist the non-English speakers by providing an Arabic commentary on the proceedings. During some of the seminar sessions he interpreted in sequence with the presenter while in other sessions he sat close to the non-English speakers and assisted them to understand the content. He accompanied the group on all field trips and provided interpretation and translation when needed.
Reactions – participants’ evaluation
At the end of the programme participants were asked to complete, anonymously, an evaluation form that asked eight questions about their satisfaction with the course (Appendix B). Nine of the 12 participants indicated a high level of satisfaction, stating they agreed or strongly agreed with seven favorable statements about the programme and its delivery. One notable exception was the participants’ approval rating for the training room: seven of the participants did not agree that the training room and facilities were of a reasonable standard. 10 of the participants said they had learnt new concepts, ideas and methods from the programme; two participants said the programme did not meet their expectations
Participants were also asked to respond to three open questions: “what did you like most about the course”, “anything you would recommend to improve the course and “what further training would you like to participate in”. Their responses to the first question – what they liked about the programme - included the following:
Seeing how the British election is managed especially the Electoral Commission, and also a visit to the Foreign Office
Learning about the experiences of different journalists and the way they are thinking
Exploring elections in other Middle Eastern and Foreign countries
Their responses to the second question – suggestions for improving the programme - included the following:
More visits to media establishments (2 respondents)
Provision of instantaneous interpreter facilities (2 respondents)
More examples of election reports by British journalists
Shorten the hours for the oral lessons
When asked about what further courses they would like to be offered, the participants asked for training in:
Lifestyle journalism (2)
Reporting on government and parliament (7)
Management skills (2)
Reporting on business and finance
Reporting on the environment (2)
Investigative reporting
Reporting on conflict (2)
Benefits of the Programme An unintended benefit of the programme was the opportunity it created for journalists from a polarized professional environment, heavily influenced by Lebanon’s political, ideological, confessional and ethnic divisions, to relate to one another in a neutral context. Journalists could discuss professional issues, such as the influence of politics on the news agenda, in a collegial atmosphere that would not have been possible in Beirut. Similarly, their exposure to British media and political institutions provided a useful perspective for them when considering similar issues in the Lebanese setting. Follow-up activities
The following post-training activities have been initiated or are planned:
Some participants asked for additional teaching materials – these are being acquired and will be sent to the participants when they are ready.
Certificates of attendance will be prepared and sent out to the participants.
Participants were asked to provide the programme organizers with copies of any articles they wrote for their publications about the programme or any activities related to the programme.
Reporting in Lebanon on the legislative election will be monitored and articles written by the programme participants will be obtained directly from them and/or through this monitoring. Those articles will be evaluated from the perspective of how they might reflect the transfer of knowledge from the programme to journalistic output.
Participants will be asked to complete a comprehensive post-training survey once the election in Lebanon is over.
Problems
Participants’ expectations were too varied or too vague. Participants expressed a wide range of expectations from the programmes – too many for the programme to encompass. Also, some of their expectations were expressed too broadly or vaguely to be properly addressed.
Skills and experience range among participants too great. Although the majority of participants were at a similar point in their careers, there were a few much more senior than the rest and one whose career in journalism was just beginning. This created a problem for the trainers in terms of the pace of the delivery of training and in the sophistication of its content. The veteran journalists in the group found some of the content too basic to be of use to them, suggesting that they had different expectations of the programme than the other participants.
Politicisation of discussion. Because of the highly charged political atmosphere prevailing in Lebanon at the time, participants were inclined to bring partisan political issues into discussions, which sometimes threatened to become a barrier to learning and to obscure issues of professional media reporting.
Interaction within the group. Participants were purposely drawn from diverse political and confessional backgrounds, which had both advantages and disadvantages. As noted above this diversity provided an opportunity for discussion and analysis from different perspectives. But it also served to increase tension within the group and to result in internal dissonance. Most were personally familiar with one another and some not only had strong political differences, but had been engaged in media campaigns with mutual and direct personal overtones. The diligence with which participants associated with Hizbollah recorded proceedings was seen as threatening by several other participants. While appropriate behaviour was maintained by all participants throughout, the very novelty of this experience presented a challenge to the cohesion and professionalism of the group, members of which tended to comment confidentially about one another.
Lack of access to facilities. Access to a computer lab was not available. A lab with computers loaded with Arabic script word processing software, available for at least some of the class sessions, would have enabled practical writing exercises to reinforce some of the key learning objectives.
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Activity 11 Outcomes A1 & B1
Post-Training Report
Submitted by Barry Lowe
Media Relations Workshop
Baku April 9-11, 2005
Training Perspective
The goals of the seminar were twofold; to instruct NGO staff in how to develop a more productive relationship with the news media and to persuade journalists that NGO’s can be useful sources of news stories. This involved training the NGO staff in basic media relations skills and in introducing journalists to the issues the NGO’s were involved with, emphasising the value, in terms of newsworthiness, of those issues.
The participants were NGO staff with responsibility for communication, public information and media relations within their organisations; and journalists working for mainstream news outlets in Azerbaijan.
The agenda covered basic media relations knowledge and skills for NGOs – understanding how the media works, media strategies, press release writing, conducting press conferences, handling a media crisis, etc - and a programme of interaction between the journalist participants and the NGO staff.
Then programme was divided into sessions under the following themes: participants backgrounds, essential workings of the media, pro-active media work, reactive media work, press conferences, doing broadcast interviews, journalists working with NGO’s, conducting live press conferences, journalists’ feedback on the NGO’s performance.
The course structure was designed to take the NGO participants through the progressive stages of developing an effective media relations capacity, beginning with being able to define and project their organisation’s core values, to utilising communication strategies to deliver those values to the news media, and managing the relationship with the media. The emphasis was on adding value to each NGO’s message so that it became a usable resource for news outlets.
The main points developed by the programme were that news media in transitional or newly democratising countries have to be encouraged to appreciate NGOs as news sources and at the same time NGO need to professionalise their approach to media relations so they could interact with journalists in a productive framework of mutual respect and understanding. Both sides conceded that they needed to move forward from the current situation in which NGO’s complain that the news media generally ignore them, while journalists regard most NGO’s as irrelevant to the news agenda.
The training programme used a methodology that emphasised practical activities designed to illustrate and reinforce the key learning objectives. These included sessions in which participants were required to write a press release, run a press conference and do a broadcast interview. These practical sessions were interspersed with instructional sessions that provided the core content of the course. The teaching techniques included mini lectures, discussion forums, individual coaching, group work and written assignments.
Organisational Perspective
Two interpreters were used, alternating at roughly hourly intervals. Their performance was highly professional and effective and met the approval of both trainers and participants.
The venue was a hotel conference room. It was well equipped and furnished, of an adequate size for the group, well lit and insulated from noise. It had the advantage of a small balcony for smokers and provided easy access to other facilities in the hotel, including the café where most meals were taken.
The event was well planned and organised. Key staff were on hand when needed and equipment and materials were available when required. All the logistical aspects of the programme were satisfactory. Participants had a clear understanding of the goals and scope of the course and their evaluation sheets indicated that their expectations were generally met.
The accommodation provided for trainers was adequate, providing good access to the training venue. It was within reasonable distance to downtown restaurants and other facilities.
Recommendations for future seminars
Problems encountered during the programme included the following:A diverse range of skills and experience among the participants. Some participants had more understanding of the principles of media relations and greater experience in this area than others. This meant the programme had to be aimed at the lowest skills level, preventing some of the more experienced trainees from progressing as much as they would have in a more uniform group.Lack of materials in Azerbaijani. Only course outline and summaries of the learning points were provided in Azerbaijani. There was a clear need for more materials in the vernacular, such as model press releases and media packs. In general the MDI training handbooks in media skills are deficient in models and examples.The journalists participants were two few in number (four). A larger group would have provided a broader range of comments on the NGO participants’ outcomes.All but one of the journalists had played the same role in previous MDI media relations workshops. These three seem to bring a hostile attitude to their task, perhaps because they had developed a level of cynicism from their previous involvements. A fresh group of journalist would have been better.
The main successes of the programme included:A high level of engagement and interest in the programme was maintained by the NGO participants.All the key learning outcomes of the programme were coveredNGO participants gave very positive feedback on the usefulness of the workshop and its relevance to their careersParticipants came up with ideas for further training, indicating they valued professional development activities like this workshopParticipants articulated sharing of common problems and values suggesting some bonding had take place that could be beneficial to them in the futureTrainers felt communication and rapport was good
The solutions to the problems outlined above could be:More preparation work for each workshop including the preparation of targeted materials, not relying on on-the-shelf materials used in earlier workshopsA fresh batch of journalist participants needs to be recruitedNGO participants should be better grouped, according to experience and the focus of activities of their organisations, for future workshops to ensure more homogenous cohorts
Advice for future trainers on how to repeat these successes and avoid these problems might include
Talk to each participant as much as possible to show you are personally interested in them and the issues their NGO representTry to relate to the participants socially whenever possibleEncourage participants to provide formative feedback on the workshop at the end of each stagePrepare more case study and models of good practice materials
Summary
Overall a successful outcome; learning objectives were met and participants indicated a high level of satisfaction with the programme. The programme was a bit tight – a lot of content for three days – but the pace of delivery was appropriate. There was clear evidence that the participants had learned new skills and acquired new knowledge that they would be able to – and were willing to - apply to their working contexts.
Evaluation
There was a high level of satisfaction with the programme by the participants. All participants – with just one exception – “strongly agreed” or “agreed” with the 14 affirmative statements about the workshop on the evaluation sheet. The one exception was a participant who said he “neither agreed or disagreed” with the statement: the course met my objectives for my community; and said he “disagreed” with the statement: the handouts were helpful.
Positive comments made by the participants on the evaluation sheets included:
-I gained a lot of information about media relations
-The most effective and useful portions of the course were the practical sessions
-I liked the practical nature of course and how it related theory to practice
-All NGO’s should be informed about this
-What I enjoyed most about the course was how to lead journalists during press conferences
-The course was useful because it had professional trainers passing their knowledge on to us
-I learned things I didn’t know – even though I attended a course held by the BBC
-I’ll use the experience I gained at the course
-I learnt about the notion of news
The relatively few critical comments made by participants included:
-We didn’t have much time and opportunity for practice
-Handouts should have been given at the start of the workshop not at the end
-Because my organisation is a religious one the present I received wasn’t useful (commenting on the bottle of wine he received as a prize).
THE MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Media Relations Workshop Agenda
Baku, Azerbaijan April 9-11 2005
Day 1 - NGO Reps
10.00 - 10.15 Welcome Speech and Opening Remarks
Speaker’s details
10.15 – 10.45 Introductions - Each participant introduces:
· Themselves and the work of their organisation, in one sentence
· Any experience of dealing with the media
10.45 – 11.30 Essential Workings of the Media
· The purpose of the media
· Definition of a news story
· Stresses of being a journalist
· Make up of a local newsroom and type of articles
· Exercise: rate stories in newsworthy terms
· Feedback
11.30 – 11.45 Coffee Break
11.45 - 12.30 Essential Workings of the Media Continued
· Building and maintaining contacts – essential dos
*Exercise: List from their experiences successes when trying to attract the media to their work
· Feedback to include Essential Don’ts
· Feedback, most useful aspect so far
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 - 16.00 Pro-active Media Work
· Developing key messages
· Exercise: Convert a key message into a 10-second sound bite,
· Feedback & prize
· Writing effective press releases
Exercise: participants each produce first three pars of a press release on a positive story from their organisation.
· Feedback, individual & prize
16.00 – 16.15 Coffee Break
& prize for best sound bite
16.15 - 17.30 Reactive Media Work
Exercise: Role Play scenario
Dealing with press inquiries
o Procedure
o Offering quotes
o Verification of a story
o Offering a case study Crisis management
m Definition
m Killing a story
m Damage Limitation
m Managing Coverage
· Press release feedback overspill
· Prize for best pres release
· Feedback, most useful aspect of day
Day 2 – NGO Reps continued
10.00 - 11.30 The Press Conference All Participation
· Timing
· Preparation
· Procedure
· Pitfalls
Exercise: Plan a press conference based on press release60Exercise: One-one broadcast TV interviews
11.30 – 11.45 Coffee Break
11.45 – 13.15 Role-play press conference
· Press conference + questions from journos
· Feedback, individual
· Prize for best
13.15 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 16.00 Broadcast interviews
· Playback body language
· Dealing with inquiries
· Preparation
· The Interview
Exercise: 5 mock TV studio interview recordings
Feedback, individual
16.00 - 16.15 Coffee Break
16.15 - 17.45 Broadcast interviews continued
Exercise: Mock radio interviews
Feedback, individual
· Overspill from schedule
· Feedback, most useful aspect of day
Day 3 - NGOs and Journalists
10.00 - 10.15 Welcome & Opening Remarks to Journalists
· Elshad Farzaliyev
10.15 - 11.00 Value of working with NGOs
Planning press conferences
11.00 - 11.15 Coffee Break 11.15 – 12.30 Live Press Conference – NGOs and journalists
Exercise: NGO participants hold a press conference
12.30 – 13.00 Feedback from journalists and write up Feedback within group
13.00 - 14.30 Working Lunch
· Networking
· Building Contacts
· Identifying follow-up stories
14.30 - 15.15 Improving relations – facilitated session
· Feedback to whole group
· Journalists read articles
· What do journalists want from NGOs?
· Are they a valued news source?
· What is news?
15.15 – 15.45 Delegate feedback
· Feedback on three day session
· Distribute evaluations
· Sum up
· Certificates
· Goodbyes
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Activity 12 Outcomes A1 & B1
Interim Post-training report
Reporting Elections – a Training Programme for Palestinian Journalists
Aims and objectives
The immediate aim of the programme was to help prepare a representative group of Palestinian journalists from the West bank and Gaza to report on elections for the long delayed Palestine Legislative Council, now scheduled for January 2006. The broader, long term purpose was to develop the skills of those journalists to report on democratic institutions and processes by familiarizing them with the workings of British parliamentary, electoral and media institutions and how the national news agenda is influenced by interaction between them. Efforts were made to help them relate UK practices to their own national environment.
The specific objectives of the programme were:
· To familiarize participants with Western approaches to reporting parliamentary elections;
· To explain how the media can support a democratic transition by the balanced reporting of elections and political processes;
· To warn of the dangers of bias and how to avoid it;
· To develop a voter-oriented election campaign reporting agenda;
· To develop an understanding of the importance of the relationship between election candidates and the news media;
· To explore the role of the media in nation building and national identity formation.
Background
The prospective election of a new Palestine Legislative Council (PLC), which would be the first since 1996, is seen as vital to reinvigorating the Council, the capacities and political centrality of which have atrophied as a result of the lack of invigoration through elections. Parliamentary elections also have the potential to contribute to broader democratic reforms, one important element of which could be the possible integration of at least some Islamist forces into institutionalized, democratic processes. Such potential reforms are important in their own right and in what they can contribute to the capacity of the Palestine Authority to implement agreements reached with Israel, hence to contribute to the peace process. Thus the further postponement, disruption, or inappropriate management of elections to the PLC could have negative consequences not only for Palestinian democracy, but for the precarious internal peace that now prevails in Palestinian areas, and for the prospects of the peace process.
Vital to the success of the elections is their coverage by the Palestinian media. Palestinian journalists can play a key role in contributing to the political importance and legitimacy of the election by encouraging informed and critical participation by the electorate and by broadening the relationship between candidates and their constituents. How they frame the narrative of the election event and where they locate it within the context of recent Palestinian history and the struggle for nationhood, will determine, to a significant extent, whether Palestinians view the election as a step on the path to democracy and self-determination, or something much less positive.
The participants
The 14 Palestinian journalists invited to attend the programme represented a broad cross section of Palestinian print and electronic media outlets. They were selected according to criteria of seniority in the profession, the audience reach of the news outlets by which they are employed, their working roles (reporters rather than editors, sub-editors or producers), their previous access to professional development programmes, and their age (mid-30s being the targeted median age). All but two of the participants had more than five years experience in journalism. A further selection criterion was that the participants had been assigned to report on the legislative election. The selection process also sought to ensure representation of most of the main Palestinian population centers, i.e. Gaza, Jerusalem, Nablus, Jenin, and Ramallah. A lower priority was placed on including journalists who worked for news outlets representing different mainstream Palestinian ideological and political orientations, such as pro-Fatah and pro-Hamas outlets. The selection process also included efforts to achieve a gender balance and to include representatives of the minority Christian community.
Five participants came from Gaza and 9 from the West Bank, a division that roughly reflected the difference in population between the two Palestinian entities. Four participants were newspapers reporters, two worked in TV news, four were radio reporters and four worked for the Palestinian news agency, WAFA. The average age of the group was 34. Only three of the 14 were women, reflecting the dominance of men in senior roles in the Palestinian hews industry. Similarly, all participants were Muslims, reflecting the general absence of Christian Palestinians in media roles.
The participants:
West Bank
Maha No'man (Bilad TV)
Montaser Hamdan (Al Hayyat newspaper)
Ali Daraghmeh (Al Ayyam newspaper)
Rani Abo Hatab (Palestine TV)
Sahar Abedlhadi (Ru'ya Radio)
Mohammad Gaith (WAFA news agency)
Khalid Khaldi (WAFA news agency)
Ali Sawafta - (WAFA news agency)
Amjad Samhan - (Radio Ajyal)
Gaza
Sami Abusalem (WAFA news agency)
Hamada Hamada (AlQuds newspaper)
Iyad Mohammed El Khabbaz (Voice of Youth radio)
Mohammed Abushebab (Al Hariya radio)
Mohammed Al Jamal (Al Ayyam newspaper)
Participants’ expectations
At the start of the programme participants were questioned about their expectations of the course. They were asked to “write down three things you hope to learn from this workshop”. Their responses, included the following:
Understanding the British political system
Learning how British journalists report on politics
Learning how to interview politicians
Reporting on the election campaign
Exposing electoral fraud and cheating by candidates
How to achieve balanced and objective reporting
Ethical issues for journalists
Different formats for news on elections
Conducting studio interviews of election candidates (for TV and radio)
Learning how the Palestinian issue is reported in the UK
Participants also expressed interest in learning general reporting skills, outside the focus of the programme, including sub-editing and feature writing strategies. An effort was thus made to cater to this interest through a practical exercise in writing a political feature based on an interview with a British politician. Participants also expressed interest in visits to British media institutions. A half-day spent at BBC TV and a visit to the BBC World Service Arabic programme were included to address this interest.
The programme
The programme consisted of a mix of workshop sessions and activities designed to illustrate and reinforce the key learning points. Workshop sessions provided focused discussions on relevant issues, combined with instruction in practical reporting skills. One session was conducted in a computer lab so that participants could generate articles – under guidance – to practise the skills in which they were being instructed. The activities included a visit to the Strangers’ Gallery in the House of Commons to observe a parliamentary debate and a briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Britain’s policy on Palestine and the Middle East.
Other themes and issues were introduced into the programme by guest speakers and presenters. These included a briefing on the BBC’s election reporting guidelines and a talk on media relations by a successful candidate in Britain’s 2005 general election.
Attendance at all sessions and activities was 100%. Participants remained actively engaged with the content throughout the programme.
Course content
The topics covered by the seminar sessions included:
The role of the media in transitions to democracy
The main elements of an election
The conditions required for an election to work
The role of the media as a source of information voters
Voter education
The watchdog role of the media in elections
What journalists need to do to prepare for an election
Reporting the campaign
Covering campaign speeches
Finding the issues
Interviewing candidates/politicians
Opinion polls
Election monitoring
Journalists’ safety
Protection for media outlets during elections
Restriction on the media’s freedom to report on elections
Issues of access to the media in elections
Government media outlets and elections
Common faults on election coverage
Guidelines to ensure balance and fairness
Programme location and facilities
The programme was delivered from a base at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, one of the independent components of the University of London’s School of Advanced Studies, conveniently located next to LMEI headquarters on the SOAS campus. Participants were accommodated in the Imperial Hotel, a short walk across Russell Square from the training facility.
One day of the programme was convened in a journalism training computer lab located in the Media School at Thames Valley University in Western London. This facility was used for a practical session on skills and strategies in political feature writing. Participants were required to write a feature story based on an interview with a British politician (George Galloway) they had undertaken the previous day. Two experienced newspaper sub-editors were on hand to provide one-to-one feedback on the participants’ work. At the end of the session participants were encouraged to send their completed feature articles by email to their news outlets in Palestine for publication.
Delivery/language
Less than half the participants were sufficiently fluent in English not to require interpretation, which was provided by a professional Arabic interpreter engaged for the duration of the programme. She interpreted in workshop sessions and on all field trips. Additional support was provided by a programme facilitator – also a native Arabic speaker – who acted as a local guide to the group outside programme hours.
Reactions – participants’ evaluation
At the end of the programme participants were asked to complete, anonymously, an evaluation form that asked eight questions about their satisfaction with the course. All 14 participants indicated a high level of satisfaction, stating they agreed or strongly agreed with seven favorable statements about the programme and its delivery. 12 of the participants said they had learnt new concepts, ideas and methods from the programme; all participants said the programme met their expectations.
Participants were also asked to respond to three open questions: “What did you like most about the course?”-- “Anything you would recommend to improve the course?”-- and “What further training would you like to participate in?” Their responses to the first question – what they liked about the programme - included the following:
Visiting the BBC
Having a chance to interview George Galloway
The briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Talking to British journalists about how they reported on elections
Practicing feature writing skills
Their responses to the second question – suggestions for improving the programme - included the following:
Extending the programme and making it more detailed
More instruction on basic reporting skills
Providing more training materials in Arabic
More visits to media establishments
More opportunities to meet British politicians
When asked about what further courses they would like to be offered, the participants asked for training in:
Investigative journalism
Political reporting
Interviewing politicians
Reporting on business and financial matters
English language journalism
General reporting skills
Benefits of the Programme An ancillary benefit of the programme was the opportunity it created for journalists from different parts of the occupied Palestinian territories to meet and spend time with each other. Restrictions imposed by Israel on movement between the Palestinian population centers have meant that few of the participants had previously met each other, even though some worked for the same organizations. The event in London gave them a chance to share common experiences and discuss professional issues of mutual concern. This bonding process helped the participants understand the broader context of their situation and encouraged them to address some aspects of the isolation that impacts their daily work. The participants resolved to develop strategies to maintain the contacts they had made at the London programme. Thus the programme helped foster a sense of solidarity among these journalists in the context of their important political roles in contemporary Palestine.
Follow-up activities
The following post-training activities have been initiated or are planned:
Participants were asked to provide the programme organizers with copies of any articles they wrote for their publications about the programme or any activities related to the programme.
Reporting in Palestine on the legislative election will be monitored and articles written by the programme participants will be obtained directly from them and/or through this monitoring. Those articles will be evaluated from the perspective of how they might reflect the transfer of knowledge from the programme to journalistic output.
Participants will be asked to complete a comprehensive post-training survey once the election in Palestine is over.
Problems
The wide range in English language ability among the group meant varying levels of participation. Although an interpreter was available at all times to translate course content and discussions into Arabic, those participants who were fluent in English did seem to derive more benefit from the programme by achieving a higher level of engagement with the proceedings.
Skills and experience range among participants was significant. The more senior and experienced members of the group had a tendency to dominate discussion and to lead the content into a higher realm than may have been suitable for the less experienced members of the group.
Only the core content of the course was available in printed Arabic form. It would have been useful to have summaries of the guest speaker presentations produced in Arabic to help those members of the group who could not read English to engage more intensively with the material.
Most members of the group had never met each other before attending the course and some seemed uncertain in each others’ company during the first few days of the programme. There could have been more organised social activities to encourage closer bonding among the group at the start of the programme.
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Activity 13 Outcomes A1 & B1
Interim Post-training report
Reporting Elections – a Training Programme for Afghan Journalists
Aims and objectives
The short-term, specific aim of this programme was to prepare a representative group of Afghan journalists to report on elections for a new Afghan legislature, scheduled to be held in late September, 2005. The longer term and more general aim was to assist those journalists develop the skills and knowledge they needed to report effectively on the newly established democratic institutions and political processes in Afghanistan. This task was approached by familiarizing them with the workings of British parliamentary, electoral and media institutions, thus enabling them to understand how the national news agenda is influenced by the interaction between government and media.
The specific objectives of the programme were:
· To familiarize participants with Western approaches to reporting parliamentary elections;
· To explain how the media can support a democratic transition by the balanced reporting of elections and political processes;
· To warn of the dangers of bias and how to avoid it;
· To develop a voter-oriented election campaign reporting agenda;
· To develop an understanding of the importance of the relationship between election candidates and the news media;
· To explore the role of the media in nation building and national identity formation.
Background
The election scheduled for 18 September in Afghanistan was to be the country’s first ever free and fair parliamentary election. On the same day voters were also to elect provincial council members in 34 provinces. The success of last October’s presidential election opened the way for the consolidation of democratic reforms commenced following the overthrow of the Taliban regime. The scheduled parliamentary and provincial council elections would expand participatory democracy, while addressing the problem of Afghanistan’s traditional warlord politics by encouraging ruling elites to develop modern political parties. The election was also seen as a vehicle for the promotion of the three main aims of the post-conflict reconstruction programme: demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration.
The participants
The 15 Afghan journalists selected to attend the programme were representative of journalists working in mainstream media outlets based in Kabul. Selection criteria included a requirement that they held strategic positions in their organizations and had productive roles as reporters or producers. At the same time they were required to be mid-career, with at least five years professional experience. The selection criteria aimed to exclude older participants who might be less open to new ideas about journalism practice. Mid-30s was the targeted median age. Other factors that were taken into account in the selection process were the status and audience reach of the news outlets they worked for and their previous access to professional development programmes. Participants were employed by TV stations (government and private), radio stations (government and private), daily newspapers (government and private), weekly newspapers and news agencies (government and private). A further requirement was that the participants were to be assigned to report on the election. A priority was given to women participants. The gender balance was in fact weighted in favour of women who comprised nine of the 15 participants.
The participants:
Daily newspapers
Suraya Raiszada, Kabul Times (female)
Shukria Kohistani, Kabul Times (female)
Farida Sahim, Anis Daily (female)
Zuhoor Afghan, Erada Daily (male)
Asifa Sadat, Hewad Daily (female)
Nadia Kohestani, Eslah Daily (female)Weekly newspapers
Muhsen Nazari, Kabul Weekly (male)
Kathreen Wida, Cheragh Weekly (female)News agencies
Lailuma Sadid, Pajwok News Agency (female)
Najia Amed, Bakhtar Information Agency (female)
Zalmai Ahadi, Internews (male)
Daud Dadras, Hindokosh News Agency (male)TV
Hamid Haidary, Tulo TV (male)
Fawzia Wafa Nooristani, Afghan National TV (female)Radio
Barry Salaam Barry, Good Morning Afghanistan Radio (male)
Participants’ expectations
At the start of the programme participants were questioned about their expectations of the course. They were asked to “write down three things you hope to learn from this workshop”. Their responses, included the following:
Understanding the importance of elections in the British news agenda
Learning how to interview politicians
Learning about how British political candidates and parties deal with the media
Learning how to write feature articles about politicians
Learning how to identify election issues
Learning how to report on the campaign and the vote count
Hearing what British journalists who report on Afghanistan think of the Afghan election
There was also general interest expressed in learning non-specific reporting skills, such as feature writing and investigative reports. Participants also asked to visit British media institutions. A half-day spent at BBC TV and visits to the BBC World Service Dari programme were included in response to this request.
The programme
The programme consisted of a mix of workshop sessions and activities designed to illustrate and reinforce the key learning points. Workshop sessions provided focused discussions on relevant issues, combined with instruction in practical reporting skills. The activities included a briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Britain’s policy on Palestine and the Middle East.
Other themes and issues were introduced into the programme by guest speakers and presenters. These included a briefing on the BBC’s election reporting guidelines and a talk on media relations by a successful candidate in Britain’s 2005 general election. The issue of human rights in Afghanistan – and its link to free elections - was addressed by a representative of Amnesty International. Freedom of expression was also discussed in a session led by a representative of Index on Censorship. A participant in the EU election monitoring team that observed Afghanistan’s recent presidential election presented an overall of the problems in free election compliance that the EU mission had noted.
Programme content
The topics covered by the seminar sessions included:
The role of the media in transitions to democracy
The main elements of an election
The conditions required for an election to work
The role of the media as a source of information voters
Voter education
The watchdog role of the media in elections
What journalists need to do to prepare for an election
Reporting the campaign
Covering campaign speeches
Finding the issues
Interviewing candidates/politicians
Opinion polls
Election monitoring
Journalists’ safety
Protection for media outlets during elections
Restriction on the media’s freedom to report on elections
Issues of access to the media in elections
Government media outlets and elections
Common faults on election coverage
Guidelines to ensure balance and fairness
Programme location and facilities
The programme was delivered from a base at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, one of the independent components of the University of London’s School of Advanced Studies, conveniently located next to LMEI headquarters on the SOAS campus. Participants were accommodated in the Imperial Hotel, a short walk across Russell Square from the training facility.
Delivery/language
Although some the participants had reasonable proficiency in English not to require interpretation, a Dari interpreter was engaged for the duration of the programme, interpreting in the workshop sessions and on all field trips. While not all the participants were native Dari speakers – some had first languages from among the many minority languages spoken in Afghanistan, such as Pashto and Uzbek – all were fluent in Dari, and all expressed satisfaction with the interpreting arrangements.
Reactions – participants’ evaluation
At the end of the programme participants were asked to complete, anonymously, an evaluation form that asked eight questions about their satisfaction with the course. All participants indicated a high level of satisfaction, stating they agreed or strongly agreed with seven favorable statements about the programme and its delivery. All 15 agreed they had learnt new concepts, ideas and methods from the programme. All participants said the programme met their expectations.
Participants were also asked to respond to three open questions: “What did you like most about the course?”-- “Anything you would recommend to improve the course?”-- and “What further training would you like to participate in?” Their responses to the first question – what they liked about the programme - included the following:
Hearing British journalists talk about their reporting on Afghanistan
Learning about human rights and freedom of expression issues in Afghanistan
The briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Visiting the BBC
Learning about reporting on campaign issues and interviewing political candidates
Learning about how the UK media covered elections
Their responses to the second question – suggestions for improving the programme - included the following:
Making the programme longer and more detailed
Proving training notes written in Dari
More instruction in the skills of journalism, such as feature writing
More focused training for the TV and radio reporters (who complained the programme was biased towards print journalists)
More visits to media establishments
More opportunities to meet British politicians
Visiting the House of Commons (this was not possible at the time because Parliament has risen for the summer recess)
When asked about what further courses they would like to be offered, the participants asked for training in:
Broadcast journalism
Managing media organizations
English writing skills
Investigative journalism
In depth reporting and feature writing
Interviewing techniques
General reporting skills
Benefits of the Programme Participants expressed general satisfaction with the programme in the way it provided them with an opportunity to think collectively about how the Afghan media would perform its role in providing reliable information to voters on the forthcoming election. They said their removal from the working environment aided this process by allowing them to discuss the problems they shared while away from the context of those problems. They welcomed the programme’s emphasis on discussions, saying they had rarely in the past expressed opinions on issues relating to the practice of journalism in Afghanistan to other Afghan journalists. They particularly welcomed the chance to talk about their on-the-job experiences and were gratified to learn that these experiences were rarely unique. They felt the programme helped them become aware of the deep cynicism they had acquired in terms of their belief, and lack of confidence, in the current democratic process as the solution to Afghanistan’s problems.
Follow-up activities
The following post-training activities have been initiated or are planned:
Participants were asked to provide the programme organizers with copies of any articles they wrote for their publications about the programme or any activities related to the programme.
Reporting in Afghanistan on the legislative election will be monitored and articles written by the programme participants will be obtained directly from them and/or through this monitoring. Those articles will be evaluated from the perspective of how they might reflect the transfer of knowledge from the programme to journalistic output.
Participants will be asked to complete a comprehensive post-training survey once the election is over.
Problems
Participants were deeply cynical about the political future of their county and had little faith in the current democratization programme to achieve any real progress on the path to stablity and modernization. This cynicism, shared by all the participants, was – at least initially - a real problem in getting them to engage with the programme content. Their standard response to suggestions about how reporting on the election could be improved was that there was no point in doing so; that the same corrupt, feuding, self-serving politicians would remain in charge and there would be no real change. This pessimistic attitude had to be addressed; participants had to be persuaded that there was a point to reporting on the election as effectively and comprehensively.
None of the training materials were available in Dari. This was a serious shortcoming, caused by the short preparation period available to develop this programme. It would have been very useful to have translations of the Powerpoint notes plus summaries of the guest speaker presentations produced in Dari to help those members of the group who could not read English to engage more successfully with the material.
Several of the participants had never been out of Afghanistan before and found the new environment difficult to adjust to. This became clear when the group complained about the food, saying they were not used to British food and needed to eat rice for their mid-day meal. The problem was addressed by finding appropriate restaurants.
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