International
Media.
Emerging journalism
Sep 13th 2007.
From The Economist print edition
Journalism training is booming in the developing world
TRADITIONAL media may be declining in much of the rich world, but in poor countries it is booming.
The growth in private media in developing countries has spurred much of the demand, as has new technology.
That is stoking journalism training in far-flung places, in many shapes and sizes. Joe Foote, an American professor, reckons there may be up to 3,000 courses.
They range from full degree programmes to the short-term specialist training offered widely across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Groups offering such courses include the BBC World Service Trust, the Reuters and Thomson Foundations, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and Internews Network, a media-development charity based in America. The Aga Khan, a tycoon-philanthropist and religious leader who has media businesses in the developing world, is considering starting a programme in Africa.
The trend took off after the collapse of communism, when former Soviet-block countries sought new journalists to replace the hacks of the state-controlled propaganda machines.
Having started in Poland in the 1990s, the BBC trust has operated in over 50 countries, training more than 1,500 journalists in at least 15 languages.
These days the donors are particularly interested in niches, such as investigative reporting and science writing. But that approach sometimes flops. The need for basic reporting skills is still central.
Trainers stress the need for flexibility. Kieran Cooke, a former foreign correspondent turned trainer, says course participants often just want to talk. “They have miserable salaries, take on considerable risks, and still want to carry on.”
Participants in the courses praise the results, while complaining about the lack of focus and co-ordination among some providers. Shapi Shacinda, the Reuters correspondent in Zambia and chairman of the press club in the capital, Lusaka, says that foreign-backed training in business and economic reporting has helped bring more sceptical coverage.
Previously, news stories used to be taken straight from officials' statements, he says.
But governments are harder to teach.
Encouraging students to probe sensitive topics may threaten their lives or livelihoods. An Iraqi journalist trained by and working with the IWPR was shot dead earlier this year.
Just this week, Zambia's minister of information asserted that state-run media should not criticise the government.
In Russia, an organisation founded by Internews has been closed by the authorities, who were apparently suspicious of its American backing.
Rich-country governments can be a problem too. Some try to influence the “messages” that trainers deliver, for example by insisting that their diplomats talk to classes on a regular basis. The big training groups insist that they control their own content. “We won't be paid to do messages,” says Anthony Borden of the IWPR.
Blurring the boundaries can be dangerous both for journalists and the programmes that support them, he notes. But others may be less choosy.
More is not always better.
Quality varies wildly. Places like Bangladesh and Rwanda have been showered with training in recent years.
Gratitude is mixed with the wish for better co-ordination. David Okwemba of Kenya's The Nation newspaper, who also helps train journalists, bemoans overlap between courses and providers' failure to share information.
Some courses aspire loftily to build democratic societies through a free press. The BBC trust says it aims to give a say to the common man by holding institutions—public and private—to account. Such a range of goals makes measuring results difficult.
Teaching how to point a camera or write a news story may be easy compared to raising awareness of broader issues such as HIV/AIDS.
Many old news hands scoff at the notion of formal journalism education. A well-stocked and inquiring mind plus sharp penmanship are the main assets, they reckon. But even the most grizzled veterans of rich-world journalism still seem glad to earn extra money tutoring tyros in poor countries.
end.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Rogue paramilitaries caused civil wars in Southern Sudan not LRA rebels
JOSEPH EIGU ONYANGO.
SOUTH SUDAN 21/3/2008.
Officials in South Sudan say rogue paramilitaries left over from the country’s civil war, not Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, are to blame for recent attacks on civilians in the region.The announcement comes as a relief to all sides as they await the final signing of a peace deal reached between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, last month in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.Officials said at least 14 suspects had been captured and were in the custody of the autonomous region’s military, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, SPLA, and more were expected to be rounded up. They said none of the men appeared to be LRA members, and they were of South Sudanese rather than Ugandan ethnic origin.The arrests seem to absolve the Ugandan rebel movement of responsibility for a bout of raiding in South Sudan last month in which at least five villagers were killed, about 50 people abducted and property looted.Suspicions that the LRA forces were behind the attacks led to allegations that the rebels were not really committed to the ongoing peace negotiations with the Ugandan government, and were flouting a permanent ceasefire signed last month. South Sudan has played host to the talks since they began a year and a half ago. The South Sudanese authorities made it clear that it was not, as many had assumed, the LRA who were to blame, but renegade combatants from Sudan’s own long civil war, which ended in a peace and autonomy agreement in 2005South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir told reporters last week, “There are some SPLA elements and armed civilians who organise themselves to loot and disrupt civilian lives in the villages in the name of the LRA.” Kiir said he was convinced that the raiders were masquerading as Ugandan rebels by the fact that they looted alcohol and cigarettes, both of which are forbidden to LRA fighters. “The attackers looted… alcoholic drinks and packets of cigarettes from the markets they disrupted in Kajo-Keji County, drank all the alcohol and smoked the cigarettes – a practice that is not in the constitution of the LRA,” he said.Kiir’s vice-president, Riek Machar, who was instrumental in bringing the LRA and the Ugandan authorities to the negotiating table, said the attacks were carried out by a group calling itself “No Unit”, consisting of former guerrillas who were never integrated into the SPLA.The investigation which revealed the raiders’ identity was carried out by SPLA commander Wilson Deng, who is responsible for monitoring LRA compliance with the terms of the peace deal, under which rebel combatants are supposed to gather at a designated assembly in Western Equatoria Province, near South Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.The identification of the attackers as renegade combatants from Sudan’s own long civil war, which ended in a peace and autonomy agreement in 2005, adds credibility to the LRA’s pledge to stick by provisions of its peace deal with the Ugandan government.South Sudan officials are hopeful that the peace deal will be signed soon, since that will allow them to focus on better security in their country without having to worry about the presence of a Ugandan guerrilla group as well.Kiir said he is urging Machar, the chief mediator in the peace process, to “speed up the negotiations” in anticipation of a signing event by the end of this month. Once the document is signed, the LRA will have one month to demobilise and disarm its armed forces in South Sudan, turning members over to SPLA control for transport back to Uganda.At that point, Kiir explained, “we can easily identify elements who threaten our civilians”.But others in South Sudan who have been close to the situation insist that the LRA is responsible. Zamba Duku, a senior official in Central Equatoria Province, insisted that attacks on the villages of Kajo-Keji and Lainya had to be the work of LRA rebels since no other paramilitary groups remained in the area.“There are no more militias terrorising our villages except the LRA, who are threatening our citizens from returning home from the internally displaced camps that ran… during the civil war in the Sudan,” Duku told IWPR.County Commissioner Oliver Mule, of Kajo-Keji, agreed. He said that people abducted and later released claimed their attackers spoke Acholi, the language of northern Uganda, although others were speaking simple Arabic and Kiswahili. Some have speculated that the raiders were in fact a mixed group of rogue elements from both LRA and South Sudanese forces.The LRA has fairly deep roots in South Sudan, since it was received sanctuary and assistance for a dozen or more years from the government in Khartoum, which allowed it to mount operations into northern Uganda and also used it as a proxy force to fight the South Sudanese rebels.The LRA is known to have incorporated some South Sudanese into its units.Kiir, who is optimistic that a final settlement would be signed soon, said Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni assured him recently that he would fly to Juba to sign the deal personally.That leaves one outstanding question – the intentions of LRA leader Joseph Kony.“I need Riek Machar to also go and bring the LRA leader Joseph Kony to Juba so that he can come and sign the peace agreement in order to end the hostilities that exist between them,” said Kiir.But whether Kony will sign the agreement remains in doubt.Representatives of the LRA, including its top negotiator, David Matsanga, were in The Hague last week, meeting officials from the International Criminal Court, ICC. Matsanga and lawyers representing Kony want the ICC to drop its indictments against Kony and his top associates, on the grounds that an international trial would be redundant because the Ugandan government has agreed to set up a special court to try LRA leaders for crimes committed during the 20-year war.Kony has said he will not sign the peace agreement unless the ICC withdraws the charges.The ICC, however, has rebuffed that request. The LRA delegation was told by ICC senior legal advisor Phakiso Mochochoko that it had misconceptions about the court’s procedures and that the ICC arrest warrants would remain in place. “The LRA and government of Uganda are pursuing a political process, but the ICC is pursuing a legal process,” Mochochoko told IWPR. “As far as the ICC is concerned, the arrest warrants remain valid and enforceable, and the expectation from the court is that the government of Uganda should enforce them”It remains unclear whether keeping the ICC warrants in place will prevent a final peace deal being signed in Juba.
END
SOUTH SUDAN 21/3/2008.
Officials in South Sudan say rogue paramilitaries left over from the country’s civil war, not Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, are to blame for recent attacks on civilians in the region.The announcement comes as a relief to all sides as they await the final signing of a peace deal reached between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, last month in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.Officials said at least 14 suspects had been captured and were in the custody of the autonomous region’s military, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, SPLA, and more were expected to be rounded up. They said none of the men appeared to be LRA members, and they were of South Sudanese rather than Ugandan ethnic origin.The arrests seem to absolve the Ugandan rebel movement of responsibility for a bout of raiding in South Sudan last month in which at least five villagers were killed, about 50 people abducted and property looted.Suspicions that the LRA forces were behind the attacks led to allegations that the rebels were not really committed to the ongoing peace negotiations with the Ugandan government, and were flouting a permanent ceasefire signed last month. South Sudan has played host to the talks since they began a year and a half ago. The South Sudanese authorities made it clear that it was not, as many had assumed, the LRA who were to blame, but renegade combatants from Sudan’s own long civil war, which ended in a peace and autonomy agreement in 2005South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir told reporters last week, “There are some SPLA elements and armed civilians who organise themselves to loot and disrupt civilian lives in the villages in the name of the LRA.” Kiir said he was convinced that the raiders were masquerading as Ugandan rebels by the fact that they looted alcohol and cigarettes, both of which are forbidden to LRA fighters. “The attackers looted… alcoholic drinks and packets of cigarettes from the markets they disrupted in Kajo-Keji County, drank all the alcohol and smoked the cigarettes – a practice that is not in the constitution of the LRA,” he said.Kiir’s vice-president, Riek Machar, who was instrumental in bringing the LRA and the Ugandan authorities to the negotiating table, said the attacks were carried out by a group calling itself “No Unit”, consisting of former guerrillas who were never integrated into the SPLA.The investigation which revealed the raiders’ identity was carried out by SPLA commander Wilson Deng, who is responsible for monitoring LRA compliance with the terms of the peace deal, under which rebel combatants are supposed to gather at a designated assembly in Western Equatoria Province, near South Sudan’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.The identification of the attackers as renegade combatants from Sudan’s own long civil war, which ended in a peace and autonomy agreement in 2005, adds credibility to the LRA’s pledge to stick by provisions of its peace deal with the Ugandan government.South Sudan officials are hopeful that the peace deal will be signed soon, since that will allow them to focus on better security in their country without having to worry about the presence of a Ugandan guerrilla group as well.Kiir said he is urging Machar, the chief mediator in the peace process, to “speed up the negotiations” in anticipation of a signing event by the end of this month. Once the document is signed, the LRA will have one month to demobilise and disarm its armed forces in South Sudan, turning members over to SPLA control for transport back to Uganda.At that point, Kiir explained, “we can easily identify elements who threaten our civilians”.But others in South Sudan who have been close to the situation insist that the LRA is responsible. Zamba Duku, a senior official in Central Equatoria Province, insisted that attacks on the villages of Kajo-Keji and Lainya had to be the work of LRA rebels since no other paramilitary groups remained in the area.“There are no more militias terrorising our villages except the LRA, who are threatening our citizens from returning home from the internally displaced camps that ran… during the civil war in the Sudan,” Duku told IWPR.County Commissioner Oliver Mule, of Kajo-Keji, agreed. He said that people abducted and later released claimed their attackers spoke Acholi, the language of northern Uganda, although others were speaking simple Arabic and Kiswahili. Some have speculated that the raiders were in fact a mixed group of rogue elements from both LRA and South Sudanese forces.The LRA has fairly deep roots in South Sudan, since it was received sanctuary and assistance for a dozen or more years from the government in Khartoum, which allowed it to mount operations into northern Uganda and also used it as a proxy force to fight the South Sudanese rebels.The LRA is known to have incorporated some South Sudanese into its units.Kiir, who is optimistic that a final settlement would be signed soon, said Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni assured him recently that he would fly to Juba to sign the deal personally.That leaves one outstanding question – the intentions of LRA leader Joseph Kony.“I need Riek Machar to also go and bring the LRA leader Joseph Kony to Juba so that he can come and sign the peace agreement in order to end the hostilities that exist between them,” said Kiir.But whether Kony will sign the agreement remains in doubt.Representatives of the LRA, including its top negotiator, David Matsanga, were in The Hague last week, meeting officials from the International Criminal Court, ICC. Matsanga and lawyers representing Kony want the ICC to drop its indictments against Kony and his top associates, on the grounds that an international trial would be redundant because the Ugandan government has agreed to set up a special court to try LRA leaders for crimes committed during the 20-year war.Kony has said he will not sign the peace agreement unless the ICC withdraws the charges.The ICC, however, has rebuffed that request. The LRA delegation was told by ICC senior legal advisor Phakiso Mochochoko that it had misconceptions about the court’s procedures and that the ICC arrest warrants would remain in place. “The LRA and government of Uganda are pursuing a political process, but the ICC is pursuing a legal process,” Mochochoko told IWPR. “As far as the ICC is concerned, the arrest warrants remain valid and enforceable, and the expectation from the court is that the government of Uganda should enforce them”It remains unclear whether keeping the ICC warrants in place will prevent a final peace deal being signed in Juba.
END
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Col. William Omaria gives 200acres of land to investors.
JOSEPH EIGU ONYANGO
SOROTI 20/3/2008
Col. William Omarai Lo' Arapai has offered his 200 acres of land for the construction of an industrial park in Soroti.
Omaria made the offer on wednesday 19th march, during a meeting with the officials from Uganda Investment Authority at Soroti administration block.
Omaria later led the officals from Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to isnpect the piece of land which is located at Arapai.
The team compromised of the Resident District Commissioner of Soroti, Ben Etonu, the LC5 Vice chairperson and the Deputy Chief Administration Officer.
The UIA officials are seeking for land in all major towns in Uganda for the potential investors.
The staff member from Land Development Division - Uganda Investment Authority, Barnabas Tumwesigye represented the teamfrom Kampala.
Earlier the local councilors and district leaders of Soroti district met at Paxland Motel with officials before going to Arapai.
The industrial parks are meant to create jobs for the people and bring services nearer to the people.
In Soroti district they are also targeting Odina citrus farm land and Dokolo cashew nut factory all in Kamuda sub county.
The other piece of land the officials are looking at is Amukaru meat parkers and Dakabela where the former radio station was.
The UIA team which has already visited Mbale will also proceed to Gulu and Arua.
End
SOROTI 20/3/2008
Col. William Omarai Lo' Arapai has offered his 200 acres of land for the construction of an industrial park in Soroti.
Omaria made the offer on wednesday 19th march, during a meeting with the officials from Uganda Investment Authority at Soroti administration block.
Omaria later led the officals from Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to isnpect the piece of land which is located at Arapai.
The team compromised of the Resident District Commissioner of Soroti, Ben Etonu, the LC5 Vice chairperson and the Deputy Chief Administration Officer.
The UIA officials are seeking for land in all major towns in Uganda for the potential investors.
The staff member from Land Development Division - Uganda Investment Authority, Barnabas Tumwesigye represented the teamfrom Kampala.
Earlier the local councilors and district leaders of Soroti district met at Paxland Motel with officials before going to Arapai.
The industrial parks are meant to create jobs for the people and bring services nearer to the people.
In Soroti district they are also targeting Odina citrus farm land and Dokolo cashew nut factory all in Kamuda sub county.
The other piece of land the officials are looking at is Amukaru meat parkers and Dakabela where the former radio station was.
The UIA team which has already visited Mbale will also proceed to Gulu and Arua.
End
Sunday, March 16, 2008
BY JOSEPH EIGU ONYANGO.
KABERAMAIDO 16/3/2008
Kaberamaido district Chairman, Robert Engulu is on strike over no office vehicle.
The district chairman now walks every day to his office at the district headquarters on foot together with his escort for a distance of one and half kilometers (1.5km).
The LC 5 chairman, Robert Engulu says he is doing this because he is trying to send some message to any concerned person.
Engulu who was speaking to Veritas Radio on Thursday at his office in a cheerful flexible voice told the press that he is comfortable with the decision he has taken.
He says he has liked it because it has saved him from calling drivers to pick him every day.
Engulu says he is doing this in good faith and promises never to stop walking unless he receives an official vehicle for his office.
This unsolved decision has taken the walking chairman at least one week.
The issue has also affected the chairman’s movements in monitoring government program.
However, the District Executive Committee convened a stormy meeting on Wednesday where they questioned CAO office to intervene immediately and allocate the chairman a vehicle.
Sources say Kaberamaido Chief Administration Officer (CAO), Roselyn Adongo Luhoni has noted the concern and promises to repair any district vehicle and assign it to chairman’s office.
Mean while the chairman, RoberT Engulu accepted to reveal to Veritas Fm in a detailed heated separate interview that the district should go in for Hire Purchase Scheme to buy him a vehicle.
END.
Pliz guys long time. share this story in your different media houses.
Thanks
Joseph Onayango
+256-782-141066
KABERAMAIDO 16/3/2008
Kaberamaido district Chairman, Robert Engulu is on strike over no office vehicle.
The district chairman now walks every day to his office at the district headquarters on foot together with his escort for a distance of one and half kilometers (1.5km).
The LC 5 chairman, Robert Engulu says he is doing this because he is trying to send some message to any concerned person.
Engulu who was speaking to Veritas Radio on Thursday at his office in a cheerful flexible voice told the press that he is comfortable with the decision he has taken.
He says he has liked it because it has saved him from calling drivers to pick him every day.
Engulu says he is doing this in good faith and promises never to stop walking unless he receives an official vehicle for his office.
This unsolved decision has taken the walking chairman at least one week.
The issue has also affected the chairman’s movements in monitoring government program.
However, the District Executive Committee convened a stormy meeting on Wednesday where they questioned CAO office to intervene immediately and allocate the chairman a vehicle.
Sources say Kaberamaido Chief Administration Officer (CAO), Roselyn Adongo Luhoni has noted the concern and promises to repair any district vehicle and assign it to chairman’s office.
Mean while the chairman, RoberT Engulu accepted to reveal to Veritas Fm in a detailed heated separate interview that the district should go in for Hire Purchase Scheme to buy him a vehicle.
END.
Pliz guys long time. share this story in your different media houses.
Thanks
Joseph Onayango
+256-782-141066
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