Unesco to train four on ethical and gender sensitive reporting |10 October 2012

The course, funded by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), will be coordinated by Al-Amin Yusuph of Unesco’s Dar Es Salaam office and run by University of Mauritius (UoM) consultant Christina Chan-Meetoo with the help of trainers from South Africa, Kenya and Reunion.

Mrs Meetoo and the Seychelles Institute of Management developed the Certificate in Journalism course offered by the SIM last year with the technical support of Seychelles Nation and the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation.

Reporters Stephanie Remie, Myra Labiche, Mandy Bertin and George Thande are expected to share with their colleagues the knowledge they will gain from the week-long course upon their return.
 
Organisers say the course is partly aimed at beating shortcomings in the private media which are linked to giving priority to revenue generation as opposed to the public interest, regretting that women’s images are often used to boost sales while their role in society is misrepresented.

“Many issues need to be addressed in order to improve democratic setup, press freedom and to
strengthen the professional capacity of the media in ethical reporting and gender-sensitive journalism,” said Mrs Chan-Meetoo, who is also a lecturer in media and communication.

The course is aimed at boosting the reporters’ analytical skills “needed for self-regulating their practice without compromising freedom of the press”.

The course will also give the reporters new guidelines on how to be more gender-sensitive while arming them with the knowledge of the kind of language preferred.

“Senior journalists will be expected to transfer their skills to junior and aspiring reporters and act as role models for their peers and juniors in their newsrooms after the course,” said the organisers.

The course is designed for a mix of 20 in-service senior, junior and aspiring journalists from Mauritius and Seychelles and targets “public-minded, as opposed to commercial journalism”.

The delegates are expected to produce a training manual containing journalism codes of ethics for further professional capacity building in ethical and gender-sensitive reporting.