4 YJAG Members attends media freedom and responsibility training in Ghana

L-R: Ceesay, Faye, Jahateh, & Bah at the Tarmac, Banjul Intl' Airport/PHOTO:Facebook

  By Modou S. Joof / YJAG Member

Four YJAG members on September 16 left Banjul for Accra, Ghana, to attend a two-week intensive course on “Freedom and Responsibility in the Media.”

They are Lamin Jahateh, YJAG Secretary General and an editor at the MarketPlace Business Newspaper, Yussuf Ceesy, Co-opted members of YJAG executive and a reported for The Point newspaper, Binta Bah,a judicial correspondent for The Daily News Newspaper, and Amie Faye, a reporter for the Gambia News & Report Magazine.

 

The four were invited after a rigorous selection process by International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) of GIZ.

 

The course, which is for journalists from member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is organised by the Germany-based IIJ, which seeks to enhance the professional performance of journalists across the world.

Conducted in cooperation with the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra, the course will take place from 17 to 28 September 2012.

The organisers said the course aims to examine the interdependence between quality and ethics in journalism, and as well expose journalists to the necessary skills to deal with an ethical dilemma.

The course also aims at directing attention to one of the key ethical challenges: the past as a major factor influencing the political climate and agenda of the present.

The course will combine lectures on main issues, discussions, group work on special questions, and exercises on case studies which derive from the participants’ own work experiences. 
 

“The training will strengthen and enhance my advocacy for freedom of expression in The Gambia and thus to improve the conditions for democratisation and economic and social development,” said Mr Jahateh, also the publisher of the blog, Gambia News Online. 

The IIJ of GIZ - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit - was founded in 1962. It seeks to enhance the professional performance of print and online media as well as journalism training centres in developing countries and nations in transition.

The IIJ capacity building programme utilises various instruments for organisational and human resource development, including advanced training, dialogue, networking activities as well as advisory services for media houses and media schools.