By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
The USAID-funded Internews Liberia Media Development program has commenced a week-long training for more than 15 Journalists in the country on election reporting.
The training, which began on Monday October 26, 2020, ends on Saturday October 31, 2020.
Participants are from partner organizations, who will lead through training and mentoring a team of community and national journalists from radio stations, newspapers and digital media to promote issues focused reporting that resonates with the voting population.
Projects under Internews also support election dialogue forum and Senatorial elections debates, which will be expanded beyond the capital, Monrovia and will include rural and remote communities.
They will be engaged on issues that affect their daily lives.
The goal of the training is to give them the necessary skills to produce responsible election reporting and share them with fellow journalists.
Training manual for Liberian journalists will also be available in electronic format.
Some twenty election reporting fellows will also be trained and mentored in order to identify and report on election issues in a more impactful way. Election reporting will be enhanced through a trained network of journalists from both urban and rural Liberia.
Speaking during the formal opening of the training, the Chief of Party, USAID Liberia Media Development program managed by Internews, Lien Bach encouraged fellows/participants to take the training very seriously.
She urged them to see it as an added advantage of acquiring yet another skill.
Madam Bach said the training will enable participants to report on election matters responsibly and professionally.
After the training, participants will be able to develop, produce story ideas, prior to publication of election reports, she said.
The Internews boss called on the participants of the training to do their best during and after the December 8 elections.
Meanwhile, internews Deputy Chief of Party, Jefferson Massah said during the election, 19 Senatorial election debates will be conducted and community media forums on the National referendum. He said participants at the training will cover the various debates to track promises made by Senatorial candidates and report them.
Mr. Massah disclosed that most of the stories on election matters will be produced byLlocal Voices Liberia.
Internews deputy COP added that participants/fellows attending the training will have mentors assigned to them and will develop and share stories with them prior to publication. The mentoring is expected to be done online.
He called on the Journalists to regularly check their Facebook pages and emails.
Mr. Massah informed participants that at the end of the training, the Journalists/election reporting fellow will be provided the necessary tools to work with.
The Internews official explained that to ensure diverse media representation during the election process, Internews has partnered with the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building ( CEMESP), the Liberia media for Democratic Initiative (LMDI), the Local voices Liberia (LVL), the Publishers Association of Liberia (PAL) and the Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL).
These of media professionals will organize community media forums (CMFs) and content sharing activities on political debates and the referendum and they will also provide a national platform for journalists in remote areas of Liberia to spotlight region specific election related issues among others.