Action Line C 4 (Capacity building)
Strengthening Independent Media in Bangladesh
Organization: Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)
Country: Bangladesh
Executive Summery
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio & Communication (BNNRC), has implemented the project “Strengthening Independent Media in Bangladesh in Bangladesh with support from Internews. The objective of the project has to build capacity of the journalists to report in a conflict sensitive way, focusing on the Rohingya crisis and disseminate the positive actions of the government to promote the Rohingya repatriation.
The project activities are –Organize 6 training workshop on Conflict Sensitive Journalism and Facts Checking and Verification Techniques in News Reporting to make the journalists aware for preparing report on conflict sensitive issues, whether it is armed, political or socio-economic conflict in fair, accurate and with responsibilities. The workshop has taken place in Cox’s Bazar, Chattogram and Dhaka from April to July 2018.
A Total of 147 journalists and academia from National Daily News Paper, Public & Private Television Channels, Online news portal and Public & Private News Agency participated in the trainings where 53 were female.
This project contributed in better understanding of Journalist to produced accurate, balanced and well-researched reports.
Project description (activity’s description)
Journalists across the world face deep dilemmas when it comes to reporting on conflicts that are occurring in and sometimes devastating the communities in which they live and work. The project is addressing ICT Applications: Action Line C4 (Capacity building). This activities are disseminating through both online- Facebook, Facebook live, YouTube, Cell Phone SMS; and offline- training, investigative reporting and roundtable meeting, etc. Every day they respond to the challenges of being part of communities caught up in conflict while at the same time being part of a profession that expects fair and even-handed coverage of these conflicts.
In Bangladesh, journalists face similar dilemmas while covering news if not in the same magnitude. Political violence and non-political violence are major concerns for newsmen who cover events involving physical confrontation. There are occasions when reporters are seemingly left with no choice but to report one side of the story because of the difficulties in accessing information, resulting in a compromise with accuracy, balance and truth of the incident.
When a violent protest, mass scale accident, or natural hazard unfolds, information tends to get jumbled, causing fear and confusion. With the growing use of technology, we have witnessed innumerable false and fake stories being shared on social networks, including photo shopped images, or reloaded diced videos from unrelated events in the past. With increasing frequency, journalists are required to master the skills and expertise to handle the information that circulates on the internet and elsewhere.
In Bangladesh journalists are often mislead in respect to fake news and false information generated and uploaded on the websites. Such dire situation often puts bewildered newsmen seeking authentic information in the event of any crisis.
Due to lack of proper knowledge and understanding of covering news in conflict situation in Bangladesh becomes more challenging for journalist , especially when seeking authentic information for a fair and unbiased report to be presented to the audience.
To accomplish such goals Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio Communication (BNNRC) with support from Internews introduced a project titled ‘Strengthening Independent Media in Bangladesh.
Objectives:
- To make the journalists aware for preparing report on conflict sensitive issues, whether it is armed, political or socio-economic conflict in fair, accurate and with responsibilities
- To increase the knowledge of journalist for reporting on facts checking and verification techniques more insightful, comprehensive and thus more influential.
The project activities were completed through series workshops under the title – ‘Conflict Sensitive Journalism’ and Facts Checking and Verification Techniques in News Reporting
The first workshop of Conflict Sensitive Journalism (CSJ) series was held on April 21-22, 2018 in Cox’s Bazar. A total of 19 local journalists attended the in workshop. The second workshop was attended by 23 journalists, held on May 21-21, 2018 in Chattogram and the 3rd workshop under the same theme – CSJ was held on May 26-27, 2018 in the capital City Dhaka where a total of 29 journalists attended.
On Facts Checking and Verification Techniques in News Reporting, the first workshop was held on May 30-31, 2018 in Cox’s Bazar where 26 journalists were participated. The second workshop was attended by 24 journalists, held on July 10-11 , 2018 in Chattogram and the 3rd workshop under the same theme was held on July 14-15, 2018 in Dhaka where a total of 27 journalists attended.
The key topics of the workshop were -Discussing Newsroom Roles performed, The Role of the Reporter is based on trust, Objectivity in practice, Fake News: What it means and how to overcome it. Analyze news reports from overnight assignment, Interview techniques, Role of editor.
Examples of Linkages between the WSIS Action Line and the SDGs
The project has addressed the Action Line C 4 (Capacity building). Until introduction of the concept in the workshop, majorities of the participants did not have proper knowledge on what is Conflict Sensitive Journalism and Techniques of Facts Checking and Verification in News Reporting. It is indeed a new topic that BNNRC introduced for media in Bangladesh. The trainings have generated news reports which are far more powerful, reliable and credible. Public awareness is crucial on such conflict sensitive issues especially when such topic demand knowing all aspects of conflict situation.
Media intervention into conflict sensitive situations demands accurate and un-biased information in a world where hoax and myths often can mislead audience/readers. Due to increased sensitization during the workshop the newsmen has capacities more responsible in seeking the truth always striving for accuracy checking information.
The program is facilitating SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels: Providing access to information and knowledge to people is also important to fostering tolerance between people and contributes to more peaceful societies
Highlights of the project’s partnership Activities:
- All stake holders to be involved: The workshop opens the doors for involving all stake holders of the media community like, media at the union level, all press clubs or associations, media related government organizations like the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB), National Institute of Mass Communication (NIMC), Ministry of Information and the Press Council.
- Non-state stakeholders to be involved: All the public and private universities to incorporate/develop their own curriculum of CSJ and introduce separate lessons/courses for academic discussions. As a new concept many of the attending participants from private and public universities showed interest in introducing courses on CSJ in their respective universities.
Challenges and future perspectives for the project
The theme of Conflict Sensitive Journalism is relatively new in Bangladeshi media and it would be challenging to introduce the issue especially when journalists are not well aware of the subject.
Mobilizing journalists on the CSJ theme would be a huge task with limited data and information from the ground. Reporters need to understand more about what causes conflict, and how conflict develops and ends. Reporters need to know where to look for these causes and solutions. Lack of experienced resource persons to train journalists is another challenge faced by the organization. The workshops held outside the capital – namely in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar had difficulties explaining talking points in native Bangla which of course took more time than expected.:
The workshops have certainly generated tremendous enthusiasm among the participating journalists which encourages the organization to further plan and design how best to extend and expand the courses discussed in the workshops.