Journalists school on economic and financial reporting

A two month training programme on economic and financial reporting has begun in Berlin-Germany.

Fifteen journalists from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, China, India, Indonesia and Philippines are participating in the programme which will run from January to March 17 2008.

Course content include business news writing, essential statistics, reporting companies and markets, consumer information and global economic issues among others.

The International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) of InWEnt, Capacity Building International, Germany is organising the training course.

The goal is to enable journalists to fulfill their role properly and to improve the quality of economic and financial reporting in their media organisations.

Welcoming participants, the Head of the IIJ, Astrid Kohl noted that only well trained journalists can fulfill the role as critical watchdogs helping to create transparency and to hold government and business accountable.

She explained that democracy, good governance and an active civil society are preconditions for development and prosperity.

This basic philosophy fits seamlessly into the media development concept of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development, which is the main stakeholder of InWent.” she said.

She said participants for the training programme are brought from diverse regions and countries to build their capacity, network and share ideas and experiences. She urged the participants to take the opportunity to learn so as to improve their capacity and sharpen their writing skills.

Senior Project Manager Hans-jurgen Boesel noted that globalisation has made countries and people more interdependent worldwide as goods and services, capital, labour and information move increasingly rapidly and freely around the world.

He said it is only when people are informed about opportunities that they can make informed choices in and for society.

This, he said, places a responsibility on journalists, particularly economic and financial journalists to understand/comprehend events and explain them to the people. “Well trained journalists are a precondition for a functioning mass media. They can only fulfill their role when they thoroughly understand the complex array of globalization.”

The IIJ founded in 1962 has been engaged in professional media training since 1963 to give young journalists from developing and transition countries the opportunity to enhance their knowledge in newspaper business and since recently in online journalism.

Some participants are hopeful that after the completion of the course, they will better understand the factors that determine the national and international economy and have improved their skills in writing comprehensible and fact based articles on economic, financial and business issues.