Journalists across the world are reminded to maintain accuracy and inclusiveness in their daily reporting routines.
The message was given by Ida Jooste, Global Media Advisor at Internews during her stay in Kigali in Women Deliver Conference.
She explained that the main idea of Internews is to make sure that journalism is accurate, compelling and interest for people to read as well as changing perceptions in the world. She explained that the journey of Internews aims at boosting journalism proficiency and accuracy.
In her own words she said that “One of the most things we do is to work with journalists to make sure that their stories are the best that they can be,” Ida Jooste said.
She advises journalists across the globe hat should use their powerful tool to change the society with the news.
“The taxi driver reads the news, the father reads the news, the mother reads the news, journalism is not an exclusive area, it is very inclusive, the stories must also be inclusive of interest and of meaning for all these people I mentioned,” Ida Jooste said.
“No single country is the same, one of the things we do to find out what is relevant to each country is ‘Information Ecosystem Assessment’ to learn if it is the problem of registration, capacity building for journalists, problem diversity of sources or if it is a problem of poor infrastructure. By doing such an assessment we make sure that what we do is relevant for that country.” She added
She said that the interventions that are given in Kenya can be different from those in Uganda, Columbia and India.
Internews has not yet started projects in Rwanda, but Ida Jooste was participating to the Women Deliver Conference that was recently concluded in Kigali.
“We are very pleased to meet and be in touch with journalists based in Rwanda, we have one staff who is based in Rwanda, but we do not have the projects here, but we can always have discussions and hear proposals of what people would like to do,”
Internews has some plans ahead to continue supporting journalism across the world.
“There two very big plans one is of becoming more diverse, whatever we do is under democracy and rights and governance, training the journalists is to ensure that they report on democracy, human rights and governance issues, health is important, environment and climate change are very important, so, governance and democracy is part of all our lives, we want to make sure that journalists who work for publications do their parts with their editors and with media owners to ensure that news is more diverse, not only politics.” Ida Jooste said.
The Women Deliver Meeting at Kigali Rwanda (Photo: Goverment Of Rwanda)
Internews support independent media in over 100 countries, from radio stations in refugee camps, to hyper-local news outlets, to individual activists and reporters. Since around 40 years of operation, Internews has helped partners to reach millions of people with quality, local information that saves lives, improves livelihoods and holds institutions accountable.
By Emma-Marie Umurerwa
emmadukunda@gmail.com
