MEDIP Training Workshop - Methods and tools in communicating the MDG Issues (March 2009)
The project’s first activity kicked off on the 18th of March 2009 with a very fruitful training workshop organized for journalists from the six New Member States where the project partners derive from. The workshop was held in Malta at the Victoria Hotel between the 18th and the 20th of March 2009. The three-day event served to equip the journalists with methods and tools in communicating the Millennium Development Goals and Development Issues.
Key speakers during the event included Dr. Clare Thake Vassallo, Chairman of Public Broadcasting Services Ltd, Ms. Anya Sitaram, Presenter at BBC World News, Mr. Karl Schembri, Chairman of the Journalists’ Committee (Malta), Ms. Vanya Walker-Leigh, Former correspondent of ‘The Guardian’ at the United Nations, Geneva, Ms. Katherine Meenan from Connect –World (Ireland), Mr. Joseph Woods from The World Centre for New Thinking, and Mr. Karl Stagno-Navarra, Correspondent with Al Jazeera English.
The workshop was highly interactive and produced some interesting discussions in relation to the role of the media, especially within New Member States, in raising awareness about development issues and the Millennium Development Goals in particular. The event also shed light on the importance of reporting development and poverty issues related to developing countries in a different way to the simply negative images which the public has tended to be exposed to in the past few years. Media has a role to play in shedding light on success stories and solutions to poverty – especially those provided by locals within developing countries themselves.
Reference was also made to the difficulties encountered by NGOs and journalists alike, in ensuring that development and poverty-related stories are regularly covered within local audiovisual and printed media. Director and Executive Producer of Rockhoper TV and Presenter at BBC World New, Ms. Anya Sitaram, who was one of the key speakers during the workshop, said “ Its been very interesting to learn about NGOs’ and journalists’ perspectives within the New Member States about how development issues are reported. We all face similar difficulties, especially in bringing development stories to the general public“
To view the programme for the training workshop, click here