Training in Uganda Bolsters Justice Reporting

IWPR senior reporter Simon Jennings travelled to Gulu in northern Uganda along with IWPR's Uganda programme coordinator, Wairagala Wakabi, to train a group of broadcast journalists on reporting justice and human rights issues. 

A two-day training covering journalism practice and radio production was held for local journalists ahead of the launch of IWPR's Facing Justice radio show in northern Uganda.

The eight broadcast journalists from seven radio stations across Uganda who were selected to take part will contribute feature stories for the new radio programme, to be broadcast by four stations.

The journalists learned key skills for human rights and justice reporting and were trained in conducting radio interviews, using digital recording equipment, and editing broadcast material.

"This was a well focused training which taught me a lot about how to address human rights issues," said Pascal Orwoth of Radio Pacis in Arua. "And [it taught me] not simply to gather information...but to go beyond that and dig out the truth."

Mega FM, Radio Rhino, Voice of Ateso and Radio Pacis will broadcast the programme, produced in English before being translated into three other languages - Luo, Ateso and Lugbara

The radio stations told IWPR that they expect Facing Justice to play a crucial role in providing badly-needed information on subjects related to the post-conflict landscape in northern Uganda.

According to local studies, up to 90 per cent of the population of northern Uganda listens to radio every day, and about the same percentage cites radio as the most important source of information about what is happening in their community.

Meanwhile, as Uganda's national elections draw ever closer, IWPR is fostering debate on some crucially important issues in the country.

A recent article about the dangers of a crackdown on the media (See: Press Crackdown Fears) ahead of the 2011 vote is one IWPR story that was cited as highlighting some of the difficulties that are facing ordinary Ugandans.

Campaign agents visited IWPR daily to get updates about what was happening in the country.

"We visit the IWPR website and print the stories, so that we can refer to them the next day during our political rallies," said Patrick Omara of the Forum for Democratic Change, FDC.

"We read the printed articles during campaigns because we believe that IWPR has got good credibility," said Mike Ogwal Aconga of opposition party Uganda Peoples' Congress, UPC.

Frank Oyugi, news editor of Lira-based 95.3 FM, was enthusiastic about IWPR's coverage of media repression.

"Without IWPR, I don't believe any news organisation would have been able to give us the truth," he said.

While noting that media repression is not as bad as it was in the past, particularly during the 1970s, Oyugi urged journalists to produce articles on the real issues, without compromising the reporting in favour of the government.

"Any serious news organisation that wants to protect the ethics of the media should stand up and publish the kind of stories that IWPR are producing," he said.

Judith Atim, news anchor with Radio Lira, agreed that IWPR stories have great potential for improving the standard of journalism and bypassing censorship.

"There are lots of lessons to learn from IWPR stories," she said. "Reporters should remain objective on whatever story they are handling so that they can convey the truth."

Charles Martin Jjuuko, the International Criminal Court's acting outreach coordinator, also commended IWPR-trained reporters based in Uganda for their investigative pieces.

He said the court has shown interest in working with the reporters to cover its country-wide outreach activities.