Banjul — Last Tuesday, twelve (12) broadcast journalists finished a two-week training course organised by the British Broadcast Company (BBC) in collaboration with the British High Commission in The Gambia at the Gambia Pastoral Institute (GPI).

The training was meant to build the understanding of news values and editorial judgment, impartiality, balance, fairness and accuracy, to determine the role of radio in a democratic environment and to develop participants' radio production skills and give them tools to enable them do their job effectively.

Addressing the participants, the British High Commissioner Mr. Eric Jenkinson congratulated them for completing such a course and also the two BBC trainers.

"It was a pleasure for the British high commissioner to get in capacity building especially the training of journalists. We hope that this training will not be the last. Finance has always been a problem but we will see what we can do to have more of such trainings," he said.

The Secretary of State for Information, Communication and Technology Mrs. Neneh Macdoul-Gaye talked of the importance of capacity building especially for journalists.

"Radio broadcasting is very important as it involves a lot of responsibility. There is nothing more important than sharing information and you need to take this seriously," she noted.

Jackie Chambers, one of the trainers from BBC, said the training was very practical and further urged radio managers to help their workers build confidence to do their job and put the knowledge they gained into practice.

Alieu Jallow of GRTS thanked the British high commissioner and the trainers from the BBC.