7 April 2008
Monrovia — A three-day international media training for senior editors and reporters of two Mano River Union Countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, takes place this month in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, with 50 professional and practicing journalists representing print, electronic and online media institutions attending.
Madam Afua Hirsch of the Advocates for International Development and Doughty Street Chambers, based in London, United Kingdom and Mr. Josephus Moses Gray, a professional Liberian journalist and 2006 graduate of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in Washington, D. C, United States, and Journalism Exchange Program are the brain behind the training exercise.
It is intended to empower journalists from the two neighboring West African states devastated by long years of bloody rebel wars.
The training program is also geared towards widening journalists' knowledge, improving their reportage skills and equipping them with requisite techniques on international criminal proceedings in general, and the proceedings of the Charles Taylor Trial in The Hague in particular.
The three-day course, which promises to be intensive, educative and informative, will run from April 24 through the 26.
According to statistical breakdown of the participants, 15 of the 50 journalists will represent the Sierra Leonean media, while the rest are from the Liberian media, with eight of the Liberian participants representing leeward counties Community Radio Stations and 27 from media stations in Monrovia.
The exercise is organized by the United Kingdom based organization of pro bono lawyers, Advocates for International Development (A4ID), in collaboration with a West Africa media right group, International Centre for Media Studies and Development (INCEMSADWA), with funding from the Soros Foundation Network Media Program (NMP) based in London.
In a statement, the group said the objective of the training exercise is to provide basic training on international tribunals and international criminal laws in general, foster better understanding of international proceedings, including the purpose of the Taylor trial, the role of the Prosecution and Defense, and the rights of the accused to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence.
It will provide detailed training on the Special Court and the conduct of the Charles Taylor trial in The Hague. The training will also discuss and address the principle concerns about, and objections to the trial including the impact on the current political and justice situation in Liberia.
It will equip journalists with tools to better manage public expectations surrounding the trial and to create a network so that in future sources of information provided for example by fellowships in The Hague can be effectively shared by the media ensuring accurate up-to-date information.
The training will include teaching by facilitators, interactive panel sessions, and participative sessions whereby journalists gain practice writing stories and making programmes on the content provided.
At the end of the three-day exercise, media outlets in Sierra Leone and Liberia will be equipped with the requisite techniques and writing skills to use information that is available to provide objective, balanced and fair reporting, expressing views and providing information within an accurate factual and legal framework on international criminal proceedings in general, the Charles Taylor trial in particular.
Facilitators
The training will be conducted by a team of experts on international criminal proceedings in general, the Charles Taylor trial in particular, and a media trainer while the facilitators include a lawyer from the Office of the Prosecutor; a lawyer who has acted as Defense Counsel at the Special Court.
The trainers also include an expert from UK Legal Community and Advocates for International Development ("A4ID") and renowned Liberian lawyer and journalist, with impeachable international acclaimed records.
Meanwhile, the inability of the media to accurately and adequately cover the trial has however already taken its toll on public interest and engagement with the trial.
Since the proceedings commenced on 4th June 2007, the majority of reporting in Liberia has been based on international wires, or press releases from the Special Court, both of which sources are removed from the local context and are perceived as lacking objectivity by Liberians.
The task of relaying the crucial developments of this historical trial to the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia therefore falls to the media.
Hampered by the range of significant challenges an hindered by impacts of war, the press in Sierra Leone and Liberia are now encountering multiple problems of physical distance, the unprecedented format of a trial, whose jurisdiction belongs to a hybrid tribunal but whose facilities are those of the ICC, and general lack of capacity to report on legal proceedings of an international nature.
In this respect the removal of Charles Taylor's trial from the Liberian context to the jurisdiction of the Special Court, and the physical relocation of the proceedings to the ICC in The Hague, are significant factors detracting from the already limited ability of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean people to witness the trial.
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