Print, radio, television and online journalists have been schooled on conflict sensitive reporting, fake news and fact checking amongst other journalistic practices. This was during a two days mentoring program that held in Limbe on November 13 and 14 bringing together fifteen journalists from different parts of the country.

The program is a follow up of a training that was organised by #defyhatenow in different Regions as the country director, Ngala Desmond explains “For the past three months, we’ve been training journalists in different parts in Cameroon. It started in Buea with a group of Journalists then to Yaounde and to Bamenda which took place in Bafoussam. The goal of this training was to make sure that we equip journalists with the right tools to report conflict. Most especially sensitive conflict like the situation in the North West and South West regions of the country”.

 country director #defyhatenow, Ngala Desmond

The mentoring program is aimed at moulding the journalists to be able to change the narratives in reporting conflict. This as the country director for #defyhatenow, furthers “We thought that it will be good not only to train journalists in a large group but to have a brief mentorship program with these journalists. This mentorship program started here in Limbe and its wonderful the way it took place. We see journalists and many more other people changing the way they were thinking, reporting conflicts much more factually…What we hope for is that at the end of this mentorship program, this small group that we have becomes the yardstick that will now change the mindsets within Cameroon and within the journalistic perspective.”

Selected from the over 75 journalists that had been trained initially, #defyhatenow says the journalists were selected based on their level of commitment amongst other factors “We looked at those we’ve trained and those that changed the way they report news after the training”.

 Eugene Forngwa, explaining some concepts to the journalists

The director of African Knowledge and Policy Centre and an award winning developement journalist, Eugene Forngwa was the facilitator during the mentoring program. He reminded the journalists to always watch out for fake news and misinformation. He equally asked them to ensure they arrive at the truth of every story before sending it out to the public.

The training will have another follow up as Ngala Desmond explained “From here we are certainly going to have another session where journalists are going to review what they have done this.”

It is hoped that the trained journalists will not only improve on their ways of reporting conflict in their different media, but also in the way they analyse and discuss conflict in the public.

By Sandrine M.