Uganda: Journalist Training launched as Peace Talks hit crucial stage

 Trainees attend a press conference at the Refugee 
Law Project.

Communicating Justice moved its specialist training to Uganda in February, just as peace talks for the north resumed, giving new resonance to transitional justice issues. Twenty selected print and broadcast journalists who followed a two-week course in Kampala said the training had equipped them to cover transitional justice with more depth and understanding.  

“I have learned about what is specifically happening in my country and that it’s not just something in the North but it affects us all," one participant commented. "Therefore, there is more passion to be of assistance as a voice for the victims.”

 

Training session at the Muyenga Club, Kampala

The two-week training  from February 4 to 15 focussed on skills and knowledge needed to cover the current peace and justice debate in Uganda, including issues around the International Criminal Court, traditional justice mechanisms, truth commissions and reparations for victims. 

“The training has shed more light to me on how to write a fair and balanced story, which is important for transitional justice reporting,” said one trainee. Another participant said he had gained “empowerment to talk/ report about TJ”. 

 

BBC WST trainer Paul Kavuma introduces trainees to
the online training system.

The course was based at the Muyenga Club, in Kampala. Trainees were selected on a competitive basis. The group includes nine women and eleven men, with twelve participants from war affected areas of the north. 

Trainees are now following up with an on-line learning course, which they can access through this website. The course uses the BBC World Service Trust’s iLearn system and includes sessions  on interviewing trauma victims, understanding transitional justice and best practice for court reporting. Participants' assignments receive feedback from trainers.
 

BBC WST international trainer Karen Williams helps
trainees with their computer skills.

Trainers included South African journalist Karen Williams, Ugandan journalist Paul Kavuma and project director Julia Crawford for the BBC World Service Trust. For the International Center for Transitional Justice, trainers were Marieke Wierda, head of ICTJ’s Uganda programme, Alex Loden, Richard Bailey and Mohamed Suma, who is also director of the Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme.

Knowledge-based and media skills sessions were interspersed with practical assignments, field trips and sessions with invited guests. For example, the trainees visited the Kampala offices of World Vision and the Refugee Law Project. They interviewed a guest from the International Criminal Court, heard about traditional justice from a Gulu-based specialist, and about international humanitarian law from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Practical assignments included a court reporting exercise, after trainees had viewed video footage from an ICC pre-trial hearing. 

 

Trainers included (from right to left), Marieke Wierda, 
Julia Crawford, Mohamed Suma and Richard Bailey.

The BBC World Service Trust is implementing the two-year Communicating Justice project in partnership with ICTJ, a US based human rights organisation. 

The project conducted similar training courses in Liberia in August and Sierra Leone in October. 
Participants there have now completed their online course and are contributing stories to this website.  

Communicating Justice will take its training to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April and Burundi in June, 2008.