Aid in Action

USAID Empowers Somali Journalists

19 Students Train at Prestigious Kenya Media Institute

Nairobi, Kenya  | Friday, May 02, 2008

For years, USAID has supported journalists and broadcasters in providing objective news and information to citizens in their own countries and around the world. One of its basic focuses is to provide training to raise the level of journalists and other media personnel. In Somalia, with the lack of education opportunities for journalists and the need for informative and unbiased reporting, this training is particularly relevant.

USAID’s Civil Society and Media in Transition (CSMT) project, through implementing partner CARE, organized a three month training and internship placement program in Nairobi for 19 young Somali journalists in early 2008 to help fill the gap in professional media training. The training was arranged through the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) with field practice placements to local radio and print media houses in Nairobi. Training was provided in television production, radio and print, and exposed students to areas outside their own media discipline. “There were so many different programs for journalists,” said Saadia Mohamad Nour, a presenter and newscaster from Mogadishu. “I am a radio journalist but I appreciate the web design instruction and will be designing a website when I go back. I would like to pass on my experience to colleagues in Mogadishu.”

The 12-week training program was tailored to equip and empower students so that they could understand the urgent need for objective reporting and how their newscasts and articles could affect the peace process in Somalia. Participants gained knowledge and professional skills, ethics standards and production techniques that they could easily put to use. In addition, the training helped shape the attitudes and behaviors of participants towards becoming agents of social, economic and political development of society through the practice of good journalism. As part of the program the students attended weekly team-building activities which served to break down their stereotypes of people from other clans.

Khadar Akulle, head of the news department at Horn Cable Television in Hargeisa, said, “Eighty percent of my profession I have learned here, although I have spent the last nine years in journalism. The investigative reporting instruction was extremely useful, and governance, conflict reporting and peace building were also very attractive. I believe I know the role of the media now and can make very useful reports. I also learned about human rights issues and now I know my rights. The media role is to find out the reality through news gathering.”

He added, “This is a beginning. Now we have opened our eyes. I would welcome a further 6 to 12 months of training.”

Through the CMST program, USAID is enabling the media to become a stronger mouthpiece for civil society activists by airing human rights abuses which raise awareness in the general public and in government domains. In addition to training journalists in media and peace building, the program has worked with journalists since 2005 to provide training on conflict sensitivity, ethics, advocacy, good governance and basic journalism.