Press Release

Graduation Ceremony for Somali Journalists

USAID provides professional training in Nairobi

Nairobi, Kenya  | Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The U.S government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its implementing partner CARE, has provided professional journalism training to 19 Somali fellowship students at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communications (KIMC) in Nairobi. The 12-week program is part of the Civil Society and Media in Transition (CSMT) project based in Somalia. Graduation was held on 29th of April 2008 at KIMC.

In the absence of professional media institutions in Somalia, the professional capabilities of local journalists have eroded, resulting in biased reporting driven by ethnicity and clan base. Journalists in Somalia today are working in nearly impossible positions and are consistently the target of harassment, arrest, torture and targeted killings. Coupled with the absence of an effective central government system to provide rules and regulations, Somalia’s mushrooming media fraternity has increasingly resorted to reporting based on clan interest, which has inflamed public sentiment and led to the escalation of conflict.

To address this problem, USAID, through implementing partner CARE, set up the Civil Society and Media in Transition program. Through this program, journalists underwent an intensive 12-week training program in television, radio and print media aimed at equipping the participants with knowledge and professional skills, ethics standards and production techniques to strengthen the capacity of local media outlets. 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.

USG support in Somalia is targeted toward addressing the key challenges by supporting peace building and national reconciliation initiatives; building the capacity of governing institutions and civil society groups to support the establishment of a functioning national government; and supporting the delivery of social services and meeting humanitarian and recovery needs.

For more information on USAID and its programs in Somalia, please visit http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/somalia/.