Project Trip to Khartoum

In early June, ICC staff Lisa Clifford and Katy Glassborow travelled to Khartoum as part of a needs-assessment exercise, in advance of a training programme tentatively scheduled for this November.

During their week-long trip, the journalists met a number of media workers and NGO representatives, who told them that they were keen to learn new technical skills.

“We have different values in the Islamic world, but want to learn how to be accurate and fair and use new technologies,” said Dr Muheddin Titawi, chairman of the Journalists Union.

Head of the National Press Council Professor Ali Shumo said IWPR’s training could lead help improve journalistic practices in the country.

Professor Ali Shumo, who heads the National Press Council, which sponsored the visit, said IWPR’s training could help counter the widespread practice among journalists of copying and pasting material from the Internet.

While the editor of a Khartoum-based newspaper said that training currently available is limited in scope, “It is too theoretical. We lack the practical, professional way of handling the job, and the ethical concepts of journalism.”

A Sudanese NGO worker said that journalists need to learn how to be more balanced in their reporting.

“Journalism needs to go back to fundamentals, putting aside affiliations,” he said.

IWPR Hague staff are also using the information gathered during the trip to start compiling an Arabic-language training manual. This will focus on basic journalism skills to be presented at a training event being planned for later this year.