By: Nyima Sillah
The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) has organized a two-day Covid-19 online training program for fifty journalists.
The objective of the two-day online training held Thursday and Friday was meant to provide the latest information on Covid-19 to media personnel and make them understand the etiology, symptoms and modes of transmission of Covid-19.
Modou Njai, Director of Health Promotion at Ministry of Health among other things said the training was basically meant to build the capacity of media practitioners – reporters and editors by building their capacity on identification and responding to rumors as regarding the pandemic.
He noted that the training was first of its kind and classified it as an opportunity for the participated journalists to know more about Covid-19 and as well help them to report better on health issues and careful reporting on public emergencies. As journalists shouldn’t cause any panic or use headlines that will cause confusion or make certain communities to be stigmatized.
The Director of Health expressed gratitude to UNDP for the support given to them and also commended participants for their participation, noting that training has also increased their collaboration with journalists.
Omar Bah, a participant from the Standard newspaper said the training will help not only him significantly but other participants in terms of reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that it will help to understand how to report on pandemics such as the wide spreading novel Coronavirus, which needs extra effort in terms of verifying facts as a journalist before publishing stories on it.
He encouraged fellow journalists who attended the training to make good use of the lectures that were introduced during the training. “The training without hesitation, should, start impacting in our stories and discussions as journalists,” he encouraged others.