Peace Council trains journalists in Savannah Region on conflict sensitive reporting

The National Peace Council as part of efforts to ensure peaceful elections has organised a two-day media training workshop for journalists in the Savannah Region at Damongo in the West Gonja Municipality.

The two days workshop was organised in partnership with the Catholic Relief Services and financially supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The training programme organised at the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council’s Conference Hall brought together 35 media practitioners from various local media houses, information services department and selected regional correspondents across the region.

The training programme which started on Wednesday 4th September and ended on Thursday 5th September focused on critical issues such as peace reporting, conflict,hate speech, misinformation, disinformation, and mal information among other topics.

Addressing the participants, Rev ft. Lazarus Anyere, the Savannah Regional chairman of the National Peace Council charged the journalists to be circumspective in their reportage and utterances to ensure peaceful elections.

“Indeed this is a timely programme for us, why do I say timely, very soon we will be going to elections and I pray that this programme covers the whole nation. Why do I say this, is not only Savannah or Northern Region that are fragile when it comes to issues of security and peace. Already we are vulnerable and then you can also imagine the way the political arena is disturbed. The waters have become so turbulent and I am even sure that if we are not careful and we don’t close the valves , there will be explosion. But you can do a lot with what you report. You can do a lot aside certain things to let people have a better understanding of what it means when we talk of sustaining peace.”

According to the facilitator of the programme who is also the deputy director in charge of conflict management at the National Peace Council, Mr Frank Wilson, the 3-year project is aimed at sustaining peaceful democratic dispensation and the stability of the country at large.

“The second thing is that we are working towards elections and this is our 9 th elections since 1992. Many of us wouldn’t have known what happened in the 1990s and all that. Many of us wouldn’t understand what happened in the 80s and all of that. But today we are grateful to God we have a stable country, a stable democracy and that is what we want to sustain.”

Mr Frank Wilson indicated that the National Peace Council would also engage other stakeholders charged with the responsibility of ensuring peace before, during and after the December polls.

The journalists were taken through interactive sessions, group discussions, and presentations to enhance their understanding of the critical role they play in shaping public opinion and the role they can play in ensuring that the 2024 polls are peaceful.

At the end of the training, the media practitioners expressed gratitude to the organizers and requested for frequent trainings to boost their reportimg capacity.

By: Iddrisu Hafiz | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana

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