By: Peter Dennis

IPNEWS-MONROVIA: The Liberia Media Development Program (LMD) through InterNews With support from USAID is currently conducting a media training for elections and referendum reporting fellows.

The six days media training features Elections reporting and Election Hackathon for over twenty (20) Liberian Journalists from across the country.

The training is aimed at building journalists’ capacities in producing High quality stories and provide Journalistic materials to report on issues surrounding the December 8, 2020 Special Senatorial Elections and the national referendum.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the week long training in Monrovia, Internews Chief of Party Madam Lien Bach said, the upcoming special senatorial election and referendum are very critical to Liberia’s democracy.

Madam Bach admonished journalists to attach importance to the training and practicalize what was learned; adding that the media play a pivotal role in providing information and shaping the opinions of the general public.

For his part, the Deputy Chief of party at InterNews Mr. Jefferson Massah said the twenty( (20) participants are drawn from both print, online and broadcast media.
Massah said, a set of these journalists will be assigned to a mentor in enhancing their election reportage to complete the duration of the fellowship at the close of the training.

The InterNews Deputy Chief of Party disclosed that during these elections, the entity intends to conduct 15 senatorial debates across the country, adding that, 17 community radio stations across the country will be selected to disseminate electoral messages through thematic areas.

The training, according to Jefferson, further offers specialized skills to journalists to promote conflict-sensitive reporting, enable journalists to recognize early signs of conflict and the importance of truth-seeking when reporting on conflict.

“The training will expose participants how to develop new media tools to enhance their reportorial task during election” Jefferson Massah concluded.
Meanwhile, some of the participants who spoke to the Independent Probe Newspaper extolled InterNews for the training.

The decentralized participants described the week long training as an eye opener.
InterNews is an international nonprofit organization aimed at empowering journalists worldwide to produce trustworthy, high-quality news products to support informed decisions.
In September 2015, InterNews began implementing the five years United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Liberia Media Development program.

The goal is to increase Liberian citizens’ access to fact-based, balanced and reliable information. It further encourages informed public engagements on topics of high impact on communities. The training is currently taking place at the Stella Maries Polytechnic.