Journalists of Sudurpaschim Province equipped on ‘parliamentary reporting’
With an aim to build journalists’ capacity on provincial level parliamentary reporting and to encourage the media outlets to prioritize and play a critical role for effective functioning of the federalism, three separate two day-long media capacity building training sessions on ‘parliamentary reporting’ have been successfully concluded in Sudurpaschim Province of Nepal.
Three separate training sessions that took place in Baitadi, Bajhang and Kailali districts from April 17 to 24, 2019 saw an active and interactive presence of the working journalists of the province.
The capacity building sessions, which were organized by Media Action Nepal (MAN) with support from the Australian Aid, brought together a total of 96 journalists, of which 19 were women, from the districts of Baitadi, Darchula, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur, Bajhang, Achham, Bajura, Doti and Kailali.
Participating in the closing ceremony as the Chief Guest at Gothalapani ofBaitadi district that took place on April 18 Hon, Damodar Bhandari, Member of the Federal Parliament and the Former State Minister for Finance praised the media’s watchdog role. DCC Baitadi Chief Siddharaj Bhatt and the Chief District Officer Anand Paudel also joined the ceremony. This training was attended by 31 journalists of Baitadi, Darchula and Dadeldhura districts.
The second round of the training kicked off in Chainpur of Bajhang district on April 20 was attended by 32 working journalists of Acham, Bajhang and Bajura districts of the Province. On first day-participating journalists were trained on various dimensions of ‘media-parliament’ relations, media in federal set up followed by interactive group works. The closing ceremony of the training was also attended by the Mayor of Jay Prithivi Municipality, district chief of the police and the FNJ Bajhang chapter chairperson.
Media capacity building training on parliamentary reporting” -the third of its type in Sudur Paschim Province -begun in Dhangadi of Kailali district on April 23. A total of 32 enthusiastic working journalists from Kanchanpur, Kailali and Doti districts of the province participated in the training. The training started with an interactive introduction session introduced and equipped the journalists on media-parliament relations, principles and practices of parliamentary journalism, media and federalism, news and information on parliamentary affairs, ethical standards of the parliament-media relations and media’s role for the informed democracy.
Hon. Arjun Bahadur Thapa, Provincial Speaker joined the closing ceremony as the Chief Guest and shared his experience in interacting and approaching journalists in the province. Dr. Ran Bahadur Rawal, Opposition Leader at the Provincial parliament highlighted the role of media and called it an opposition which watches upon the wrongdoings of sate organs. Senior journalist Chitrang Thapa, Arjun Shah, Sudur Paschim Province chair of the Federation of Nepali Journalists were among others to share their insights on parliament-media relations.
“The training has provided us with an opportunity to learn from seasoned media trainers on various dimensions of the parliament-media relations, strengthening our professional capacity to report parliamentary affairs,” said Bhageshwori Shah, a participating journalist in Kailali district.
The participating journalists in all locations were trained on the issues of ‘media and parliament relations, parliamentary affairs, role of media in informed democracy, parliamentary news writing, media’s watchdog role, federalism and media, right to information as a tool of investigative reporting, media pluralism and so forth.
First of its type in Nepal after the new federal set up, the training sessions provided an opportunity to journalists to know diverse issues concerning the parliament-media relations.
The training sessions organized by Media Action Nepal with support from the Australian Aid-were facilitated by Prof. Rama Krishna Regmee, Laxman Datt Pant and JB Biswokarma. Participating journalists were provided with the certificates of recognition.
The training sessions were based on the handbook “Foundations of Media-Parliamentary Relations: A Handbook on Parliamentary Journalism”, published by Media Action Nepal (MAN) and authored by Prof. Rama Krishna Regmee and MAN Chairperson Laxman Datt Pant with an introductory chapter by media veteran Bharat Dutta Koirala.