By Noela EBOB BISONG
About 30 journalists, bloggers and other media professionals, drawn from the Centre, Littoral and South West regions have been empowered to better cover elections, while having in mind the respect of the rights of persons. The three days programme which ran from August 12 to 14, in Douala, Littoral region was organised by the United Nations Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, on the theme; Promoting Human Rights in electoral context: Human Rights based election coverage.
Putting the workshop in context, Fonyuy Kiven Timothy, Programmes Officer, Information and Advocacy at UN-CHRDCA said, “during complex periods like this, we do not assume that things are the same. We must take strict measures, reason why capacity building is of the essence to ensure effective coverage during periods of elections.”
Fonyuy said, “Journalists have a very important role to play in the electoral process. Hence, it is important that we sit together, share experience and strategise on how to contribute to a peaceful, credible and human rights compliant electoral process. The journalist must work in context; it is not a generalised reporting, it is a specific reporting because elections periods are sensitive periods, and so when you report in elections period, you are not reporting like any normal context… You look at the impact of the information that you are about to diffuse and you also look at the stability of the environment in which you are reporting. If that information is susceptible to be a source of trouble, you as a journalist, in your professional responsibility, can decide to withhold such information.”
With a theoretical, practical and interactive approach, the workshop focused on topical issues like the Cameroon electoral landscape, basics of human rights and elections, identifying and documenting rights violations, ethics and deontology in election reporting, ensuring safety while covering tense elections, tips on interviewing political and electoral actors, inclusive reporting etc.
During the training, the media professionals engaged various practical exercises raging from properly conducting interviews to producing a final news piece or blog post.
Amongst the several take aways from the three day event, was the direct relationship established between rights violations and elections violence. The journalists were also schooled on distinguishing between their roles as media professionals and citizens, the process in reporting human rights violations, journalistic principles founded on rights (exactitude, impartiality and editorial independence) and exactly what to do on the field etc.
Journalists, like other citizens have the right to vote and the responsibility towards informed choices. The right to move freely, participate in meetings, express opinions etc are critical during election periods, and journalists have the duty to ensure that these rights are upheld, to ensure peaceful and credible elections.