The media can play a leading role in influencing positive development in Malawi and the rest of the Southern Africa region if journalists effectively use their skills.
That was the message from Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) board chairperson, Edward Chitsulo to 17 Malawian journalists who participated at a media training workshop on reporting maternal health in Zomba on June 7. He said journalists could make a great difference and touch many lives if they commit themselves to drive positive development in the country.
“We at Panos have seen how the media can use research skills in their news gathering to drive negative issues against development …It is high time we use these skills to drive development in the positive direction ,” said Mr Chitsulo, himself a veteran journalists and currently the Managing Editor at the Nation Publications Limited in Malawi.
The training, which was held courtesy of support from the UK Department for International Development (DfID) Malawi, is part of the PSAf’s Maternal Health Media Fellowships Project in Malawi. The project, said Mr Chitsulo, was part of the various PSAf initiatives to equip journalists to drive the development agenda.
He added: “We have an opportunity to specialise in this field and articulate issues as reporters (because) we at PSAf believe journalists can drive the agenda on moving development (forward and not backwards)”.
And deputy chairperson of the Media Council of Malawi, Dr. Tikhala Chibwana said there were still many gaps in information sharing and dissemination even among maternal health experts in Malawi. He observed that the same gaps he saw during his seven years in the field some years back still exist.
“This gathering is an important aspect of bridging the information gap … as maternal health is still a challenge for Malawi,” Chibwana. “It is so commendable for Panos to train journalists in Malawi in this area”.
He expressed hope that although Malawi has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, facilitating knowledge and information to vulnerable women would help bring some positive change.
“Awareness thus becomes key in informing decisions around this area”.
For this to happen, Chibwana challenged the journalists to make information on maternal health available to different target groups including policy makers.
“The media have very big role to make this information available to help inform decisions and practice,” he said.
He noted that the key themes encompassed in the programme would be able to equip journalists to access the right information to report on.
“The broadness of the themes will equip journalists to have the right information to share with the public. Knowing the issues and state of affairs helps journalists to report critical issues and policies relevant to be in place and implemented. (Therefore,) this training must be seen in the light of sharing information with public and mobilise people towards achieving millennium development goals that relate to maternal health by 2015”.
The three day training covers issues of education for girls, gender and access to justice for women and girls to add value to effective media stories on maternal health. After the workshop, at least three broadcast and seven print journalists will be awarded fellowships to write issue based stories that will stimulate policy and public debate on development issues in Malawi. Within the next three months, the journalists are expected to have produced at least 30 broadcast and 25 print outputs, all based on research evidence. A publication containing synopses of prominent stories from the project will be compiled and published for targeted dissemination in the fourth month after the training.
The training is part of PSAf’s activities under the Health Programme, in collaboration with the Media Development and ICTs programme through the communicating research initiative (RELAY) that links media to research/science.
