Several security personnel and journalists on Wednesday concluded a one-day training in combating hate speech, disinformation, and misinformation, and the role of media in promoting democratic governance in the Western Bahr el Ghazal capital, Wau.
The training was conducted by Journalists for Human Rights with support from Canada and brought together participants from faith-based organizations, SSPDF, national security, police, other organized forces, and civil society.
Speaking during the training, Mary Ajith, the project manager of Journalist for Human Rights, said the training also aims at resolving challenges facing the media and security personnel in the line of their duties.
“We are here in Wau and we started training journalists on conflict and gender sensitive reporting yesterday. The aim is to empower journalists to report ethically and professionally on conflict issues,” she said. “Today (Wednesday), we are having a multi-stakeholder training and a roundtable at the same time to discuss the issue of press freedom and freedom of expression.”
“When we sensitize journalists on how to report sensitively, we also think about the authorities, mostly the security sector that interacts with journalists in the field, the government officials who give statements to the journalists, we are enlightening them on collaborative efforts that promote press freedom and freedom of expression,” Ajith added.
On his part, Western Bahr el Ghazal State Information Minister Samuel Nicola described the training as impactful.
“I describe the training as very impactful. There are no incidents of atrocities or any harm to journalists in the state,” he said. “It is a double effort toward bridging the gap between the media and the authorities in Western Bahr el Ghazal State.”
Meanwhile, the SSPDF representative, Col. Awan Deng, acknowledged that the army in the state has no differences with the journalists.
“We have learned about misinformation and disinformation, and the main agenda is how to bring together the media and the security sectors, how to coordinate, and how to make a good relationship between both,” he said.