By Kemo Cham
A new network of media practitioners aimed at promoting quality reporting is poised to change the style of reportage of health issues in Sierra Leone.
The Kombra Media Network (KMN), seeking to serve as a medium for sharing and dissemination of information relating to health issues, has been boosted with 50 journalists, drawn from across the country, who last week concluded training on key concepts around reporting and ethics in reporting.
Focus 1000, a civil society organisation which advocates for quality healthcare delivery, especially maternal health, but with specific focus on children in their first 1000 days, is spearheading the initiative.
The formation of Focus 1000 was inspired by the high maternal and child mortality rate in Sierra Leone, which currently stands at 857 per 10, 000, according to the 2010 DHS.
The first 1000 days, which translates to two years, of the baby`s life is said to be the most critical stage, when it is vulnerable to all sorts of illnesses.
In the KMN initiative, the organisation is working with two other NGOs dedicated to the health sector – Health and Nutrition Sierra Leone and the French charity ACF, which is also focused on promoting nutrition.
The idea is to capacitate journalists to enable them report on health issues with impact, said Alhaji Bailo Jalloh, Chief Executive Officer of Focus 1000, at the close of the three-day training held at the YWCA Old hall at the Siaka Steven Stadium in Freetown.
Participants were taken through presentations on the health situation in Sierra Leone, as well as ethics in general reporting. There was also an intensive session for practical experience which required participants to report from the field.
The idea is to inculcate a spirit of activism in the journalists so that their writings are aimed at influencing service provision for the masses.
“You have to be an activist if you are going to be a journalist,” Batilloi Warritay, one of the facilitators of the training, said during one of the sessions. Mr Warritay was assisted by Francis Sowa, lecturer at the Mass Communication Department of Forah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, who made several presentations news writing, investigative and researched writing and journalism ethics.
While the media has to a large extent been at the center of the fight against the epidemic, there has been a lot of diversion of attention, the facilitators noted.
The major focus of KMN will be on reporting on health issues, said Kongbat Sumner, media consultant and Coordinator of the network.
KMN is timely, coming at the tail end of the worst outbreak of the Ebola virus disease.
(C) Politico 05/08/15
