By: Emperor Bailor Jalloh
Internews – an international non-profit organisation which was founded in 1982 by David M. Hoffman with its headquarters in Arcata, California in the United States works with citizens and local media in more than 100 countries and had trained by more than 80,000 people in the media.
Regarding the aforementioned, Internews is also a member of the Consortium for Electoral and Political Process Strengthening ( CEPPS) , funded by United States Agency for International Development ( USAID) is offering a new reporting fellowship opportunity to capacitate 12 selected Freetown – based journalists to improve their abilities to report accurately and effectively on judicial and court in Sierra Leone.
The reporting fellowship which is scheduled to commence in late February or early March,2021 is expected to last for two months period, March and April,2021 and will incorporate a mix of theoretical training sessions spread out over a period of five non-consecutive days and practical reporting excercises that will result in the production of one, quality piece of journalism per participating journalist.
The fellowship activity will focus on ; strengthening participating journalists’ understanding of the country’s justice system and procedural guidelines; improving journalists’ accuracy in reporting on the justice and court system including the coverage of arrests, trials, sentencing, appeals, detention, and corrections systems to ultimately supporting an increase in the public’s understanding of the country’s justice system, through improved judicial and court reporting.
However, this reporting fellowship on judicial and court for Freetown- based journalists involves the following robust team from Internews:
Arwen Kidd, Project Director for Internews’ activities supporting media in Sierra Leone, Mihaela B. Smith, Internews Media Advisor, and Martha Kargbo, Internews Trainer/ Mentor based in Freetown.