More than twenty years of occupation and civil war left Afghanistan with a shattered infrastructure and economy. Apart from the material reconstruction of Afghanistan, the rebuilding of destroyed civil organisations and institutions is essential for the development of the country ‘s civil society. Strengthening independent media is crucial in this matter. Independent media help people to get better access to independent information, to take part in public debate and to monitor the performance of the authorities as an independent ‘watchdog’. Before new independent media can be established, this training was important in the constructing and strengthening of a required journalistic framework in the province.
The trainers conducted a very practical training in basic journalism skills, such as balanced and accurate reporting and separating facts from opinions. The focus on civil journalism sought to learn participants to practise their reporting from the perspective of the citizen as opposed to that of political and economic elites. Various journalistic genres, such as press conference reporting, conducting interviews, writing features and writing news stories were presented.
The training course was a most successful start of a planned multi-year programme of Press Now aimed to support independent media development in Bamiyan.
photo: trainer Nafiss Nia with students
