Youth trained as community journalists for election project

By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, March 12, GNA - About 20 youth have been trained as community journalists to report activities of political vigilante groups before, during and after this year’s elections to help ensure peaceful polls.

The reports of the beneficiary youth, drawn from the Tamale Metropolis, Savelugu and Gushegu Municipalities and the Nanton District, would be forwarded to the appropriate security agencies and other stakeholders for action to ensure an incident-free electoral process and elections.

Some of the topics treated during the training included; news gathering techniques, news writing and reporting, reporting in the context of political vigilantism, media law and ethics, and safety of journalists.

The two-day training, which ended in Tamale on Wednesday, was organised by the Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID) and the League of Youth Association (LYA), both NGOs, as part of their “Vigilant 4 Election 2020” project, which is funded by STAR Ghana Foundation.

The Vigilant 4 Election 2020 project, which would end in February, 2021, seeks to among others ensure peace before, during and after the 2020 elections, and was being implemented in the Tamale Metropolis, Gushegu and Savelugu Municipalities and the Nanton District.

Mr Mohammed Awal Sumani Bapio, Executive Director of CALID, who spoke during the workshop in Tamale, said many interventions were undertaken over the years to improve on the country’s electoral process, however, certain activities by political party youth groups tended to derail the gains hence the project.

Mr Sumani Bapio, therefore, urged participants not to focus on their own personal agenda, but remain professional and report events the way they happened.

He also advised them against creating panic, but to focus on the real issues surrounding the electoral process and the electioneering campaigns to maintain their integrity and ensure peaceful and credible polls.

He cautioned political party vigilante groups to desist from acts that did not augur well for the country’s electoral process, saying “With the passage of the Political Vigilantism Act, the political parties have disowned you, so you need not do those things again.”

Participants expressed gratitude to CALID and LYA for the training and assured them of putting the lessons into practice by reporting activities of political vigilante groups that tended to mar the country’s electoral process and elections this year.

GNA

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