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One of its key components is transparency.
We explored this extensively at the NORAD Advanced Financial Reporting workshop in Abidjan, the week of Nov 18 to 22. We had four nationalities represented on the 8-person workshop, which I ran in French along with Nicholas Kotch, Africa Editor of South African title Business Day. On the workshop were three locals, three Beninese, a Togolese and a Senegalese.
The focus of these advanced workshops is developing skills and delivering stories that help create greater transparency on the part of companies and governments on the continent.
One point we put across is the need to ensure similar transparency in reporting and not fall into the trap of writing for vested interests or forwarding hearsay. Indeed, in order to hold to account various interests across Africa for not disclosing enough, journalists need to first establish their own transparency.
But what does transparency mean? One thing is using accurate quotes and methodically using them to stand up and back up a story’s lead or information.
For our three guest speakers, we asked the attendees to use their tape recorders rather than more unreliable notes. This came in very handy for checking back quotes. When many first takes of their stories arrived without quotes, we sent them back to the attendees to ask them to listen to their recordings and add the all-important accurate quote inside the story to justify the its lead.
We also looked at other aspects of transparency.
Clarity on sourcing, for example, and the need to declare conflicts of interest. We stressed the need for disclosed sources for stories, rather than building them on rumors or so-called “common knowledge.” We also did a module on legal dangers to help them understand when it’s safe to use disputed or potentially defamatory information – and how, more often than not, it actually isn’t.
At the end of the week, the attendees had shared knowledge and tips with each other and were better-equipped and motivated for the tough – yet extremely important - lot that is financial reporting and uncovering under-hand goings on in business practices in sub-Saharan Africa.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
