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After training, Rwandan journalists plan to keep the knowledge alive

by Gabriela Matthews
Tuesday, 9 December 2014 12:20 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Some trainees take pictures, others swap email addresses on the last day of a course. But not these 15 journalists in Rwanda.

Some trainees take pictures, others swap email addresses on the last day of a course. But not these 15 journalists in Rwanda. They were already organizing themselves into an association. They elected a president and announced they would meet once a month from now on, to keep the knowledge alive. They plan to remind themselves of what they learnt on the course, and to bring up sensitive issues within the group, so they can sort them out together.

The course started on Monday November 17 at the Media High Council in Kigali. Over the next five days, participants immersed themselves in learning about all aspects of television storytelling, the importance of having the right pictures and the words to match, about framing, sequencing and script writing. The topic of journalistic ethics was woven through the course every day.

The subject of Rwanda’s genocide was never far away. Twenty years on, the country still bears the scars of the killings. According to human rights groups, the Rwandan media played a major part in supporting or creating an atmosphere sanctioning the terrible events of 1994.

Participants said that radio stations and newspapers were used by conspirators to dehumanize potential victims. Radio was used by extremist groups to mobilize, coordinate killings and ensure the plans for extermination were faithfully executed.

But the group of young journalists attending the course, who couldn’t have been more than children at the time of the genocide, all came to the training with the same desire: to learn how to get it right, and wipe away the shadow over the media in their country.

The course ended on a high, with a shoot at one of Kigali’s colourful vegetable markets. The beautiful land “of a thousand hills” has a great climate with an abundance of mouth wateringly tasty vegetables and fruit on colourful market stalls.

All in all it was a rich experience for both trainer Gabriela Matthews and participants, and a great learning time for all.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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