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A group of 15 journalists from southeast Europe learned how to report accurate economic and financial news during the first two-week leg of a month-long programme organised by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and Robert Bosch Stiftung.
Trainers Keith Stafford and Richard Meares guided them through the basics of business. Concepts like gross domestic product, money supply or interest rates, just to name a few, now make sense for the participants.
They practised their new knowledge by writing about the struggling economy of Manchukistan, a fictional country that in some ways resembles southeast Europe.
Feedback after each exercise helped the trainees noticeably improve their writing, according to the trainers - who are not just good teachers, everyone agrees, but very nice guys, well informed about the best pubs in London.
Sessions included lots of tips about accurate writing, reporting and information gathering, and story structure, from a great headline to a great lead and a golden quote, and good sourcing. Trainers urged the young journalists to use strong active verbs instead of the dreaded passive ones, a task of huge difficulty on its own.
The journalists found interview exercises very useful: next time they interview a finance minister they might ask more open, emotional questions and check about the available time too.
The programme included a three-day trip to Brussels where the trainees saw “Eurocracy” in action. Some of us went to Brussels as Europe lovers but returned to London a bit more sceptical.
It wasn't all hard work. Areas of London like Soho and especially Camden provided much-needed relaxation time after the training.
The journalists said they considered this programme the best they had attended. All agree London was fun. Some will say massive fun, but that word is banned.
We continue with two weeks in Berlin and Frankfurt in late September.
The participants are, in order of country name:
Enkeledja Mema (Albania), Kenan Efendic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Elena Savova (Bulgaria), Antonija Handabaka (Croatia), Nikola Sucec (Croatia), Xenia Kounalaki (Greece), Majlinda Aliu (Kosovo), Aleksandra Spasevska (Macedonia), Bojana Minic (Montenegro), Alexandru Urzica (Romania), Mihai Banita (Romania), Dragana Peco (Serbia), Dusan Mladjenovic (Serbia), Viki Twrdy (Slovenia) and Didem Tali (Turkey).
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