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Dhaka – Journalists from around Bangladesh learned how to ensure their stories were objective and accurate, while avoiding the traps of hoaxes, rumours and legal dangers, during a five-day Thomson Reuters Foundation training course in the country’s capital.
The 12 journalists, ranging from young reporters to senior editors working for agencies, newspapers, television and online news sites, attended the intensive course from August 17 to 21.
Veteran former Reuters journalists Barry Moody and Andrew Dobbie taught the course, conducted through a series of seminars on accuracy, balance, fair and objective content, social media, hoaxes and rumours as well as the vital issue of how to identify legal problems such as defamation and privacy. The course avoided dry classroom-style teaching, favouring videos, pictures, case histories, and frequent discussions of the problems facing Bangladeshi journalists. The participants took part in several exercises, including the simulation of a breaking story containing many of the pitfalls discussed during the course, with individual feedback from the trainers.
The course, organized with the help of local media support organization News Network, also discussed possible ways to update the Bangladesh journalists’ code of conduct with comparisons to codes in other parts of the world.
The participants shared some of their difficult experiences and dilemmas and the trainers tried to suggest possible solutions relevant to Bangladeshi conditions, drawing on memories of their long and varied careers with Reuters.
Ethical and legal issues were given particular attention.
The participants described the atmosphere as interactive and friendly and appreciated having substantial time to discuss their own journalistic problems and some of the difficulties they had faced on individual stories. They described the course as memorable and said it would help them greatly in their future careers.
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