Twenty-four Caribbean journalists from eight countries received specialist training

By Azara Lavia azaria. lavia @antiguaobserver. com Twenty-four Caribbean journalists from eight countries are received specialist training in Saint Lucia to strengthen accurate, ethical and child-sensitive reporting before, during and after disasters and other emergencies. The two-day regional media workshop, hosted by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Coordinating Unit with funding from the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area Office, began on Wednesday. Participants include journalists from Antigua and Barbuda and seven other CDEMA Participating States. During the opening day, journalists worked through challenging ethical scenarios based partly on real-life situations and examined the difficult decisions media practitioners may face when reporting on children during disasters.

Barbadian media and communications specialist and veteran journalist Julius Gittens, who is facilitating the workshop, said the discussions required participants to consider whom their reporting ultimately serves. “Much of the work which we went through today — ethical guidelines, actual scenarios, some based partly on real-life circumstances — was very tough for some journalists and will be an easier sell for others. At the heart of all that a journalist ought to do, in any ethical circumstance, is to centre himself or herself on who ultimately the story is about and who it is for,” Gittens said. Gittens said the media’s relationship with the public also depends on how responsibly journalists approach stories involving society’s most vulnerable, particularly children. He said, “We are in a battle to make sure that we remain not only trustworthy and credible, but also help children, in…