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BIRN trains journalists in Uganda

04 04 2007  Over 30 Ugandan journalists have been trained by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network between March 12 and 16.

The participants were senior reporters and editors from Uganda's major electronic and print media. BIRN's seminar was the first time that Uganda's media was offered an opportunity to learn about the work of the International Criminal Court and war crimes trials coverage.

Trainers and speakers included Stacy Sullivan of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Matthew Brubacher of the ICC office of the Prosecutor, Claudia Perdomo of the ICC’s registry, Richard Dicker of the Human Rights Watch and Nerma Jelacic, BIRN BiH director.

Journalists had an opportunity to get to know the set up and the rules governing the work of the ICC as well as the court’s work in Uganda which has been hampered by a 20-year conflict.

BIRN also used the training to transfer their experience and expertise in covering war crimes trials in the Hague and the Balkans.

Journalists also learnt about the importance of local judiciary and alternative justice mechanisms and the limitations of ICC cases in terms of bringing justice to the victims of conflict.

Both the ICC officials and the journalists evaluated the training as successful.

“The training was very useful and timely. It has set my career at another level. You guys were a great help to me and I just can't find words to thank you for your efforts,” said Kenneth Lukwago of Radio One.

Lydia Mukisa, a court reporter with the Daily Monitor newspaper, said she found the training extremely useful. “I considrer myself blessed because now I have an idea on how ICC the operates. Being a court reporter, I was eager to establish what the ICC was all about. Following the information given to me in the training, I can now tell the public what ICC is all about and I can cover cases/situations before the ICC including that of Uganda.”

Justin Oryema, programme manager of Gulu-based Mega FM, said the training has given him “an in-depth insight into what the ICC is; what it stands for; and how best we can make our audience know all about it”.