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”.