December 8, 2008

The Liberia Media Center with support from Trust Africa will tomorrow December 09, launch a one-year project under the theme “Strengthened Media for Poverty Reduction and Democratic Governance” to, amongst other things, conduct media training on reporting corruption, the budget and the Poverty Reduction Strategy process.

The three-day workshop is expected to target thirty local journalists and will be convened from December 9-11 at the Corina Hotel in Sinkor.

According to the Executive Director of the LMC, Lawrence Randall, the Center together with other partners is developing a journalism training manual on the PRS to be released early next year. When operationalized, the manual will serve as a reference guide for reporters and editors covering poverty related issues, and as a basis for comprehensively monitoring media reports on the PRS process in 2009, Randall said.

The monitoring will focus on nine newspapers and five radio stations from January to September 2009. The participating print outlets will include the Analyst, New Democrat, Observer, Informer, National Chronicles, Heritage, News, Public Agenda and Inquirer. The five radio stations are Truth FM, Star Radio, ELBC, Radio Veritas and Sky FM.

The Trust Africa supported initiative also involves convening a forum intended to derive media development priorities under a strategy document called the “Liberia Media Assistance Strategy”.

           
The Liberia Media Center is an independent media resource and capacity development center established by the Press Union of Liberia and the Partnership for Media and Conflict Prevention in West Africa. LMC works to promote media development, professionalism and pluralism, and provides communication support services to civil society organizations.