Two workshops took place over 10 days and brought together journalists from El Masry El Yom to learn about responsibilities of journalists in dealing with social issues and addressing different approaches to investigative reporting. The programme which was delivered by the BBC covered themes such as

• how to ensure highest professional standards regarding accuracy and factual reporting,
• techniques for ensuring investigative reports are balanced and properly sourced,
• how to deal with sensitive social issues and the need to add the human touch through use of quotes

The Media and Society project aims to develop relationships and the capacity of media professionals, with a view to ultimately enhancing the quality and outreach of social reporting.

Ahmed El Khateeb reports his extreme delight of the training.

“I am now a journalist, formerly I wasn’t.  I was working according to my feeling which I discovered was so misleading. I now understand what objectivity means, what bias means and how to avoid it. I used to focus on one angle or point of view, ignoring other angles and point of views.  I became more accurate, confident, but of course slower and hence my boss is happier with the quality of my work, but would prefer me to be fast. I told him, I have to complete all the elements in my article and this takes time.”

Nadine Kenawy wrote

“Objectivity in journalism is not a myth.  Objectivity might be difficult to attain but never impossible, and it is definitely worth working for”.  These words are still ringing in my ears even months after the training.  We proved them by practical training; any story can be written in five minutes, but the good story takes that extra mile of looking further into it and trying to present all the sides of the story fairly. So with those words in mind and know that “journalism is an industry with a mission”, I try to work somewhere in between; a fast, timely, attractive, balanced story

For any further information please contact the project coordinator