Panos moves to improve tax reporting in East Africa

In an interview, Maureen Ndahura, the program research assistant at Panos in Kampala said the training is expected to take place before September 2011 and will involve a significant number of editors and journalists.

Targeted at Ugandan and Kenyan journalists

"It is yet to be determined but it will be a considerable number," she said on Monday 11 April, when asked about the expected size of participants in the programme. The inaugural training is targeted at Ugandan and Kenyan journalists in the region.

The exact dates of the training programme will be determined at a forum that will bring together media, research, civil society professionals and policymakers to discuss a number of related issues. The meeting is scheduled to take place on 27 April 2011 at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.

"We want to improve reporting on tax and governance issues in the media. This will eventually improve policy and create more debate among the people on accountability in the country," she said on the objective of the training. The training will closely follow recent one-on-one interviews carried out by Panos among Kenya and Ugandan journalists to find out their abilities and challenges when it comes to reporting tax and governance issues in the region.

IIJ of GIZ launches 2011 Summer Academy programme

In a related development, the International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) of GIZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH last week announced its 2011 Summer Academy programme "Freedom and Responsibility in the Media". The Summer Academy will be conducted by IIJ in Hamburg, Germany from 17 July to 12 August 2011.

The programme has been opened to journalists working in 18 developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The academy is targeting journalists with a minimum of two years professional experience and not older than 30 years, from
countries including; Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and India, according to Melanie Bolik, the programme coordinator at GIZ.

"The Summer Academy aims at promoting media freedom and journalistic ethics by empowering young, up-and-coming journalists to make ethical decisions in their daily working routine as well as under difficult circumstances," Bolik said in the announcement on Friday.

The programme seeks to cover both practical experience and profound insights into the political and ethical framework that guides practical journalistic work. The application deadline for the programme is 12 May 2011.