ICT Training for Ghanaian journalists ends

“This is the greatest push I have had with regards to training since leaving Journalism School,” Mr. Sepenyo Dzokoto, Ghana News Agency's Ho reporter, summed up a three-day training workshop in Accra.
Organized by the International Institute of ICT Journalism (PenPlusBytes), the workshop, counter-funded by the French Embassy in Ghana, aimed to improve the level of journalism in Ghana, using Information Communication Technologies (ITCs) as tools.

The workshop took 30 participants from online, radio, TV and print media through key subjects including Introduction to ICT Journalism, Knowledge Management for the Media, Online Journalism, ICT and Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

Participants also had practical sessions on online research, voice and video online streaming, blogging and Content Management System (CMS). A direct output of the workshop was the production of an ICT newspaper called Bantaba, which gave the participants from the print media a unique opportunity to polish their skills in writing ICT articles as other participants from online, radio and TV undertook productions.

At end of the workshop, participants committed to form a network to facilitate networking and knowledge sharing among journalists interested in ICT Journalism in Ghana.

At the formal launch, the French Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Pierre Jacquemot noted that ICTs have become a powerful means of social change and economic development around the world. It is thus critical, Mr. Jacquemot added, for local journalists to acquire knowledge of trends and developments in ICTs to improve the quality of their work and to help accelerate Ghana's development as well as her integration into the global Information Society.

Mr. D.A. Kwapong, Acting Director, Ministry of Information, who spoke on behalf of the Minister, said the globalized world demands that the journalist is a leader in Information Society issues.

“It is in this light that I consider this course as invaluable. It also confirms the complementarity of private sector initiatives to the achievements of one of the three policy areas of government's Human Resource Development.”

Also present at the opening ceremony were Ms. Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, out-going President of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr. Kwami Ahiabenu II, President of PenPlusBytes, and Mr. Ibrahim Inusah, coordinator of Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS), workshop co-sponsor.