Refresher courses vital for journos

 By MOUA OMOA

ENGAGING journalists in refresher courses and training with various stakeholders is important, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Public Diplomacy Office director Judith Moon says.

She said last Thursday in Port Moresby looking at the region, Papua New Guinean journalists were no different from any other journalists in the world in terms of access to information and restrictions to how they reported on issues. But each country varies from the other.

She said the main challenge in the region was that journalists were not given the opportunity to refresh themselves after coming out of universities and going into the workforce.

“I believe that media houses are not investing enough in training their journalists so they can adapt and report better in their specialised fields of reporting,” she said.

“For instance, business reporters need to be trained to know the elements of business so they do their reports with a better understanding.

“Also journalists need to interact with fellow journalists from the region or from across the globe so they can share their experiences and best practices and get some strength from their colleagues on how they can advance in the industry,” Moon said.

In line with the United States public diplomacy initiatives in Melanesia, Moon said the US government was particularly concerned with two major issues in the region – HIV/AIDS and the environment.

“We are working hard not to duplicate services that other donor countries have already ventured into but we are looking at complementing or strengthening services already put in place by the recipient countries.”