Training-seminar for journalists in Durres organised by INFOÇIP: “The role of Local Media in monitoring the Municipal Council”

INFOCIP and its supporting structure in Durres, organized on Wednesday, July 24 a training seminar with leading local journalists in Durres. The theme of the training was “The role of local media in monitoring the Municipal Council.” The aim of this training-seminar was to provide in depth legal knowledge to the Local Journalists for a better supervision of the activity and functioning of the municipal council.

As the journalists themselves affirmed, this training was the first the first ever to be organized in Durres on such a specific topic. The attendance was higher than expected by the organizers (23 journalists took part instead of 15 expected). Some journalists who were not contacted by CPII for objective reasons arrived that very day and asked to take part in the  training. They were informed by their colleagues on the event to come…

All journalists who report from Durres for the national TV media toom part on this training (Top Channel, Klan TV, NEWS time, News24, VISION PLUS, etc.). The training-seminar was also attended by the reporters who work for the most important printed media on the country, such as the Panorama newspaper, Gazeta SHQIP, Gazeta Shqiptare, etc.. Also present were representatives from all Durres local media, including TV, print and online media.

Lecturers in this activity, to convey their expertise were Gerti Shella, expert on issues of transparency and information, Aleksander Cipa, former editor in Chief of some of the most important daily newspapers in the country and at the same time professor of journalism in two universities as well as the Chairman of the Albanian Journalists Union, and Endrit Shabani, Law professor at “LUARASI” University, in the mean time expert in monitoring and part of the INFOCIP Team in several project initiatives.

The training modules were designed to provide a comprehensive overview to the local journalists of all legal obligations and responsibilities that the municipal councils have in the exercise of their decision making functions, with special focus on legal timelines, transparency and openness.

In the end, after taking notes of all recommendations, participants were given training certificates. This event paves the way for a new strategic partnership of the civil society actors with the local media reporters which can optimize the monitoring of the decision making process in Durres Municipal Council.

The rationale for the activity

During the two-year time CPII is working in Durres,  the media coverage of the municipal council activity was noticed to be very poor. The local journalists’ reports and coverage of the crucial decision making events of the council were often general description without providing any details (not to mention legal references).  CPII saw the cause for that un-professional coverage in the poor legal information local journalists in Durres have.  So far, no civil society operator ever approached this gap by providing training to the local journalists, so they could better understand the decision making processes conducted by the Municipal Council and be able to contrast that reality with the legal provisions in place.

This lack of capacity to understand when the council is complying (or not) with  the legal requirements affected also the expectances of CPII with regard to media coverage of its activities in Durres.  Very often CPII has activated alternative “channels” in the capital Tirana, to provide itself with proper media coverage;  the same event explained by us the editors in Tirana is easily evaluated by them as worthy-for-headline….or worthy-for-TV interview. On the contrary, local journalists in Durres, though in the front line, merely reported from Durres what, here in Tirana seems to be an important headline….

see more photos here: