Meet our Global Grantees 2019

Mahafuza Aktar

Controller/Programme Manager

From Bangladesh Television (BTV) to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)

Mahafuza will travel to Australia to see how ABC Kids develops educational and children’s content so that BTV can enrich its offering and build quality policy and management strategies for its six news TV stations. Mahafuza also hopes to visit SBS at their headquarters. 

“We have a plan to build up a creative production team to make a special platform for KIDS, educational programs and online contents in our TV stations,” Mahafuza said.”‘ABC ME offers a distinctly Australian voice to its viewers plus the very best content from around the world. I want to observe how they develop educational content, work with new media and technology & how traditional and new media interact with regard to audiences.”

Specifically, Mahafuza would like to visit the ABC ‘s headquarters, the Ultimo Centre, and one or two state stations to learn how they make their own programmes, local news, use new media and make the most of their management system. The final idea would be to build up a platform/network for co-production and exchange children’s programming with the ABC.

Shannick Dawkins

Reporter/Producer

From RGRGLEANER Communications Group to CBC/Radio-Canada

Shannick’s aim is to improve the use of social media journalism in Jamaica by exploring best practices used locally in Canada. Shannick will be going to CBC/Radio-Canada to see how they use social media to complement and improve the organisation’s journalism. The best practices learned from CBC/Radio-Canada would also feedback into the 2030 vision for Jamaica to become a digital society.

“The local media landscape continues to be revolutionised by social media,” said Shannick. “It is therefore of paramount importance that traditional media companies use social media to their advantage to remain relevant among consumers and to remain economically viable”.

Specifically, Shannick’s project seeks to:

• Understand the importance of social media for news gathering and dissemination
• Examine how CBC/Radio-Canada incorporates social media in Journalism (specifically Facebook Live and how news items are distributed to various social media platforms)
• Know what resources are needed to effectively incorporate social media into RJRGLEANER’s journalism
• Learn how to create content for social media to attract more followers
• Learn how CBC/Radio-Canada trains team members to use social media for journalistic purposes
• Learn best practices in social media journalism

According to Shannick, the grant will help RJRGLEANER Communications Group to more effectively distribute news and would also help the organisation to better interact with its audience.

Marceline Evenor

Chief Editor

From the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) to Namibia

Marceline will use the grant to travel to Namibia to attend a workshop organised by the Public Media Alliance with support from UNESCO Harare. The workshop will discuss and collaboratively develop a set of social media guidelines for broadcasters across Southern Africa.

At SBC, Marceline would like to develop a new set of editorial guidelines that will allow her to respond to the challenges faced by social media usage, such as verification or copyright issues, and how to organise relevant content for the broadcaster’s audience.

“I hope that the workshop will help SBC to strengthen its capacity to respond to situations with clear guidelines for our journalists as to how to use social media in the news as well as other programming.”

According to Marceline, including user generated content in SBC’s output is crucial as a way to reach and engage with wider and younger audiences. Marceline would then like to make better use of social media content across SBC’s news and current affairs programmes, and build a better working relationship with other broadcasters in the region.  

Davendra Lutchmadoo

Reporter/Producer

From the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)

Davendra will visit SABC during South Africa’s election period in May. The aim is to experience how the public broadcaster and other media outlets cover the event, how airtime is distributed among political parties and learn about the role of TV during the country’s elections. As Mauritius will hold its general elections next year, Davendra would like to put into practice what he’ll learn in South Africa to inform election coverage at MBC, with fairness, consideration of freedom of speech and public interest in mind.

During his trip, Davendra will also visit the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the organisation responsible for media regulations in South Africa, to learn how the media is regulated in critical times, such as elections.

Palinyane Ramakoro

Senior News Reporter and Presenter

From the Lesotho National Broadcasting Services (LNBS) to Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)

Palinyane is travelling to Mauritius to conduct a study tour of the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), to learn about its day-to-day newsroom operations. More specifically, the project will allow the grantee to learn from MBC’s editorial policy.

By visiting MBC, Palinyane would like to solve a series of media challenges that are inherent to government ownership. These include the handling of sensitive stories and dealing with government control. According to Palinyane, the bursary would help LNBS to improve its news writing, reporting and presenting techniques.

“Newly acquired skills and basics will also add to women empowerment in the media fraternity in my country,” Palinyane said.

Palinyane is also eager to study how MBC raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to its audience.

Randika Sapuarachchi

From Capital Maharaja Organization Ltd to the 5th ABU Media Summit on Climate Change Action and Disaster Preparedness in Nepal.

Randika will use his grant to travel to the 5th ABU Media Summit on Climate Change Action and Disaster Preparedness , which will take place in Nepal from 25-26 April 2019. This annual meeting, organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), will involve stakeholders in climate change adaptation and disaster risk management from across the Asia-Pacific region. The theme for this year’s summit is “Media Solutions for Sustainable Future – Saving Lives, Building Resilient Communities”.

The summit will include regional discussions about how to use media power and reach to educate a wide range of audiences about climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This will be particularly useful, especially as Sri Lanka is ranked second in the Climate Risk Index 2019, putting the country in a critical situation.

Over 200 government policy makers, UN representatives, NGOs, scientists and media professionals are expected to join the forum with the hope of developing practical media solutions for climate change adaptation and disaster preparedness.

Manx Radio

A Global Grant has been awarded to provide Manx Radio in the Isle of Man with training in media law for journalists. The training will take place ‘in situ’ to enable more journalists from the public broadcaster to benefit from the initiative. Training will cover reporting of criminal cases, defamation, malicious falsehood, and privacy.