Journalists have been urged to improve their understanding of the proposed national pension fund to help the public understand how social protection reforms could affect their lives.
Massimiliano Leone, senior communications and advocacy officer at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), said this during a media training on social protection reforms in Namibia held in Windhoek on Thursday.
“The idea is to connect journalists with complex topics and make sure that journalists understand the reasons and the actual makings of a reform,” he said.
Leone said the training aimed to help journalists understand how reforms are developed and why they are necessary.
He said journalists also needed to understand how national policies relate to international labour standards and ILO conventions to provide the public with accurate information.
Richolene ǂOuses, an attendee from the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), says the training was important in helping journalists understand the proposed national pension fund and its implications for ordinary people.
Namibian journalist Augetto Graig says media workshops are valuable because journalism required continuous learning and improvement.
“Media is not something, especially news media journalism, that you can master. It’s something that requires continuous improvement,” he says.
He says journalists needed to return to the fundamentals of reporting by asking what, where, when, why, who, how and how much.
Leone said journalists sometimes struggle to connect national reforms to the broader regional and international context.
“Journalists very often struggle to get to the big picture of things,” he said.
He said the training also aimed to strengthen communication between journalists, government institutions and international organisations.
Leone said continuous professional development is important because learning does not end with university.
“Every day is an opportunity to learn and to improve your own skills,” he said.
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