SHANNISE DZOBO
NAIROBI, KENYA-The Thompson Reuters Foundation (TRF) is holding a capacity building training of journalists from across Africa in Nairobi, Kenya on illicit financial flows in the continent.
The training workshop which is being conducted by veteran journalists and media trainers from across the continent runs from 28 May to 9 June, 2023.
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso and Uganda are represented by 20 journalists with Cris Chinaka from Zimbabwe, Paul Busharizi from Uganda, Elie Kabore and Arnaud Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso leading the training program.
TRF is a corporate foundation which works to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies and promotes human rights through news, media development and free legal assistance to drive systematic change.
TRF also uses the combined power of journalism and the law to build global awareness of critical issues faced by humanity, inspire collective leadership and help shape a prosperous world.
TRF regional programs manager for Africa, Kennedy Kimani from Kenya told The Midweek Watch that their foundation’s thematic areas are of media development, media freedom and to develop the capacity of journalists and news outlets for them to be able to tell credible stories which would influence social change.
“Our foundation’s thematic areas are pinned on media development, media freedom and to develop the capacity of journalists and news outlets for them to be able to tell credible stories which would form social change,” said Kimani.
Kimani added that the workshop was being funded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and is mainly focusing on tackling the issues of illicit financial flows (IFFs) in African countries and how they are losing the wealth through illicit means.
“We are training journalists from across the continent to build their capacity in investigating reporting around IFFs and tax manipulation, therefore after their training, the journalists will receive editorial and mentoring support to develop stories exposing IFFs and other forms of tax manipulation,” he said.
One of the trainers who has over two decades working for Reuters International News Service, Chinaka from Zimbabwe said that it is very important to equip journalists with skills on covering illicit financial flows because the African continent is losing billions of dollars annually through illicit practices that need to be exposed.
“The media must focus knowledgeably on areas that help Africa to use its resources and finances for the development of the continent and reporting on illicit financial flows is one way of improving political governance, corporate management, management of public finances, transparency and accountability in Africa’s economic affairs,” said Chinaka.
“The media in Africa has a responsibility in helping to tackle this global problem of illicit financial flows by covering and highlighting the issues in various sectors and countries therefore it is also important that the media covers this problem professionally.
“Bringing out the facts and avoiding sweeping rumors that people feed on in the absence of credible and verifiable information and also this is the reason why fact-checking and information verification is a big part of the training on reporting illicit financial flows,” added the veteran journalist.
Busharazi one of the trainers from Uganda said that Africa is arguably the richest continent on the globe and it has been widely reported that when all the illicit financial flows are summed up from Africa, they add up to more than all the development aid and foreign direct investment into the continent.
This immoral transfer of badly needed resources goes on largely unabated therefore if journalists can understand the situation and report on it, we may be able to cause a dent in the IFF or better still reverse the trend altogether.
Sheiron Kiburi from Kenya who is also a freelance journalist told The Midweek Watch that the training is equipping journalists with the necessary skills to conduct investigative journalism effectively especially with special focus on illicit financial flow.
She added that the tactics and techniques being shared are both practical and applicable in carrying out journalistic work therefore I am strongly confident that the training will enable journalists from the different African countries produce credible stories with opportunities for collaboration.
Another freelance journalist from Zambia Zefania Zulu said that the training has so far been insightful and more beneficial to career development.
