From 11 to 25 June 2012: CFI supporting African journalists with Rio+20 coverage
For Rio+20, media cooperation operator CFI is setting up a training-production workshop, in partnership with the United Nations and support from Lufthansa Star Alliance, for 10 African journalists to cover the world conference in Rio.
The aim is to produce and offer a 13-minute daily programme to African TV channels during Rio+20 and thus ensure broad media coverage of this major event throughout Africa.
Training African journalists to cover international events
Rio+20, organized in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, is a highly significant event for the planet: 20 years after the first earth summit held in the same city, it will provide the opportunity to take stock of policies set up in the field of sustainable development, assess achievements and their limitations and chart a course for the years to come.
In the run-up to this international event, CFI is organising a training course from 11 to 14 June in Paris, catering to ten journalists and directors working in African media to help them prepare to cover Rio+20. They will then fly to Rio to cover the world conference from 16 to 24 June.
This initiative aims to set up a shared newsroom, supervised by CFI experts*, to produce a bilingual 13-minute daily programme featuring reports, interviews, news bulletins and whenever possible, live broadcasting.
The media cooperation operator has thus put forward a special editorial approach, factoring in issues specific to Africa to ensure the best possible broadcasting of the subjects produced via CFI's 77 TV partners in Africa.
CFI has already successfully implemented this type of training course for several events of global import, such as the Cannes Film Festival and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Hand-picked journalists, giving priority to youth and diversity!
Participants were selected according to geographical, gender and age criteria. CFI also emphasised:
- a bilingual approach with five French-speaking journalists, four English-speaking journalists and one bilingual journalist,
- geographical balance representing four major habitats in Sub-Saharan Africa: desert, savannah, rainforest and built-up areas. The 10 journalists come from the following countries: Burkina Faso, Togo, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Mauritius, Uganda, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Rwanda;
- Equal numbers of both gender to ensure equality
- a majority of young journalists (average age: 34).
Etienne Fiatte, Managing Director of CFI: "Via this project, CFI is giving professionals from Africa a chance to cover and report on the debates in Rio, with their personal take and outlook, and to focus on issues specific to their own country, issues especially involving the environment, climate, and sustainable development rather than leaning too heavily, as is so often the case, on reports by western media."
A project in line with overall strategy to support African media development
To enhance circulation of footage in Africa, CFI has a satellite channel to be able to send 2,000 hours' worth of programmes a year to African channels. Thus, CFI purchases over 300 hours' worth of documentaries a year to fuel programme schedules to 77 TV partners in Sub-Saharan Africa. This vast documentary offer addresses themes in line with local realities and priorities.
With a view to Rio+20, CFI has for the past year been offering its TV partners documentary series with a special focus on the environment, such as the series Sale temps pour la planète produced by France 5.
CFI's Rio+20 project has backing from the United Nations Department of Public Information and is sponsored by Lufthansa Star Alliance.
Stephane Dujarric, Director of the United Nations Department of Public Information is delighted that the project has been set up: "This partnership will provide African journalists and broadcasters the chance to offer optimum coverage of the Rio+20 conference. The United Nations Department of Public Information is delighted to be partnering Canal France International and Lufthansa Star Alliance for this important project. Rio+20 represents unique opportunity for world leaders to improve living conditions and to protect the environment."
*The CFI experts
- Renaud Fessaguet, star reporter and chief editor, will be supervising editorial output of programmes produced by the journalists.
- Mathieu Despiau, TV reporter, will be supporting the journalists during the shooting and editing of reports. He has already coordinated this type of operation for CFI, for example during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
- Guillaume Pierre, Director For Africa, CFI
- Emilie Bergouignan, Project Planner, CFI
