Political and citizen debate in the Faso Médias schedule

From 11 to 23 May 2015, 10 trainees attended training, experience-sharing and practical workshops on aspects of producing and staging debates. The session, led by Pierre-Yves Schneider, a journalist/trainer and CFI expert, and Soumaila RABO, a Burkinabé trainer and also editor-in-chief at Savane FM, was essentially practical in nature: political interviews and debates were filmed and then discussed during screening.

As emphasised by Moussa Ouedraogo, from Ouahigouya's La Voix du Paysan: "This training course enabled me to improve the way in which I conduct debates. Since my return to Ouahigouya, I have already led a debate with a politician who resigned from the CDP (the former majority), who set up a political party."

Over the two weeks, journalists also prepared and recorded the two initial broadcasts of " Grands témoins" ["Witness"].

During the 2 ^nd training session (1 to 13 June), which was led by Soumaila Rabo, nine other journalists from our partner radio stations, plus a representative from the CSO National Council (CSONC), worked on the same programme and also benefited from input provided by civil-society experts.

• In terms of democracy, and particularly in Burkina Faso, how can the SCOs fulfil their role in challenging established authority?
• What social expectations on the part of Burkina Faso's citizens have come to light from the most recent surveys?

These questions were posed, respectively, to the CSONC chairman, Professor Jonas Hien, and Dr Abdoul Karim Saïdou, from the Democratic Governance Centre, who were guests at the training course.

August and September will see further training courses within the context of Faso Médias, a project launched by CFI and UNALFA with European Union funding. These will address interactivity between radio stations, another form of radiophonic expression roundly criticised and the source of much controversy recently in Burkina Faso.

For further information, consult lefaso.net.