2015 Elections: Ivorian radio stations spreading the word about citizenship and electoral issues
From 28 September to 10 October 2015 16 radio journalists and two members of Ivorian civil society took part in two training sessions on producing magazine programmes to raise awareness about the electoral process, citizenship and the accountability of elected representatives, led by trainers Emmanuel de Solère Stintzy and Yoro Sangaré.
These courses have been organised by CFI in collaboration with the Côte d'Ivoire Union of Local Radio Stations (URPCI) ahead of the country's presidential election on 25 October 2015 and the local elections scheduled for 2016. The aim of the initiative is to improve radio stations' ability to inform and raise awareness among their audiences of the key issues surrounding the ballots, the role of citizens before, during and after the elections and the responsibilities and remit of elected representatives.
The sessions kicked off with two information days during which, through a series of talks given by local experts and civil society organisations working on the ground, the journalists learnt about ways of encouraging citizens to take a more active interest in the elections.
The participants then strengthened their technical skills in the production of magazine programmes, in particular preparing stories and angles, drafting broadcast schedules and making editorial decisions. They returned to their respective stations with eight ready-to-air magazine programmes and a broadcast schedule for other magazine programmes to be produced before the elections.
This workshop, designed to complement the
Radio Dialogue project financed by the European Union, which has been run in partnership with RFI since March 2014, was targeted at journalists from the 16 radio stations chosen for the project.
The idea was to capitalise on these stations' management and production knowledge, which had been enhanced during previous sessions.
The URPCI believes that these training courses have helped its members "to develop programmes that are useful to the general public while still remaining legal" – Ivorian radio stations are prohibited from covering political current affairs.
Trainer Emmanuel de Solère Stintzy is delighted at "the prospect of closer collaboration between radio stations and civil society organisations, which have realised the importance of working together to schedule joint broadcasts ahead of the elections to provide balanced, relevant general interest information."
