The Northern Regional Directorate of Communication and Media is organizing from Monday August 7 to Thursday August 10, 2023 in Yako, a training workshop on information and communication management in times of crisis for the benefit of its agents as well as journalists and presenters in the province of Passoré.

Agents of the regional directorate of communication and the media of the North, journalists and animators from the province of Passoré are gathered from Monday August 7 to Thursday August 10, 2023 in Yako on the occasion of a training session organized by the Regional Directorate in in charge of communication and media in the North.

During the workshop, these actors of communication and media were built on four communications placed under the theme: “Participation of the media for the reconquest and restoration of the integrity of the territory”.

Said communications were delivered by the consultant in science and technology of information and communication, Yacouba Goro.

According to the regional director of communication and the media of the North, Soumaila Ouédraogo, the training is intended to be a contribution of media men in the promotion and guarantee of peace and social cohesion in the region, especially the management of information in times of security crisis.

The first presentation focused on “journalism and conflict”. In this module, participants learned how to better understand a conflict to better prevent it and how to resolve a conflict without violence.

On the subject, communicator Yacouba Goro invited participants to control information and to use more reconciling words in the treatment of information in times of crisis.

The second presentation concerned “Conflict Sensitive Journalism: The Role of the Editor”. In this presentation, it emerged among other things that the journalist must be sensitive to the conflict or the crisis.

The missions of the editor-in-chief and respect for ethics in the profession of journalism must be respected in order to better protect the sources of information, said the communicator.

As for the third module, it focused on the control of information and the principles of information warfare. Delivering the said module, Mr. Goro indicated that in times of crisis, authorities can control media content.

And to add that in the principle of the war of information, the journalist can play positively on the psychology of the consumers of information.

The last module was devoted to fake news and fact-checking. From the summary of this module, it emerges, among other things, that fake news is false and inaccurate information that aims to manipulate populations.

This is why the journalist must, according to the communicator, work to get rid of false information while using, among other things, technology as a means of verifying the authenticity of the information.

In view of the massive displacements of populations towards the capitals of the provinces of the region, Mr. Goro invited the populations to accept to welcome the internally displaced persons in their localities.

The regional director in charge of communication, Soumaila Ouédraogo and the provincial director of arts and culture of Passoré, Gombila Koala, for their part asked media players in the North to pay attention to the choice of information in order to avoid create psychosis in the populations.

“We need to forge links with the authorities to better manage information. Above all, we must encourage and magnify the prowess of the fighting forces,” strongly recommended Soumaila Ouédraogo.

Source: Burkina Information Agency