Malawi govt to train journalists in economic reporting, says Minister

Malawi Government plans to train journalists in economic reporting to improve their data interpretation skills.

Minister of Information Kondwani Nakhumwa r and Bright Malopa l during a press briefing in Lilongwe - pic by Roy Nkosi
Minister of Information Kondwani Nakhumwa r and Bright Malopa l during a press briefing in Lilongwe – pic by Roy Nkosi
Minister of Information Kondwani Nakhumwa briefing members of press - pic by Roy Nkosi
Minister of Information Kondwani Nakhumwa briefing members of press – pic by Roy Nkosi

The training follows recent failure by journalists to interpret data which also turned out to be from wrongly attributed to as the World Bank said it had not even issued out that particular data.

Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa disclosed this in Lilongwe during a press briefing where he clarified on reports that Malawi was being rated the poorest country in the World.

Nankhumwa said such kind of erroneous reporting and failure to interpret data is dangerous as it has potential to misinform the citizenry and the international community.

Nankhumwa, who was flanked by Presidential Advisors on Communication and Economic Affairs, Bright Malopa and Dr. Collins Magalasi respectively, said the born of contention is failure by the media houses to differentiate between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in US$ currency with GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms.

“These issues are quiet different all together, that is why am saying it is very important that as journalists we need to emphasize much on specialized writing or reporting especially in economic reporting and to that effect my ministry is undertaking to get some scholarships which are available now.

“We will be talking to different media houses that they give us candidates within the newsrooms so that they undergo this training in as far as economic reporting is concerned,” said Nankhumwa.

He said, “Failure to interpret data is a serious course of concern in as far as these issues are concerned. One might ask that now what the way forward is because as government we are not saying that we are not poor, we are poor but not the poorest country in the world.”

The aim of the training will also enable journalists to interpret economic data and concentrate on policies that will increase rural production and incomes for instance intensification of agriculture.

Association of Business Journalists Vice Chairman, Dumbani Mzale, who also works for the Nation Newspaper applauded the miniter saying the training in economic reporting is important.

“We just can’t wait Honourable Minister,” said Mzale, “This is a specialized field that requires training for correct data interpretation.”

Gregory Gondwe, Bureau Chief in the Central Region for Times Group also welcomed the development saying it will help in improving journalistic skills of media men.

The two said since there is need for effective reporting it is good that government through the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Culture has come up with this idea of training journalists in different media organizations.

 

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zandile
zandile
9 years ago

Mr Truth, your observantion is correct.The problem is that we have a useless minister of foreign affairs. He does want to solve these problems.
This so called Dr Chaponda Mr of foreign affairs is just useless.

Kenkkk
Kenkkk
9 years ago

I don’t know why this dpp govt is angry and rattled by us bring poorest in the world. The fact remains we are the poorest or one of the poorest in the world. No amount of training of any journalist will alter this fact. So it is a waste of govt money to train journalist on how to report economic data. Some of these journalists are graduates, so they are able to know what is being reported. People learn about Gdp from secondary schools. The papers themselves should train their own journalists on how to report economic data if they… Read more »

TrueFactor
TrueFactor
9 years ago

Kodi kuzakhalanso ma envelope? Nenelanituni ndi druze ine

SIBWENI
SIBWENI
9 years ago

IMWE WA MINISTER NDI KAMWANA KA MALOPA MUKUKHUMBA KUTIUZA VICHI…….MUKUTI MA JOURNALIST AKAPHUNZIRANSO ZA MEDICINE KUTI AZIKAMBA ZABWINO ZA MATENDA?KODI MESA ANTHU AMAKAMBA ZA REFORM,COST,STATE OF DISASTER NDIOMWEWA SONO PANU THEY NEED TO BE EDUCATED..MUKUNIZOMERA NACHI IMWE

Mzozodo
Mzozodo
9 years ago

What reporting can Bright Malopa teach the media fraternity? What Economics does he know? Munthuyu is very empty headed, he just knows English, just like Yunus Mussa!!!!!! Yet the Prof. puts him as his advisor, LOL

where are Malawians?
where are Malawians?
9 years ago

Media houses should not just wait for government…they should employ qualified people like other media houses who have : economic correspondents/editors, political correspondent/editor, White/house correspondents, scientific correspondents/editor etc…. not every reporter can be a jack of all trades leading to misinterpretation of facts!

Meja
Meja
9 years ago

Sipho, unfortunately Tenthani is one of the best of his kind, love him or hate him. If you don’t like what he writes, better leave it to us who will appreciate the sense he pumps into the nation, he is not a handclapper like the Malopa’s who failed his MSCE not once but twice. He is just objective, and objectivity is what we would appreciate. mind you, it is not Tenthani who came up with that article reminding us of how poor we are!!!!! Furthermore, you DPP zealots, you say seven months is too little time to judge APM, yes… Read more »

Zosautsa
Zosautsa
9 years ago

Guys wait, is this idea coz of the purported report of Malawi being the poorest country? Was the report from a journalist? I guess the two are not the same sides of a coin. If the report was faulty, it was not because of a journalist who reported but the author of it. The duty of a reporter is to publish what has come out in the public domain whether it is from Government, donor, company, or civil society. The faults or inaccuracies of the reports are the responsibility of the author or institutions the report has come from. I… Read more »

Truth
Truth
9 years ago

This will be good so that we hear and read correct information from well informed and competent media in matters of the economy. While on the same I wish to bring to the attention to the power that be more especially the minister of Foreign Affairs and International Corporation as well as the ministry of Internal Security of the plight of Malawians as the go about doing business within SADC/COMESA. it seems Malawians are the most oppressed and harassed nationalities but our government does not intervene to stop this harassment. I witnessed one traveler being slapped at Mozambique Border for… Read more »

Nsambizi
Nsambizi
9 years ago

We say or write BONE OF CONTENTION. Do we also have to train spellings or grammar apart from ‘economic reporting’

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