NSO orients journalists on data access and utilization
The National Statistical Office (NSO) mandated to collect, analyze and disseminate official statistics—oriented business journalists on data access and utilization to enable them facilitate understanding when communicating policy issues to the masses.
Held simultaneously in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, the orientations drew together scores of journalists from the Association of Business Journalists (ABJ).
Speaking in Lilongwe, NSO Principal Statistician, Richard Phiri, said business journalists must be equipped with some basic Knowledge on the commonly used indicators and how to access them electronically.
“NSO follows international standards which makes technical the statistics it presents. We want journalists to be able to analyze and interpret these results.
“Working with UNFPA, we developed a Malawi Data Dissemination Platform application, which hosts indicators produced from surveys and censuses.
“We wanted the media and public to familiarize with the platform and other data and tools NSO has,” Phiri said.
ABJ executive member, Taonga Sabola, said business journalists really needed to be oriented for they act as a bridge between policy makers and ordinary people.
“For the masses to appreciate what policy makers have done, journalists must be able to breakdown the policy issues to a level where everyone understands in order to know what their government is doing.
“As a result, business journalists ought to have the right information and skills to be able to digest policy issues and disseminate them to the people in a simpler manner,” Sabola said.
Director of Information in the Ministry of Information and Digitalization, Chikumbutso Mtumodzi, concurred with Sabola, adding that analysis and understanding of statistical information among journalists will improve their reporting for the betterment of the people they serve.
