SWJO concludes a three training series on trauma for 200 media practitioners across five states in Somalia.

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA-31^st January,2023- Somali women journalist organization (SWJO) in partnership with United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM)  concludes a three day training series on trauma for more than 200 media practitioners drawn from various media houses in five different cities over the course of January- Mogadishu, Dhuusamareeb, Kismaayo, Jowhar and Badio-in Somalia.

In Somalia, trauma too often is at the centre of news reportage. Somali journalists cover a wide range of dramatic situations, including terror incidents, clan conflicts, political unrest, the killing and harassment of journalists, health crises, drought and famine. When covering this range of calamities, they interact with victims, their families, and their wider communities.

In doing so, Journalists need to be aware of the extreme sensitivities in telling the stories of those affected considering their often-precarious mental and physical state. Those incidents also leave a drastic impact on journalists’ physical and mental state.

The three day training held in those cities aimed, with that context in mind, to help journalists have an in-depth knowledge in different sessions on trauma, conflict-sensitive reporting as well as post-traumatic stress disorder on the first day. On the second day, Journalists learned a great deal of emotional management, covering trauma stories (terrorism, drought and famine, suicides etc.), and interviewing trauma victims as well. And on the last day of the training, attendees covered stress management, journalists’ resilience and peer support, personal reflections of the journalists in covering trauma stories, and finally counselling sessions was given to journalists by professional journalists.

Ministers of information and other dignitaries were at opening of training events in each of those cities and made opening remarks highlighting the importance of such training for the media practitioners across the country. SWJO’s representatives also closed the events and thanked the participants while highlighting the importance of the training for the practices of journalism in those states, particularly, the intensification of the news coverage of country in general.

SWJO believes the training  developed journalists’ awareness of the complexity of survivors’ trauma (tic) experiences and understand the impact of the traumatic events on themselves and their audiences as well as helps the journalists to make better, more ethical news choices when covering traumatic events next time.