March 28, 2024

TOP AFRICA NEWS

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Quick assessment shows some districts are under reported in Environment News coverages

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A quick assessment done by TOP AFRICA NEWS Media have shown that some districts are underreported by the media when it comes to Environmental Reporting

Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Gakenke, Gisagara are the four districts whose Environmental activities whether are carried out by the local NGOs and partners are less reported by Rwandan Environmental media.

It is not clear whether the journalists are unable to reach the sites or it is because of lack of story ideas for those districts.

When it comes to the Eastern province only RBA, IGIHE and an online media House called Muhazi yacu are able to provide regular news stories related to agriculture and to some extent Environmental related news stories.

According to internal assessment most of the Rwandan media Houses wait for organized field visits to report on underrepresented regions simply because of lack of financial means to reach the upcountry areas.

Recently a team of experts gathered in Kigali to discuss the new policy that will govern media landscape in Rwanda.

During the session media owners expressed concerns about the poverty of media Houses which is likely to affect the quality of contents that are provided by local media.

Media managers told a group of experts which is working on the new media policy reform that they should consider also how to uplift the financial capacity among local media especially private media which are struggling because of lack of advertising revenues that are directed to a little number of media houses while hundred over media houses are registered in Rwanda.

Regarding the sector reporting or Environmental Reporting, TOP AFRICA NEWS quick assessment looked at various stories shared by members of the environmental Journalists network in Rwanda and different online publications that are known for environmental news coverages.

TOP AFRICA NEWS tried to contact, the management of Rwanda Environmental Journalists Network for a comment on the findings, unfortunately they were unable to pick the phone.

In the past, the former Rwanda Media Council, whose responsibilities are now under the Ministry of local government and Rwanda Governance Board, has been conducting various training through field works where journalists had been receiving support to cover a special interest in a specific region.

Journalists also have been urged for several occasions to do specialized journalism so that media development agencies and partners can support them based on their area of specialization.

It is yet to be known whether the new media policy will be able to fill the gaps of media reporting specialization which also may guide the development partners to invest in the industry.

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