Training and Mentorship Program for South Sudanese Journalists

Activities

• 10 journalists will be selected to take part in the training, mentorship and story grants program. The program will include the following activities:
  • Two practical training workshops: At the beginning of the program, the 10 selected journalists will go through the initial weeklong training in January 2024 focusing on key topics, sources, and strategies to safely report on issues of environmental degradation, human rights abuses and financial crimes in South Sudan.
  • The second training will then be conducted after a quarter (3 months) in April 2024 upon completion of the first training and will focus on more advanced investigative skills in the three focus areas as well as more advanced data and geo-visualization skills. The second training workshop will also give a chance to the journalists to share their experiences so far in reporting their stories, the challenges they are facing, and solutions to those challenges.
  • Online mentorship program: Trained experts in thematic areas, along with InfoNile expert journalists and data wranglers, will mentor the trained journalists throughout their reporting and rounds of story edits.
  • Grants and Equipment: After the first training, the program will support the 10 journalists with a story grant of at least $700 each. Each journalist will also receive a smartphone to use in collecting data and producing stories about environmental degradation, human rights, and financial crime. Journalists will work in groups of three where each will produce a story on one of the three themes (environmental degradation, human rights abuses, and financial crimes), provide peer mentorship among the group, and finally cross-publish the three stories produced by the group on each journalist’s media house.
  • Publication of Stories: Each journalist will be expected to produce and publish at least 3 stories on their various media houses in South Sudan. They will also be cross-published on the InfoNile and Water Journalists Africa websites.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible journalists must be professional journalists working in South Sudan. (Note: This program doesn’t cover accommodation facilitation in Juba during the training workshops).
• Eligible journalists should have a demonstrated interest in investigative reporting with a focus on one or more of the thematic areas: environmental degradation, human rights abuses, and financial crimes. Further, journalists must be registered with the South Sudan Media Authority.

For more information, visit InfoNile.