Learn how to write and produce powerful reports on justice and courts
Learning a special journalistic genre
Reporting on court cases is a journalistic genre in itself. It consists not only in reporting the basic facts of a court case, but in dealing with the case in depth, telling a powerful story to the audience that goes beyond the sheer findings of a judgment and renders the complexity of human nature and psychology in what is matter of interest to all citizens: everyday justice. In some countries, such as France, this genre, called "judicial chronicle", can be highly reputable and is one of the most widely read in the press. So much so that in France an Association of the judicial press was created in 1887.
Still, it’s a new and unexplored genre in Ukraine, while justice and judicial reform are among the top concerns of citizens. CFI Media Development, the leading French journalism training agency, will train in 2019 and 2020 a total of 30 Ukrainian journalists in court reporting techniques, in order to provide journalists with better tools to cover trials and justice issues, and make readers even more interested. This journalism training project is part of Pravo- Justice, a EU program launched in 2017 to support the judicial sector reform in Ukraine.
NEXT TRAININGS START IN OCTOBER 2019
WHO CAN JOIN AND HOW?
After a first group of 10 reporters in the first semester of 2019, CFI Media Development is looking for another 10 journalists to participate in 3 training sessions between October 2019 and February 2020. Candidates should have 2 to 15 years of professional experience with print, television, radio, news agency or web media.
They should have covered justice issues at least once and demonstrate a strong will to train or improve their skills in covering justice, justice reforms and courts.
We are looking for candidates from Kyiv as well as from all regions of Ukraine, both male and female. Knowledge of English is an obvious asset for participation in the project, but motivation and the desire to improve and perform professionally will prevail as a major criteria.
Each selected candidate will have to commit to participate in 3 training sessions of one weekend each in October 2019, December 2019 and February 2020. For current or freelance journalists already working with a media organization, we would like to receive a supporting email from the editor-in-chief, endorsing the approach, in view of publishing the work completed during the training.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN AND DO
The training program is divided in 3 weekend workshops, led by international and Ukrainian journalists experts in reporting on justice.
Lead international trainers are Franck Petit and Thierry Cruvellier (Justiceinfo.net), two renowned French journalists in the field. The team is completed by two Ukrainian senior reporters, Iryna Saliy ( sud-reporter.com.ua ) and Serhii Andrushko (RFE/RL).
The opening session in October 2019 will be run in part by Pascale Robert-Diard, a court reporter for 30 years with the French daily newspaper Le Monde, who has spent her career writing fascinating reports and books on justice and trial issues. A masterclass not to be missed!
During the workshops, we organize meetings and talks with Ukrainian experts, who come to share their experience off-the-record to our participants: judges, lawyers, investigators…
In addition to the workshops, we organize production support between sessions by providing participants with financial resources and coaching to help them produce original and relevant justice reports for print, web, radio, TV and news agencies.
The objective is to promote the journalistic genre of court reporting and improve economic sustainability for journalists working in this field.
WHEN?
The trainings start in October 2019 and will end in February 2020.
Three sessions:
11/13 October 2019
7/8 December 2019
22/27 February 2020
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
Applications must be submitted by e-mail by individual candidates or proposed by the editors before 20 September 2019.
CONTACTS Stephane Siohan, Journalist and permanent project coordinator in Kyiv for CFI : ssn@cfi.fr