Malawi Parliament, Democracy International Equip Journalists On Parliamentary Reporting

Malawi Parliament, in partnership with Democracy International (DI) — under the Parliamentary support program — empowered journalists with knowledge and skills on parliamentary and legislative reporting.

Held in Lilongwe over the weekend that brought together scores of journalists drawn from various media houses, assistant Clerk of Parliament responsible for protocol and public relations, Ian Mwenye said the training was important for a lot has changed and journalists needed to be appraised in order to effectively report parliamentary proceedings.

“Capacity building to effectively report about parliament is very significant for journalists if they are to be accurate in their course of work,” he said, adding that the media’s ability to effectively report also goes with understanding of the parliamentary terminologies, procedures and committee processes, among others.

“If journalists are well informed they will give the nation the right information about Parliament, which will change for the better the perception about the legislature out there,” he said.

Chief of Party for DI on Parliamentary support program, Hristijan Gkorgievski, said one of the principal pillars of the work they do is to facilitate cooperation, exchange of information and building capacities for Parliament of Malawi and media.

“I am very delighted that we held this training on parliamentary proceedings in general, which also touched on the national budget process in particular.

“I hope that the intervention has been timely and will be very useful to journalists as the National Assembly starts its deliberations on Monday,” he said.

Chairperson for the parliamentary press gallery, Cathy Maulidi commended Malawi Parliament and DI for organizing the training, saying: “Journalists have had a chance to understand some of the issues about Parliament that bothered them”.

The Parliamentary support program is a USAID-funded and contributes to Malawi’s democratic governance by, among others, supporting the National Assembly to better fulfill its legislative, oversight and representative functions.