COMING UP!>>Ep.50: A Review of West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) Media Training

Episode #50:

A Review of West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN) Media Training

We want to use  the 50th edition of the show to primarily review and assess the training journalists underwent on 5 August here in Accra. 

Organised by the Ghana Chapter of the West Africa Drug Policy Network, the objective of the training was to educate the media to appreciate the complexities inherent in reporting drug policy issues. 

Buried in the training is a desire to shift mindsets around how drug policy is reported from a law-enforcement perspective, where the drug-user is vilified and criminalised to the point where they are treated with a level of dignity.

That said, no paradigm-shifting will occur without an assessment of how journalists found the programme. It is for this reason we will speak to two journalists to share their views, and offer recommendations on the way forward for the Media to better-appreciate drug policy.

Call us on the following numbers when we open the phone lines at 14h30 GMT

+233(0)289.000.931 // +233(0)289.931.000

Join us if you can at 1pm on 11 August, 2015.

Guiding questions

• ·       What was rationale for training media on drug policy?
• ·       What did the journalists learn – if anything?
• ·       How do journalists assess the training programme? What recommendations do they have for improvement?
• ·       Why is the media important in conversations around drug policy?
• ·       What is the way forward for the workshop?

Guests in the studio:

Ø  Hilda Mbong, Lawyer; Rapporteur; independent observer

Ø  Juana Akuamoa Boateng, Assistant Producer, AIF Research & Communications Unit

Ø  Maame Agyeiwaa, Chronicle newspaper, Ghana

Guests on the line:

Ø  Genevieve Dadzie, Programme Officer, AAEA Secretariat, Electoral Commission, Ghana @13h15 to speak to us about the 3^rd Continental Election Management Bodies Forum/General Assembly Meeting of the Association of African Election Authorities, held 22-24 July, 2015

Ø  Yaw Kwakye, Manager, Climate Change Unit, Forestry Commission @13h30 to brief us about mini-retreat for journalists organized by Forestry Commission in Koforidua, Eastern Region of Ghana from 5-6 August, 2015 on Communication messaging around Emissions-Reduction Programme/REDD+

Ø  Jonas Nyabor, Radio Univers 105.7FM/Ghanahealthnest.com @14h00