Training for citizen journalists in Sabah
Posted on October 7, 2011, Friday
KOTA KINABALU: With the establishment of its office here, Citizen Journalists Malaysia (CJM) Borneo Chapter, is now ready to provide journalism training to those who aspire to become citizen journalists.
According to the chapter’s head, Marcel Chong, the office which is located at Level 10, Wisma Merdeka will become the training hub and operation room for citizen journalists in Sabah and Sarawak.
“We will be conducting Citizen Journalism training extensively in the months ahead on news reporting, news writing, video camera operation and video editing, specially catered for citizens (communities) of Sabah and Sarawak, who want to participate in the empowerment of their communities through news gathering process.
“A minimal fee of RM100.00 will be charged as a commitment fee for this 4 days training, which will be held during the weekends only,” he disclosed in a statement issued here yesterday.
Currently, the Borneo Chapter has been constantly contributing news to the community news portal, Komunitikini.com and the Citizen Journalists Malaysia portal, CJ.MY.
To date, it has conducted 5 trainings at various locations in Sabah. The recent Citizen Journalism training in Sabah took place in Sandakan and 10 new Citizen Journalists have been trained.
“Citizen Journalism training is expected to be organized every month at Wisma Merdeka. New participants will be trained and groomed to become Citizen Journalists, who will be reporting on various community issues and events in Sabah and Sarawak respectively,” he said.
Most Citizen Journalists from Sabah and Sarawak are volunteers and have contributed to almost 300 articles and 80 videos.
Chong further noted that as the chapter’s head, he is also tasked to manage and build a network of Citizen Journalists across Borneo.
Citizen Journalists Malaysia is a volunteer movement founded in November 2008. The movement has been actively training and grooming ordinary citizens to report news and events within their community. The movement believes that vigorous, independent media is crucial in improving the human condition thus working mutually with the International Center For Journalists or ICFJ at Washington D.C. USA for international support and also an affiliation to VJ movement of Netherlands.
Currently, the movement has 4 chapters which oversees the Northern, Central, Southern region in Peninsular Malaysia and the Borneo region comprising Sabah and Sarawak. Each chapter is managed by a chapter head.
More information is obtainable by logging on to its website at www.cj.my, or contact Chong at 012 – 866 2096 or Email: Marcel.Chong@komunitikini.com
