US Embassy praises CJA for organising course for media personnel

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The Borneo Post reporter Marilyn Ten receives a certificate of participation from Weisert.

The Borneo Post reporter Marilyn Ten receives a certificate of participation from Weisert.

KUCHING: The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur commended Sarawak Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) for holding a course for media personnel, which it described as timely in view of the looming state election.

Its press and information officer Drake Weisert said the media play an important role in disseminating information to the masses and there is no doubt that they play a highly essential role during the election.

“Everything you (journalists) do is critical for a functioning state and functioning society and you may not always be thanked for that. In fact, sometimes people might be angry at you for doing your job, but I think what you are doing is a noble endeavour,” Weisert said at the closing ceremony of a course which was jointly organised by CJA and the embassy here yesterday.

The ceremony was attended by CJA president Alice Wee Siok Lian. A total of 18 local media personnel from various organisations including The Borneo Post took part in the three-day course. Started on Monday, the course was conducted by two facilitators; namely senior consulting editor of The Star T. Selva and senior business editor of The Star BK Sidhu.

Meanwhile, Wee said the objective of the course was to guide media personnel in writing analytical or point-of-view kind of articles.

“The course was held because we feel the need to give some training especially to new reporters or journalists as a preparation for the upcoming state election.

“This is also to expose and train them, especially those yet to cover any election. I hope this can help them to be more aggressive and this will help them while covering functions,” she added.

“This is also timely for us as apart from giving guidance to the fresh journalists, it also helps to freshen up knowledge for those journalists who have been around for a long time,” Wee said.

Like Weisert, she said the course was timely because the state election is expected to be held in March or April this year.