JHR’s slogan, in English at least, is “Write the Wrong.” I’m starting to think many Ghanaians see this as the primary role of journalists, even if it’s a wrong they could right themselves. Twice now I’ve found myself working with reporters on stories where injustice was being perpetrated more as a side effect of poor communication than any kind of malice or even neglect. Our involvement in the stories ended up looking more like mediation or counseling than reportage. Continue reading ‘Writing the Wrong?’
Archive for the 'On the Job' Category
What a week! I got back from Tarkwa on Sunday night, and went straight into work at GO Monday morning. No time for a post-working-weekend “weekend.” Monday and Tuesday were business as usual at the office, but Wednesday big plans were afoot. Mark and Renee have been working for months with the staff of The Vision, the newspaper at the Buduburam Refugee Camp north of Accra. I had spoken to Mark about going out there with him one Wednesday before he left Ghana, and time was running out. Next week he’ll be up north doing workshops in Wa, so despite being worn out from the Tarkwa trip, this Wednesday was the day to go.
I’d arranged with Mr. Asante (Edmund Smith-Asante, our managing editor and boss of all day-to-day operations) to bring one of our senior reporters, Gertrude, to the camp with me. We’d sit in on Mark and Renee’s workshop, and then report a story. The obvious news hook was going to be that this weekend is the four-year anniversary of the signing of the Liberian peace accord here in Accra. We figured we would talk to refugees on the camp, and get a story about why people are still there, and how/if they’re planning to go back, four years after peace had been declared.
That didn’t happen. Continue reading ‘On the Camp’
Digging up the Dirt on Ghana’s Gold Mines
Published August 12, 2007 On the Job , Travel Leave a Comment
On Monday afternoon, my boss sat next to me as I worked on the sofa in our office (picking up wireless from the house next door on my laptop), and asked “So, do you still want to go to Tarkwa?”
“Still” wasn’t quite the right word, since I had entirely forgotten about the trip to Tarkwa, it hadn’t come up in about a week, and it had been a busy week. He had first mentioned it to me during my first week, a trip to this Western Region town for “some human rights thing.” He had never gone into more detail, so though I had gotten as far as figuring that it would be related to the mining that goes on all around there, I had no idea whether this was a story assignment, a press conference, or what.
On Monday, he handed me a two page document explaining what the trip was about: A four-day workshop on mining and human rights in Ghana for 60 journalists and stakeholders, hosted by the Wassa Association for Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM). Continue reading ‘Digging up the Dirt on Ghana’s Gold Mines’
One of the things I’ve had to do since arriving in Ghana is establish (for myself and others) just how long it is that I have been “a journalist.” Since I am here to train journalists, and especially since I did not attend journalism school, it’s of vital importance that I can quickly convince reporters, editors, and interns that I have enough experience to be worth listening to. It’s a question I still don’t quite feel I have an accurate answer to, though I’ve settled on something that seems to do the trick.
It doesn’t seem right to say 3 years (the time since I started working at National Geographic), as I had a fair amount of reporting under my belt before getting that job. I could start the counting from my first semester at Bryn Mawr, when I began writing for the college news. It feels a little arrogant, though, to count my first school paper scribblings as journalism. For the purposes of Ghana, I’ve settled on the summer of 2003, when I interned at the Vancouver Courier, as the beginning of my journalism career. As I said, I’m not entirely comfortable with that, as I think I did some pretty good reporting before then, including a couple of pieces I’m still proud of, but it does the trick. As far as Ghana is concerned, I’ve been working as a journalist for 4 years.
No matter how many years it’s been, though, I had never attended a press conference before arriving in Ghana. Continue reading ‘Baby’s First Press Conference’
The day after I started at GO, a bunch of JHR folks took off for Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, to run a workshop for journalists there. Because I’d just started at work, I didn’t go with them, but I jumped on the chance this week to go to Takoradi for another workshop (and a chance to see Kevin’s new digs).
I had originally planned on going down Saturday morning, but some miscommunication between myself and Joseph resulted in it getting too late for me to leave and still arrive at a reasonable time. I was miffed at the delay, but it ended up for the best, as Kevin and Doug actually had some drama of their own to deal with that day. Their landlady’s daughter, who lives in their house rent free in exchange for laundering and cooking services, was arrested that day for hiring someone to beat up a neighbour as part of a dispute over a plantain tree. They ended up making a few trips to the police station, and I’m sure were glad they didn’t have a guest on their hands as well. Continue reading ‘Takoradi Trip’
